What grammatical structure is the italicized portion of the sentence?
By serving as a popcorn vendor, Don saw many good games.
present participial phrase
nominative absolute
appositive
past participial phrase
prepositional phrase with a gerund
Which words are italicized?
The italicized portion of the sentence, "By serving as a popcorn vendor," is a prepositional phrase with a gerund.
The italicized portion of the sentence, "serving as a popcorn vendor," is a present participial phrase. To identify the grammatical structure of this portion, we can break it down:
- "By serving" serves as the main phrase, functioning as an adverbial phrase that indicates the means or manner of Don's action.
- "as a popcorn vendor" is the prepositional phrase, with "as" being the preposition and "a popcorn vendor" being its object.
Together, "serving as a popcorn vendor" describes the action Don is engaged in, making it a present participial phrase.