Participial Phrases

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Participial Phrases

• p. 361
• 7-5

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• Sometimes a participle is accompanied by other
  words that complete its meaning.
• Amazed by his success, the scientist continued
  his work.

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• A participle and its accompanying words make up a
  participial phrase.
• A participial phrase, like a participle alone,
  modifies a noun or a pronoun.
• Sitting in his office, he reread the
  instructions.

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The words that complete a participial phrase may
be one or more prepositional phrases.

• Thomas Edison, experimenting with different
  materials in his laboratory, eventually improved
  the light bulb.
• A participial phrase may contain a direct object,
  and it may contain an adverb that modifies the
  participle.
• Fearing failure, the scientist almost abandoned
  his work.
• Then, steadily gaining confidence, he succeeded.
• (label pg. 361)

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You will not confuse the main verb of a sentence
with a participial phrase as long as you first
identify the subject and the simple predicate of
a sentence.

• The crowd was watching the inventor testing his
  new creation. (p. 361)

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A participial phrase may come before or after the
word it modifies.

• Misplaced John created a robot experimenting in
  his lab.
• To be clear, place a participial phrase near the
  word that it modifies.
• Correct Experimenting in his lab, John created a
  robot.

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• Use a comma after a participial phrase that
  introduces a sentence.
• Struck by joy, Dee laughed.
• Also use commas to set off a participial phrase
  following the subject if the phrase is not
  necessary to the meaning of a sentence.
• Dan, waving good-bye, drove away.

8
Identify each participial phrase. Which word does
it modify.

1. How could someone photograph objects moving
   rapidly?
2. In the 1870s this was a serious question facing
   inventors.
3. Meeting the challenge, one photographer found a
   solution.
4. The photographer and his assistants worked with
   twenty-four cameras neatly arranged in a row
   along a racetrack.
5. Running past the row of loaded cameras, a horse
   caused each camera to shoot a picture.
6. For the first time, people saw something moving
   in a picture.

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• 7. In the Civil War, food sealed in cans was
  given to soldiers.
• 8. Troops in the hot South could now eat totally
  unspoiled food.
• 9. Pork and beans canned in tomato sauce became a
  popular meal among the soldiers.
• 10. Many soldiers returning from war asked local
  shopkeepers for canned food.
• 11. Canning everything from milk to cherries
  canners were selling thirty million cans a year
  by 1870.
• 12. Inventors noting the success of the tin can
  turned to other methods of food preservation.