1. Fused sentence: A. I own two dirt bikes, they're fun to ride.
2. Comma splice: A. I own two dirt bikes, they're fun to ride.
3. Misplaced modifier: B. While riding my bike, my dog ran up to me.
4. Fragment: E. I fell off riding down the street.
5. Dangling participle: C. Riding a dirt bike down a long winding path.
- Fused sentence (A): This error merges two independent clauses into a single sentence without any punctuation or conjunction to separate them. In the given sentence, "I own two dirt bikes" and "they're fun to ride" are both independent clauses that should be separated by appropriate punctuation or a conjunction.
- Comma splice (A): Similar to a fused sentence, a comma splice occurs when two independent clauses are incorrectly joined by a comma without a coordinating conjunction or appropriate punctuation. The sentence "I own two dirt bikes, they're fun to ride" illustrates this error.
- Misplaced modifier (B): This occurs when a modifying word or phrase is not placed near the word it is meant to modify, leading to confusion or ambiguity in the sentence. In the sentence "While riding my bike, my dog ran up to me," the phrase "While riding my bike" should ideally modify the action of the subject (the speaker) but instead seems to modify the action of the dog.
- Fragment (E): A fragment is an incomplete sentence lacking a subject, verb, or a complete thought. "I fell off riding down the street" lacks a main verb and doesn't form a complete sentence on its own.
- Dangling participle (C): This occurs when the subject that the participle phrase refers to is unclear or missing. In "Riding a dirt bike down a long winding path," it's unclear who is riding the dirt bike down the path. The subject is missing or ambiguous, creating a dangling participle.