Comments on: Dangling Participles May Be Funny, But …

By: Khadidja

Khadidja — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 23:30:12 +0000

Lovely, inspiring post. It’s taken me nigh on 30 years to be able to say I’m a writer when someone asks me what I do. I felt, as you say, scared of failure, scared of bad opinion, scared of everything. Writing for others to read is always a bit like baring one’s soul: deeply frightening. For me, the thing that got me writing publicly was starting an excellent writing course, where I suddenly didn’t feel so alone: everyone else was as scared as me, I met some great people, read some fabulous writing and, amazingly, received acclaim for what I wrote.

By: Admin

Admin — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 22:32:39 +0000

Nice point, Leonardo. I agree!

By: Elena

Elena — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 20:47:44 +0000

I didn’t say that the participle was the most important, only that it was important. A form that occurs this frequently must be understood if you are going to understand the text. My goal of the stats is only to show my first year students in a week or two that they are going to see a lot of participles.

By: Naz

Naz — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 16:55:31 +0000

Nice concept, although I’m glad you reminded me what the heck a gerund was. Also, dead things change as much as anything else, just a little more slowly. Decomposition and the carbon cycle put us back into the cycle of matter from which we can’t escape.

By: Leonardo

Leonardo — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 12:54:53 +0000

Participles also happen to be the most frustrating piece of Greek grammar! At least as far as the basics are concerned. I am self-taught in Greek, and the first time I went through my textbook I gave the chapters on participles a glorified skim, thinking, if I know verbs I can figure out participles.’ Big mistake! I had to go back through and really spend some time not only on recognizing the various forms, but ensuring that I could truly translate participles effectively. It’s true you really can’t read the Greek NT without a firm grasp on participles.

By: staismdrise

staismdrise — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:27:21 +0000

Hello! Just want to say thank you for this interesting article! =) Peace, Joy.