Particples problem, Please help!

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kashefian: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 61; Joined: Sun Sep 05, 2010 12:42 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 4 times

by kashefian » Sun Nov 21, 2010 1:22 am

I know that this one is correct:

That dog keenly hunting the ducks must be a thoroughbred.

"Keenly hunting the ducks " modifies "dog". "Hunting" is the participle.

Now by the same token, is this one correct?

He went to the hospital believing himself fatally ill.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sun Nov 21, 2010 1:22 am

gmat_perfect: Legendary Member; Posts: 1083; Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:38 pmFollowed by: 14 members; Thanked: 127 times

by gmat_perfect » Sun Nov 21, 2010 6:09 am

kashefian wrote:I know that this one is correct:

That dog keenly hunting the ducks must be a thoroughbred.

"Keenly hunting the ducks " modifies "dog". "Hunting" is the participle.

Now by the same token, is this one correct?

He went to the hospital believing himself fatally ill.

I am also seeking answer for this question.

What I think:

Verbing retains the subject of the main clause.
In that sense, believing modifies the subject he.

BUT

In case of NOUN + Verbing, the Verbing modifies the NOUN; therefore, the sentence means that "the hospital is believing"So, the sentence can be rewritten as follows:

Believing himself fatally ill, he went to the hospital.

We can wait for a reply from an expert.

Thanks for this good question.

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e-GMAT: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 645; Joined: Mon Jul 26, 2010 12:42 pmFollowed by: 227 members; Location: US; Thanked: 527 times

by e-GMAT » Sun Nov 21, 2010 8:30 am

Whenever you have verb-ing modifier without a comma, it modifies the preceding noun (which happens to be the subject in the case of "dog" sentence, but in the case of "hospital" sentence, it is not the subject but the hospital).

1: That dog keenly hunting the ducks must be a thoroughbred. - CORRECT
2: He went to the hospital believing himself fatally ill. - INCORRECT

It does not make sense for "believing himself..." to modify the "hospital". This this sentence is incorrect. It can be corrected by placing the modifier prior to the entity that it should modify "he" in this case.

So note the key difference:
verb-ing separated by comma modifies the preceding clause.
verb-ing not separated by comma modifies the preceding noun.

In sentence 1, the verb-ing modifier is placed after a noun and not after a clause. (notice the verb appears after the modifier)
In sentence 2, the verb-ing modifier is placed after the clause. (notice the verb appears prior to the modifier)

Furthermore, in sentence 2 "believing himself fatally ill" appears to be idiomatically incorrect.

Thanks,

Payal

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gmat62k10: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 11; Joined: Tue May 04, 2010 3:57 am; Thanked: 1 times

by gmat62k10 » Sun Nov 21, 2010 10:11 am

The noun modifier does not need to touch the noun if it is a participial or if the alternate construction is awkward.

Consider this,

The cat sat in the corner, licking its paws.

licking its paws modifies cat rather than corner

I think the statement B is correct in construction but the "believing.." might be un-idiomatic ( thats a new word!:-)

Thanks

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kashefian: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 61; Joined: Sun Sep 05, 2010 12:42 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 4 times

by kashefian » Mon Nov 22, 2010 8:42 pm

Whenever you have verb-ing modifier without a comma, it modifies the preceding noun (which happens to be the subject in the case of "dog" sentence, but in the case of "hospital" sentence, it is not the subject but the hospital).

1: That dog keenly hunting the ducks must be a thoroughbred. - CORRECT
2: He went to the hospital believing himself fatally ill. - INCORRECT

It does not make sense for "believing himself..." to modify the "hospital". This this sentence is incorrect. It can be corrected by placing the modifier prior to the entity that it should modify "he" in this case.

So note the key difference:
verb-ing separated by comma modifies the preceding clause.
verb-ing not separated by comma modifies the preceding noun.

In sentence 1, the verb-ing modifier is placed after a noun and not after a clause. (notice the verb appears after the modifier)
In sentence 2, the verb-ing modifier is placed after the clause. (notice the verb appears prior to the modifier)

Furthermore, in sentence 2 "believing himself fatally ill" appears to be idiomatically incorrect.

Thanks,

Payal, thank you for your superb explanation.

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