GRAMMAR Flashcards
What is “Oxford comma”?
Also, serial comma
Oxford comma
a comma used after the penultimate item in a list of three or more items, before ‘and’ or ‘or’ (e.g. an Italian painter, sculptor, and architect ).
What Is a Dangling Participle?
If grammar awards were celebrated in a TV show, dangling participles would win the “funniest name” prize. Everybody knows about dangling participles because of this funny-sounding name, but many people don’t really understand the concept.
It might help to take a look at a few examples first:
“Looking around the yard, dandelions sprouted in every corner.”
“Eating like a hungry hippo, the pancakes disappeared from my plate within seconds.”
“Running after the school bus, the backpack bounced from side to side.”
Can you identify the problem in the sentences above? The phrase at the beginning sets us up for a noun that doesn’t exist! Dangling participles “dangle” because they hang out there with nothing to support!
LOOKING AROUND THE YARD | DANDELIONS SPROUTED
Who is looking around the yard? Not dandelions! We know that the participle “looking” really refers to a person, and in the sentence that person should be “I”. To fix this sentence, you should add the noun to match your modifier.
LOOKING AROUND THE YARD, I COULD SEE THAT DANEDLIONS SPROUTED IN EVERY CORNER.
Next example:
EATING LIKE A HIPPO | PANCAKES DISAPPEARED
Who is doing the eating? Not pancakes! To fix this, add the “I”.
EATING LIKE A HUNGRY HIPPO, I MADE THE PANCAKES DISAPPEAR…
And the next example:
RUNNING AFTER THE BUS | BACKPACK BOUNCED
Who is running? Not the backpack!
RUNNING AFTER THE BUS, THE GIRL FELT HER BACKPACK BOUNCE…
Note: Each sentence in the examples above begins with an “ing” word called the participle. A participle is created when we turn a verb like eat or look into a word phrase that acts like an adjective. We create the participle by adding ing.
Look becomes looking
Eat becomes eating
Run becomes running
An adjective must modify some noun.
