Superbowl commercial (perfectly) target (their) demographics because the advertisers regularly (spent) exorbitant amounts of time and money (designing) the ads. (no error)
The answer is (spent) and i know its because of the tense, but how is (designing) correct here? isn’t it a misplaced modifier because ‘money’ cannot design???
No, designing is not a modifier. It’s part of the verb phrase “spend ___ designing.”
A similar sentence that is correct: I spent an hour yesterday watching television.
Comments (5)
but if it says ‘the girl fed a duck wearing blue dress’ ‘wearing…’ is modifying a duck so how is it different here?
@MikeMcClenathan
I think it’s bc designing refers to a verb whereas wearing is modifying a noun.
Thanks!! but is there a way to distinguish between them? like a pattern to look for or something? @disqus_iSHljInj1l:disqus
In the Superbowl question, it is clear that “designing the ads” acts as a function of the verb “spent”. But in your sentence, to say “wearing blue dress” acts as a function of the verb “fed” will not make any sense. Therefore, we know that “wearing blue dress” has to modify a noun. The two distinct nouns created a problem in the sentence. if the sentence says “the girl fed a duck using her hand”, it will probably be correct.