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A little clarification needed on -ing- modifiers 07 Nov 2021, 05:15
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Hi all,

I have question that has been twisting my mind recently,

Can we use -ing- modifiers to modify things that happened in past?
As far as ı know -ing- modifiers tend to describe smthng happening now or generally but ı have seen examples of it modifying things happened in past

For instance;

By employing swift tactics and deploying artillery in crucial moments, Napoleon won countless victories in battlefield, enabling him to master the continental Europe

Would it be correct to use these -ing- modifiers although Napoleon lived 200 years ago?

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A little clarification needed on -ing- modifiers 07 Nov 2021, 05:58
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gloomybison
Hi all,

I have question that has been twisting my mind recently,

Can we use -ing- modifiers to modify things that happened in past?
As far as ı know -ing- modifiers tend to describe smthng happening now or generally but ı have seen examples of it modifying things happened in past

For instance;

By employing swift tactics and deploying artillery in crucial moments, Napoleon won countless victories in battlefield, enabling him to master the continental Europe

Would it be correct to use these -ing- modifiers although Napoleon lived 200 years ago?
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Hi gloomybison, the verb-ing usage is perfectly correct.

Verb-ing modifiers, as you said (partially correct), describe something (not necessarily happening right now). They are called action modifiers, they modify actions but at the same make sense with the doer of the action. Whether the opening verb-ed/verb-ing modifier modifies just the subject or the entire main clause, it must make sense with the subject of the main clause.

In your example, By employing swift tactics is modifying the entire succeeding clause, Napolean won countless victories. It is giving the how aspect of the succeeding action and related to the doer of it while doing so.

Other examples to consider are:
By killing thousands at the Jallianwala Bagh, General Dwyer became the enemy of the entire nation.
Promising a good future for his children, Vasco Da Gama set off on an adventure of a lifetime.
Both the verb-ing modifiers are correct above and none are in the present time frame.

Note: The purpose of any type of modifier when correctly used is to provide extra information regarding the modified entity.
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A little clarification needed on -ing- modifiers 07 Nov 2021, 06:07
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It's totally correct to use a present participial phrase to modify a clause about a past event. For example, the following sentence is correctly constructed.

Yesterday, Sonya made mango smoothies, filling the kitchen with a wonderful aroma.

The sentence effectively conveys that the events "made" and "filling" occurred at the same time in the past.

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