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In a grammar test I did, the following sentence was to be corrected:

"I first spotted the turtle playing tag in the yard."

It clearly contains a misplaced modifier. The correction suggested was to place the participial phrase at the beginning of the sentence ("Playing tag in the yard, I first spotted the turtle"). Could you, instead, place a comma after turtle?

"I first spotted the turtle, playing tag in the yard."

Based on what I've read about the placement of participial phrases, there's nothing wrong with it, but it looks and sounds strange to me. "I first spotted the turtle while I was playing tag in the yard" seems preferable to me.

Kukito
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  • Does this answer your question? "Dangling Participles" Essentially, many more prescriptivist critics censure the use of 'dangling/misplaced (note that the name is pejorative) participles / modifiers', while others only get worried when there is a realistic ambiguity. So 'correct' is ill-defined here. If under pressure, re-instate the arguably deleted : ' ... when I was ...'. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 15 '20 at 14:40
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    As I parse these sentences, the suggested correction doesn't work. If we treat the phrase "playing tag in the yard" as a supplement, the more likely relevant sense of "first" doesn't seem available. Do we care about the first observer to spot, or this observer's first instance of spotting? – Gary Botnovcan Jul 15 '20 at 15:32
  • I don't agree that it's obviously a misplaced modifier. It could mean *exactly* what it says: the first time you spotted the turtle, the turtle was playing tag in the yard. This could be perfectly reasonable in a fantasy story where turtles play tag. But adding the comma makes no difference in this case—in fact it makes it worse. In the fantasy-story interpretation, it would make more sense to not have the comma. (And adding the comma does not reduce any unintended interpretation at all.) Note that without more context, there is additional ambiguity around I first spotted too. – Jason Bassford Jul 15 '20 at 16:39
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    @FumbleFingers, I just read the question you mentioned. It's hysterical. – Isabel Archer Jul 16 '20 at 02:04
  • Well, @Jason, it's as if everyone has forgotten Groucho Marx. Why, just the other morning he shot an elephant in his pajamas. How the elephant got into his pajamas remains a mystery, but that's irr-elephant to the question at hand. If we expect "in his pajamas" to be the attendant circumstances of taking the shot (before the punchline lands), why would we not expect "playing tag" to be the attendant circumstances of the first instance of spotting? – Gary Botnovcan Jul 16 '20 at 15:34

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I prefer 'I first spotted the turtle while I was playing tag in the yard' as well. However, I reckon you can think of 'While playing tag in the yard, I first spotted the turtle.' as an alternative way for conveying the original meaning of your sentence to your audience that possibly may help neutralize the strangeness and indirectness of the second sentence that you have mentioned above to be grammatically correct without moving around or changing some of its words.

:) :) :)

Tinna
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  • Hello Tinna. Please note that the comment above contains a reference to no less an authority than G Pullum giving his views on 'dangling participles'. Unsupported answers and answers to duplicate questions are not in line with ELU's policies (found at the Help Center). – Edwin Ashworth Jul 15 '20 at 15:01