I want to follow up on the topic of language evolution that I took up in my previous newsletter about how the word “satisfying” has taken on a new meaning among many of today’s kids.

There are not very many adjectives formed from verb participles, Tutul, that can be used in both -ed and -ing forms. You can often get a sense of what works and what doesn't by transforming the ...

READING THIS sentence, it may occur to you that something is slightly awry with it. Or you may not notice anything wrong at all. The first three words are a “dangling modifier”. This writing ...

For instance, Looking up, I noticed I was late. with dangling participles. And in each case, he fixed it a different way. First, here's the way the sentence was originally written. of laws on her ...

When a student writes "I am frustrating with that class," we recognize it as an error, but the error is not one that makes the writing unintelligible. The message ...

More important: How can you know for sure? Past participles confuse a lot of people. Take it from someone whose Boston-area in-laws opt for forms like “I should have ate” and “I could have ...

Continues from Part One and shows where participles and participial phrases can go wrong. MOST dictionaries show the three principal parts of a verb; for example, see (base form), saw (past tense ...

“Rebel With a Clause” celebrates the improbable cross-country journey of a woman who gently imparts grammar rules to strangers. Ellen Jovin, wearing a “Grammar Is Groovy” T-shirt, is the ...

Now that I have your attention, I’d like to talk about dangling participles. This most famous of danglers is must-know stuff for any self-respecting smarty-pants. Not because the concept will ...