A few days ago
What is the name of the common error in the following sentance?
Having risen because of the rains,the hikers were unable to cross the river?
A. Infinitive phrase
B. Run-on sentence
C. Dangling modifer
D. Prepostional phrase
Top 2 Answers
A few days ago
Favorite Answer
C: Dangling modifier. The way the sentence reads, the phrase “had risen because of the rains” modifies “hikers”. But it’s not the hikers that had risen, it’s the river. You’d correct it by putting the modifier together with what it modifies, e.g.
“Since the river had risen because of the rains, the hikers were unable to cross it.”
If you’re not careful this error can give peculiar results, for example,
“After several unsuccessful attempts to use the litter box, you should take your cat to the veterinarian.” (1)
5
A few days ago
It is a dangling modifier. It could be corrected to: “Having risen because of the rains, the river prevented the hikers from crossing.” As written, it is the hikers, not the river, which have risen. Of course, it is possible the hikers were sitting, and the rains caused them to rise. In that case, since ‘rains’ is plural, they evidently did not rise after the first rain and waited for subsequent rainfalls.
Sentences with dangling modifiers are frequently funny. My two favorites are:
“Belching smoke and flame, we watched Mt. Vesuvius!” and
“Having eaten our lunch, the steamboat departed.”
2
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