Dangling Participle

A dangling participle is like a sentence with a little “whoops” moment, where the word or phrase meant to describe something doesn’t quite have a clear target. Usually, it is a matter of the noun being modified not being in the right place in the sentence, or not being in the sentence at all.

For example, in the sentence:

Walking down the street, the rain started to pour.

It sounds like the rain was walking down the street. Yikes! To fix this, you’d want to make sure the subject you’re describing is clearly named, like this:

Walking down the street, I saw the rain start to pour.

You could also correct this sentence by inserting the subject into the first half.

As I walked down the street, the rain started to pour.

That way, everything’s in the right place, and no one’s left hanging! It’s a small fix that makes a big difference in keeping things clear and fun to read.

How would you correct this sentence?

Covered in syrup, Jamie ate the pancakes.

Wait… Was Jamie covered in syrup? Probably not! Here are a couple possible fixes that make sure it’s clear which of the nouns in the sentence are being modified:

Solutions:

Jamie ate the pancakes that were covered in syrup.

Jamie ate the syrup-covered pancakes.

Now we know it’s the pancakes that are syrupy, not Jamie.