Gerund modifier

Hello,

Is this correct English?

"John covered his food with plastic, eliminating the risk of contamination."

Can a comma and a gerund phrase be used to to clarify a independent clause?

Or does it need a "which" as in the following sentence?

"John covered his food with plastic, which eliminated the risk of contamination."

Thanks

TiredRyan said:

"John covered his food with plastic, eliminating the risk of contamination."

I think this is perfectly grammatical, though it sort of leaves the reader wondering whether
- it was John who eliminated the risk of contamination (participial clause agreeing with John), or
- it was the act of covering that eliminated the risk of contamination (adverbial participial clause qualifying covered), or maybe even
- it was the plastic that eliminated the risk of contamination (participial clause agreeing with plastic).

It might be more natural to say John covered his food with plastic to eliminate the risk of contamination. But then this does not make it clear that the risk was in fact eliminated, or whether this was only John's intention.

PS I agree with Panjandrum that a gerund is a verbal noun. Eliminating is nothing like a noun here.

Hello TiredRyan - welcome to WordReference 👁 Smile :)


I think that "eliminating" in the original sentence is a participle rather than a gerund.
That may be a matter of terminology, as I am one of those who use gerund only when the -ing form is behaving as a noun. I don't think it is in this sentence.

The -ing clause is then a participle clause modifying the preceding sentence - it was John's action in covering the food with plastic that eliminated the risk of contamination.

Thanks se16teddy and panjandrum.

I was searching for the wrong word on Google before. Now I have found several references on "present participles" used to modify.