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Mark, dressed in black, walked across the room.

Mark, dressing in black, walked across the room.

I think both sentences are correct but what's the difference in meaning between both of them?

Also, is there a set of rules to follow that governs when to use the past participle, when to use the present and when not to use any of them?

Example:

The girl who fell down the cliff broke her leg. (NOT: The girl falling down cliff…)

Who was the girl who dropped the coffee? (Not: Who was the girl dropping the coffee?)?

And other strange phenomena like why

A girl having black hair is wearing red is right. (NOT: The girl having black hair is wearing red)

Manar
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  • You might have better luck at https://ell.stackexchange.com, but a quick answer is that if Mark walked across a room "dressed" in black, it means he has already put on the black clothes - "dressed" is being used as an adjective to describe the state that he is in after he has dressed in the past. If Mark walked across the room "dressing in black," it would mean that he was putting on the clothes at the same time as he was walking across the room. – cruthers Sep 01 '21 at 13:43
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    A girl having black hair is wrong whichever article you choose. We would say A/the girl with black hair. – Kate Bunting Sep 01 '21 at 13:52
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    why are they both wrong when clauses like people having fair skin and roads having no center line marking are correct? – Manar Sep 01 '21 at 13:57
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    A girl having black hair is not colloquial, since with is shorter and simpler and more common. But it's not ungrammatical; it just changes the register to something more serious. – John Lawler Sep 01 '21 at 14:42

1 Answers1

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Your second sentence is grammatically correct, but not at all natural. We use the present participle when the action is happening or has happened just before the one that the main verb describes.

The girl falling down the cliff screamed.

Putting down his cup, Mark got up and walked across the room.

It's unlikely that he would be described as walking across the room while getting dressed.

Kate Bunting
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    "Mark, dressing in black, crossed the room" makes little or no sense. However "Mark, wearing a black jacket, crossed the room" is unremarkable. It's not the grammatical structure that causes the problem but whether the action described can be thought of as continuous. – BoldBen Sep 01 '21 at 22:00