Carol Berg

I had really good English teachers in elementary through high school. Not only were we required to read a lot - which is the best training for writing - we were drilled on grammar every day, every night. I hated the drill part, but I don't dangle my participles too often.

American Novelist

Colum McCann

I don't really know what an adverb is. A dangling participle? That sounds really rude. I don't know what character is, really. Plot seems vaguely juvenile to me. It's all about language, it's all about how you apply it to the page.

Irish Writer

David Leavitt

It was an instinct to put the world in order that powered her mending split infinitives and snipping off dangling participles, smoothing away the knots and bumps until the prose before her took on a sheen, like perfect caramel.

Participles are not standard verbs; they are verb forms used like adjectives or to form verb tenses.

Verb Forms

A present participle often describes an action someone/something is actively doing.

Active Meaning

Present participles can give a sense of ongoing action in the present, past, or future.

Continuous Action

Participles can modify nouns or noun phrases, giving more information about them.

Modify Nouns

Participles can act like adverbs, modifying verbs or verb phrases by describing how actions occur.

Adverbial Role

Participles can be part of a longer phrase that adds information to a sentence.

Phrase Functions

 Never does the word "madd" go before a present participle That’s simply the principle of this English” If I had the vocal capacity I would sing this from every mountaintop, From every suburbia, and every hood