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<OT> As a person sometimes overly distracted by grammar, I would like to thank you for using the "As a [description of subject], [subject] [rest of sentence]"
by sowbug 7y ago
<OT>
As a person sometimes overly distracted by grammar, I would like to thank you for using the "As a [description of subject], [subject] [rest of sentence]" construction correctly. Getting this wrong, which is called a "dangling modifier" error, is common. Examples from today's front-page HN discussions:
As a new (1 year) coder starting out at 39 years old, this sounds very similar to the path I envision for myself.
As another former Googler, yes, searching the entire monorepo was a frequent occurrence.
Corrected:
As a new (1 year) coder starting out at 39 years old, I envision a very similar to the path for myself.
I'm another former Googler. Yes, searching the entire monorepo was a frequent occurrence.
</OT>
- greedo 7y agoIf you're going to pedant, at least fix your first "correction" so that it includes its subject.
- sowbug 7y agoHa! You got me. Poor editing. Please delete "to the" in the corrected example. (or maybe I was just adhering to Muphry's law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law.)
- YeGoblynQueenne 7y agoI read the examples of dangling modifiers you give as assuming "Speaking" at the start of the sentence. So, e.g. "Speaking as a new (1 year) coder ... this sounds very similar...".
- sowbug 7y agoThat's still a dangling modifier, because "this" is the subject of the sentence, and "speaking" doesn't modify "this"; rather, it's meant to modify an "I" that's not in the sentence.
- frogpelt 7y agoAs a fellow Hacker News commenter, thanks for pointing this out.
- ckrailo 7y agoWould_you_like_to_know_more.gif? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangling_modifier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangling_modifier (I found this mildly interesting!)