Using Phrasal Modifiers
(#3)
In Grammar Hints
172 and 173, we reviewed
two ways
that
phrases
can be used to modify nouns.
In this Hint,
we have
another.
Look at these two
sentences:
Alice has a
son.
Alice's
son is living in
Boston.
There are many ways to
combine these sentences. One way
is by
using "living in Boston" as a
phrasal
modifier:
Alice has a son
living in Boston.
More than one -ing phrase can be used to describe a
noun.
To see how
this works, let's
add a sentence to the ones
we used above:
Alice
has a son.
Alice's
son is living in
Boston.
Alice's son
is working as an
engineer.
As before, there are
many ways to combine these sentences,
but one way is by using the -ing phrases as
modifiers:
Alice has a son
living in Boston
and working as an engineer.
If the same verb is
used for more than one -ing phrase,
the
-ing phrases are combined a little differently:
Do you know the man?
The
man is wearing a brown suit.
The man
is wearing a yellow shirt.
Do you know the man wearing the
brown suit and the yellow
shirt?
Notice that . .
.
| 1. |
|
. . . -ing (participial) phrases
come after
the noun
that they modify. |
| |
|
|
| 2. |
|
. . . if there are two or more -ing phrases, they
can
be combined with
and. (How they
are combined
depends on the -ing verbs.) |
______________________________________________
How would you combine the sentences below
by
using
-ing phrases as
modifiers?
The young woman is
my cousin.
The young woman is
wearing black clothes.
The young
woman is wearing lots of silver jewelry.
The
person is my supervisor.
The person
is standing at the door of the office.
The person is welcoming the visitors.
The young woman is my friend Sheila.
The young woman is talking on the phone.
The young woman is making notes.
The man looks familiar.
The
man is wearing a baseball cap.
The
man is wearing a green shirt.
The man
is wearing
jeans.
| 
