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As far as I know, we can use participles right before or after the subject of the main clause to give extra information about the subject. For example:

1- Dressed in his class-A uniform, the marine looked like a recruitment poster. (Original)

1a- The marine, who was dressed in his class-A uniform, looked like a recruitment poster.

2- Glazed with barbecue sauce, the rack of ribs lay nestled next to a pile of sweet coleslaw. (Original)

2a- The rack of ribs, which are glazed with barbecue sauce, lay nestled next to a pile of sweet coleslaw.

But I have seen sentences that use participles at the end of the main clause with a comma or a colon to give extra information about the subject of the main clause.

When I want to give extra information about the subject of the main clause, can I just use this form (main clause + colon or comma + participles) ? Would that be okay?

For example:

3- The funeral is at 3.00, followed by a reception at Shaw's bar. (Original)

3a- The funeral is at 3.00 and will be followed by a reception at Shaw's bar.

3b- The funeral is at 3.00, which will be followed by a reception at Shaw's bar. (I am not sure if this version is correct)

4- Essos is an immense landmass located to the east of Westeros, extending into the far east of the known world. (Original) (describes Essos)

4a- Essos is an immense landmass located to the east of Westeros and Essos extends into the far east of the known world.

4b- Essos is an immense landmass located to the east of Westeros which extends into the far east of the known world.

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  • Is this an assignment of some sort? – BillJ Jun 26 '19 at 13:23
  • No :). I am just trying to learn how it works. – Talha Özden Jun 26 '19 at 13:32
  • You might find it more useful to "deconstruct" The funeral is at 3.00, followed by a reception at Shaw's bar as the "merging with deletion" of two statements: The funeral is at 3.00. The funeral is followed by a reception at Shaw's bar. I think that approach covers all your other examples: The marine was dressed in his class-A uniform. The marine looked like a recruitment poster. Sometimes we might want to explicitly convey the relationship between the two statements with a preposition: Because he was dressed in his class-A uniform, the marine looked like a recruitment poster. – FumbleFingers Reinstate Monica Jun 26 '19 at 16:11
  • Note that you can't delete the repeated subject from That makes him very happy and says this - it has to be ...and he says this. – FumbleFingers Reinstate Monica Jun 26 '19 at 16:17
  • @FumbleFingers Thank you. When I am allowed to use "merging with deletion" ? Is having the same subject in the main and participle clause enough to combine them into one sentence? + The sentence four looks different from the other examples. The subject of the participle clause is different from the main clause in that sentence. – Talha Özden Jun 26 '19 at 16:44
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I'm just commenting, not answering. Sorry that I don't have 50 reputation yet. You may downvote me as you like.

This is wrong:

That makes him very happy and says this: "..."

It should be

That makes him very happy and he says this: "..."

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  • Thanks, I have edited. But you could have just used comment button. – Talha Özden Jun 26 '19 at 14:18
  • Actually, it's not wrong. It could also be saying That makes him very happy and [that] says this. The lack of the pronoun leaves the sentence ambiguous, but not ungrammatical. It would be a grammatically (if not stylistically) acceptable elision. (Dreams, or any thing or event, can be thought of as figuratively saying something.) – Jason Bassford Jun 26 '19 at 18:15
  • @JasonBassford: This makes me very happy and says that I'm easily pleased! – FumbleFingers Reinstate Monica Jun 27 '19 at 15:53

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