Thursday, July 25, 2013

Mr. Bo Dangles



“Excuse me, Sir. I believe your participle is dangling.”

“That can’t be mine. Having written for years, my participles always stand erect.”

“Your participles have written for years?”

“No, I have written for years.”

“Then, I am afraid you just dangled another participle.”

“Claiming to be such an expert, I would like you to prove it to me.”

“So you’re saying that you claim to be an expert?”

“No, I am saying that you claim to be an expert.”

“Oy vey! You dangled your participle yet again! The ing phrases (i.e., participle phrases) at the beginning of your sentences (Having written for years and Claiming to be such an expert) should describe the actions performed by the subjects of the sentences (participles and I). Since they don’t, they are considered dangling participles, and, therefore, grammatically incorrect.”

“Thank you so much. Having learned so much from you regarding dangling participles, I was wondering if you could help fix my other dangling problem.”

Here you go …


11 comments:

Beverly Diehl said...

Hey, some of us LIKE the dangly bits.

Even when not sexted by a wanna-be mayor.

Thanks for another great post.

Shelly said...

Those dang danglers~

DiscConnected said...

Ya know....somehow I KNEW when I read the first sentence that there was gonna be a viagra joke in there somewhere!

LC

Anonymous said...

Having dangled many times, Carlos runs for mayor.

Theresa Milstein said...

Having come across your blog, dangling participles are a problem of the past.

Theresa Milstein said...

Susie, that's excellent!

Jemi Fraser said...

LOL - that's awesome! If my students were a lot older I'd use this to explain to them! :)

the late phoenix said...

Jenny, email me, i miss you! i need relationship advice, i just started seeing a woman. her online handle is Carla Risk...

Talli Roland said...

Haha! Love it!

Must admit, I quite like dangle-y bits.

Jono said...

I have always been aware of my dangling participle, but never knew what to do with it. Thanks for pointing it in the right direction!

anthony stemke said...

Oy vey but that was funny.