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How, When, and Where to Use Absolute Constructions?

By VJ
We haven't been touching the grammar topics lately. Therefore, here is a comeback. We are dealing with absolute constructions here.

An absolute construction consists of a noun and an associated modifier, which together forms an introduction to the whole sentence. The other part of the sentence is itself a standalone sentence. Examples are below:

The gun fully loaded, we found it easy to pass the forest.
Fog all over the place, they found it difficult to see anything.
She found her pet dog in the middle of the yard, its feet wounded.
All things considered, we found it acceptable to invest more this year.

The italicized parts are absolute constructions.

Absolute constructions are applied to the entire sentence, rather than only the subject or the object as a dangling modifier or participial phrase would be.

This construction can also be used to conjoin two sentences.
Example:

Millions of copies of the novels by Salman Rushdie have been sold out.
He is regarded to be one of the most influential novelists of the 21st century.

This sentence may be modified as:

Millions of copies of his novels sold, Salman Rushdie is one of the most influential novelists of the 21st century.

Conclusion

Absolute construction is a very good grammatical device to easily convert two sentences into one.

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