Verified answer

Sorry, this is a bit long but you said you needed help and I really want you to learn. I am going to give you a lot of examples too, OK?

Participial phrase:

Definition: A word group consisting of a present participle (verb + ing) or past participle (3rd part of the verb, as in: eat - ate - EATEN), plus any modifiers, objects, and complements. A participial phrase commonly functions as an adjective.

Examples: (To find them easily, I put the participial phrases are in quotations ("....").

1. Beginning participial phrases: These must come right before the nouns that they describe. The phrases are followed commas.

"Feeling the warm, soft sunshine seep into his bones", Gramp Stevens sat in a lawn chair.

"Invented by an Indiana housewife in 1889", the first dishwasher was driven by a steam engine.

2. Middle Participial Phrases: These follow the nouns that they describe and have no commas around them if the information is necessary to identify or understand (restrictive meaning) but do have commas around them if they don't include necessary information (non-restrictive).

The man "holding the gun" is John Barrett.

"Holding the gun" helps to identify which man, so no commas are needed.

Jenna Kim, "driven wild with anger", shot her husband.

Proper nouns, such as "Jenna Kim," are considered identified, so a participial phrase that follows cannot be necessary for identification and must have commas.

3. Ending Participial Phrases: These are often set off by commas to emphasize, especially if they are not directly after the nouns that they modify or describe, a structure that often occurs. There are no commas if the information is necessary to identify or if emphasis is not needed.

I saw the monkey "swinging from the trees".

Swinging from the trees follows the noun ("monkey") that it describes, and no special emphasis seems needed so no commas are necessary.

John followed the crowd, "fearing being left behind".

In this case, "fearing being left behind" describes "John," not "the crowd," so the comma is necessary to separate "crowd" from the phrase. This pause helps the reader to understand the meaning.

Note: it's always better for clarity to put the participial phrase right next to the noun it describes, but it is sometimes awkward to construct such a sentence when the phrase occurs at the end of the sentence.

Maribel cleaned up the milk "spilled on the desk".

There is no comma because "spilled on the desk" describes which milk (not the milk on the floor, for example) and is identifying.

The monkey threw food at the teenagers, "provoked by their actions".

A comma follows "teenagers" to separate it from the participial phrase and help to make clear that the "monkey" is the one provoked.

Note: the pronoun "their" also helps to make the meaning clear.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

The participial phrase is "rising early." A participle derives from a verb but functions as an adjective. "Rising early" describes/modifies "I."

A

Participial phrases turn verbs into adjectives. Rising would originally be a verb but it is turned into an adjective because it is describing early

EDIT: I wrote my original answer late at night and under the influence of alcohol.

And guess what? It was wrong. I misread the sentence.

So Gretchen is right. And completely right in that the participle phrase "Rising early" (and not just the participle "rising") modifies "I." "Rising" does not modify "early."