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555-605 Level|   Grammatical/Rhetorical Construction|                     
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ParamjitDasGMAT
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For members of the seventeenth century Ashanti nation in Africa, anima 22 Mar 2022, 00:27
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shoonya
(E) to protect

-> "comma" + "to verb" is creating a comma splice (connecting 2 independent clauses without "semi-colon" or "comma" + FANBOYS conjunction)

Eliminate Option E

So Option C is our answer
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"To + verb" does NOT create a comma splice, as it does not form a separate independent clause. For an IC, you need a complete noun + verb construction. An infinitive can be best thought of as a modifier.
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For members of the seventeenth century Ashanti nation in Africa, anima 26 Mar 2022, 07:48
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niyatisuri
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Could you please tell why option E - " to protect " is wrong.
Could the reasoning be -- > phrase followed by comma should be a modifier, which can't be an infinitive.
Or may be that infinitive are used for defining the purpose of the main verb, however it is being used as
a descriptive phrase of the noun.
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Have you tried reviewing this post?
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For members of the seventeenth century Ashanti nation in Africa, anima 02 Apr 2022, 08:12
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Hi GMATNinja DmitryFarber

In Option A, wouldn't "animal-hide shields with wooden frames" be a method?

Please can you provide a reason to eliminate Option A.
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For members of the seventeenth century Ashanti nation in Africa, anima 02 Apr 2022, 09:12
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Hi GMATNinja DmitryFarber

In Option A, wouldn't "animal-hide shields with wooden frames" be a method?

Please can you provide a reason to eliminate Option A.
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Hi Nonie94,

No, "animal-hide shields with wooden frames" are just particular kinds of "shields". Shields may be categorized as weapons, equipment, or perhaps even something along the lines of instruments, but "methods" they are not.

Hope this helps.
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For members of the seventeenth century Ashanti nation in Africa, anima 09 Oct 2022, 07:14
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I though two commas-

africa,.........equipment,

is an appositive.
How could I confirm it??

Posted from my mobile device
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For members of the seventeenth century Ashanti nation in Africa, anima 10 Oct 2022, 04:31
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drasticgre
I though two commas-

africa,.........equipment,

is an appositive.
How could I confirm it??

Posted from my mobile device
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Hello drasticgre,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, appositives are always nouns or noun phrases that modify other nouns or noun phrases, but the portion of the sentence that is between commas - "animal-hide shields with wooden frames were essential items of military equipment" - is a clause, in fact, it is the main independent clause of the sentence.

We can tell that it is an independent clause because it contains an independent subject - "animal-hide shields with wooden frames" - and an active verb - "were" - that acts upon it, and it conveys a complete meaning, allowing it to stand on its own as a complete sentence.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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For members of the seventeenth century Ashanti nation in Africa, anima 14 Dec 2022, 11:19
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DmitryFarber GMATNinjaTwo, MikeScarn, GMATNinja, hazelnut, generis, egmat

Hi - I have gone through the forum discussion on choices C and E. I still have a few doubts. Can you please clarify.

1) My understanding of a comma + verb-ing modifier is that it modifies the preceding clause in 2 ways - a) by showing the how aspect b) by showing the result of the action. However, in this question, I am unable to understand how option C is fitting in (keeping in mind the 2 ways talked bwout earlier)

Option C reads - For members of the seventeenth century Ashanti nation in Africa, animal-hide shields with wooden frames were essential items of military equipment, protecting warriors against enemy arrows and spears.

2) For option E, a lot of the responses said that to protect cant be preceded by a comma. Is it a rule? It doesnt seem like it because in this thread, there are some correct OG sentences that have used to + verb after a comma. Is there another reason to reject this? I am also not clear on whether this sentence can use the to + verb format here because I dont think it menas to show intention.

Option E reads - For members of the seventeenth century Ashanti nation in Africa, animal-hide shields with wooden frames were essential items of military equipment, to protect warriors against enemy arrows and spears

In case, the sentence is written to show intention then would option E be correct if the comma wasnt there? The sentence would read - For members of the seventeenth century Ashanti nation in Africa, animal-hide shields with wooden frames were essential items of military equipment to protect warriors against enemy arrows and spears.

Lastly, would we have 2 options present such as Option C and revised option E in the answer choices.

Thanks.
Your understanding of how VERB-ing modifiers work when they follow CLAUSE + COMMA is correct. Either VERB-ing provides a consequence of the previous clause, or is giving context for that clause.

In (C) we have:

    "...animal-hide shields with wooden frames were essential items of military equipment, protecting warriors..."

This modification is perfectly logical - it provides context. How were the shields essential? By providing protection to warriors. Looks good.

But when we have a "to verb" (an infinitive, if you like jargon) following a full clause, typically the infinitive is giving us the intention of the previous subject. For example:

    "Tim deprived himself of pancakes for three weeks to get himself in shape for Burning Man."

Tim made a conscious decision to stop eating pancakes, because he had the intention of getting in shape. So now look at (E) again:

    "...animal-hide shields with wooden frames were essential items of military equipment, to protect warriors..."

This makes it sound as though the shields consciously chose to be essential so that they could protect the warriors. In science fiction, perhaps. On the GMAT? Not so much. (E) is illogical, so (C) is our answer.

I hope that helps!
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Hi GMATNinja

Sorry as this may sound a silly question, but can a 'infinitive construction' be used as a modifier separated by comma to modify a preceding independent clause in GMAT? if so, would you be able to share an example so that I get an idea of how the meaning is drawn from such a construction.

Thanks in advance!
Tilak
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For members of the seventeenth century Ashanti nation in Africa, anima 18 Jan 2023, 08:38
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Traj201090
Hi GMATNinja

Sorry as this may sound a silly question, but can a 'infinitive construction' be used as a modifier separated by comma to modify a preceding independent clause in GMAT? if so, would you be able to share an example so that I get an idea of how the meaning is drawn from such a construction.

Thanks in advance!
Tilak
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Not a silly question at all, Tilak! But I might give you a pretty silly answer. :)

The GMAT is pretty lenient when it comes to commas, and we've seen plenty of OAs featuring commas that aren't strictly necessary. It's common for writers to include commas just to make a long, complicated sentence easier to read -- and there's nothing wrong with adding commas in those situations, but it's up to the writer's discretion.

With that in mind, it's not unreasonable to imagine an OA that uses a comma in between an independent clause and an infinitive, even if that comma isn't strictly necessary. No specific examples come to mind, but eliminating a choice just because it has a comma before an infinitive is probably a bad idea.

More broadly, GMAT SC is NOT designed to test your ability to memorize and apply a long list of fancy grammar rules. Instead, the test focuses on meaning and logic. So if you find yourself trying to make things easier with grammar shortcuts ("eliminate any choice with a comma between an IC and an infinitive!"), you're probably barking up the wrong tree -- those "tricks" usually do more harm than good.

For more on GMAT punctuation, check out this older video or this newer one.

I hope that helps!
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For members of the seventeenth century Ashanti nation in Africa, anima 21 May 2025, 09:24
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