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These are the actions. There is a plastic castle for children to play like this picture

enter image description here

My question is that

How to express these actions in English

Action 1: a child puts his both hands on the roof of the castle & let his legs and body free off the surface.

Can I say "He is hanging himself on the roof of the castle"?

But people may misunderstand that he is killing himself by tying a rope around his neck and allowing him to drop.

Action 2: a child puts his both hands on the roof of the castle & let his legs and body free off the surface. And then he moves his legs & body back & forward or side to side.

Can I say "He is swinging on the roof of the castle"?

Note: Some site says the difference between "hang from" & "hang on"

You can also think of it in terms of their position in space: Hanging on means that some of the weight of the thing hanging is resting on another object, like a picture hanging on a wall, or coat hanging on a hanger... On the other hand, something hanging from or off isn't resting, balancing, or leaning on anything else, but is attached to the other thing near its top and hanging freely (in other words, suspended from it), like a chandelier hanging from the ceiling... or a coat that has fallen off its secure position on the hanger and is now dangling/hanging from/off one side of the hanger, and is about to fall off. I hope this helps!

But it seems there are more "hang from" & "swing from" on the Google search page than "hang on" & "swing on".

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  • You need to use from, not on. Something is on the roof if it is resting on the surface, or fixed there like a flagpole. And hanging from is sufficient!
    – Kate Bunting
    Jan 1, 2020 at 9:22
  • I am sure that children are not allowed to swing from the roof or hang off it either. And the description in the picture is full of English mistakes. Monkeys hang from branches in trees and also swing on vines.
    – Lambie
    Jun 4, 2020 at 22:10

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The best would be “she is hanging from the roof of the castle” or “she is swinging from the roof of the castle”. Swinging means the body is moving.

“She is hanging on to the roof of the castle” means she is hanging from the roof, and she is holding on desperately to avoid falling down and hurting herself. In that case you could also say “She is clinging on to the roof”.

If you said “she is swinging on the roof of the castle “ I would assume the castle roof is flat, and someone put a swing into the flat roof of the castle. And bats might be hanging under the roof of the castle.

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In my opinion, the preposition on and from both work. Sentences like "A kid swinging on a rope or branch (of a tree)" is not uncommon. That said, A child is swinging on the roof of the castle seems fine to me.

As Kate said in the comment, from is also okay in some contexts. See here an example where it reads ...But Barnes remembers him as a fearless kid, swinging from ropes and snatching...

I would avoid using hanging especially when other words are available to describe scenes.

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  • Yes, but if a child is swinging on a rope, it is probably suspended from a solid object and they are clinging to it as it swings.
    – Kate Bunting
    Jan 1, 2020 at 10:41
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"The child hung from the eaves of the roof."

"eaves" being a noun referring to "the part of a roof that meets or overhangs the wall."

If the question is more centered around the use of hanging/hung vs. hanging/hanged and the attempt to avoid the noose connotation, simply state the child "hung from their fingertips" or "gripped the edge/eaves of the roof tightly as they dangled"

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