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Post by cory on Nov 13, 2004 5:08:10 GMT -5
Working slowly through Harvey's with the kids, and feeling like the blind leading the blind.....! In this sentence "The Top saw her flying high through the air", what is "flying" doing? Thanks SO much!
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Post by Tracy Gustilo on Nov 13, 2004 8:23:40 GMT -5
"flying" in this sentence is a participle modifying "her".
Participles are one of the three forms of "verbals" (the other two forms being gerunds and infinitives), which are verb forms working like other parts of speech in the sentence. Participles work like adjectives and modify nouns. They tell what a noun (person, thing) from the sentence is doing, without that noun having to be the subject of the sentence or the verb having to be main verb. (In this case "her" is a pronoun standing in for the ball.)
As verb forms, participles can take their own objects and adverbial modifiers. So "high" and "through the air" indicate how/where the ball is flying. They modify the participle.
HTH,
Tracy
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