What is a Dangling Participle?

A dangling participle happens when a participial phrase (a phrase starting with a verb ending in -ing or sometimes -ed) is placed in a sentence so that it seems to modify the wrong noun — or worse, no noun at all.

This causes confusion because the phrase doesn’t clearly or logically refer to the intended subject.

What is a participle?

A participle is a verb form used as an adjective. Commonly:

• Present participle: -ing form (e.g., running, singing)
• Past participle: often -ed or irregular form (e.g., baked, broken)

Examples of Dangling Participles

Dangling:
Walking down the street, the trees were beautiful.
(It sounds like the trees were walking down the street, which is illogical.)

Corrected:
Walking down the street, I thought the trees were beautiful.
(Now the participial phrase clearly refers to I.)

Why does it happen?

Usually, it’s because the noun or pronoun that the participial phrase is supposed to describe is missing or misplaced near the phrase.

How to fix dangling participles?

• Make sure the noun the phrase modifies is clearly stated and placed immediately after the participial phrase.
• Rewrite the sentence to clarify who or what is doing the action.

More examples:

Dangling: After finishing the homework, the TV was turned on.
(TV didn’t finish the homework!)

Fixed: After finishing the homework, she turned on the TV.