Misplaced Participles Examples

Because a participle is a verbal that functions as an adjective, it must come close to the noun or pronoun that it modifies.

Remember that present participles end in "-ing" and past participles end in "-ed".

Participles and participle phrases that do not seem to modify any word in the sentence are called dangling participles. The sentence must be rewritten so that it contains the word that the phrase modifies.

A misplaced participle, however, does modify a noun or pronoun that is in the sentence. It is just not close to it, so it seems to modify something else. The sentence must be rewritten to move the misplaced participle closer to the word that it modifies.

Examples of misplaced participles with corrections:

1) Moving from flower to flower, I watched the honey bee.

I am not moving from flower to flower-the bee is.

Correction: I watched the honey bee moving from flower to flower.

2) I was late to class running through the doorway at the last minute.

Class is not running through the doorway-I am.

Correction: Running through the doorway at the last minute, I was late to class.

3) Riding the ferris wheel, my mom waved to me when I was at the top.

The mom is not riding the ferris wheel-I am.

Correction: Riding the ferris wheel, I saw my mom wave to me when I was at the top.

More examples of sentences containing misplaced participes:

1) Torn to pieces, I tried to tape the note back together. (the note is torn to pieces, not I)

2) The ballerina was amazing to me dancing prettily. (the ballerina is dancing prettily, not me)

3) I carried the baby pushing the stroller. (the baby is not pushing the stroller)

4) I petted my cat reading a book. (the cat is not reading a book, I am)

5) Scoring a touchdown, the cheerleaders yelled for the team. (the cheerleaders did not score a touchdown, the team did)

6) Calling a friend, my phone went dead on me. (my phone is not calling a friend, I am)