1. Absolute Phrases Mrs. Henson English III AP
* Adapted from Sentence Composing for High School Students by Don Killgallon

2. Overview Absolute phrases are ALMOST complete sentences.
Absolutes describe the rest of the sentence.
You can make any absolute a complete sentence by adding was or were.
Many absolutes begin with possessive pronouns.
Can occur as:
Sentence Openers
Subject-Verb Split
Sentence Closers

3. Models Without Absolutes With Absolutes She returned to her bench.
About the bones, ants were ebbing away.
She returned to her bench, her face showing all the unhappiness that had suddenly overtaken her.
Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy
About the bones, ants were ebbing away, their pincers full of meat.
Dorris Lessing, African Stories

4. Placement of Absolute Phrases
Sentence Openers
His hands raw, he reached a flat place at the top.
Richard Connell, “The Most Dangerous Game”
Subject-Verb Splits
High in the air, a little figure, his hands thrust in his short jacket pockets, stood staring out to sea.
Katherine Mansfield, “The Voyage”
Sentence Closers
Those who had caught sharks had taken them to the shark factory on the other side of the cove where they were hoisted on a block and tackle, their livers removed, their fins cut off, and their hides skinned out, and their flesh cut into strips for salting.
Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

5. Unscrambling #1 while Buck struggled in fury
then the rope tightened mercilessly
and his great chest panting
his tongue lolling out of his mouth
Then the rope tightened mercilessly while Buck struggled in fury, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, and his great chest panting. -Jack London, The Call of the Wild

6. Unscrambling #2 I each set upon a carved wooden base
looked across to a lighted case of Chinese design
which held delicate-looking statues
of horses and birds, small vases and bowls
I looked across to a lighted case of Chinese design which held delicate-looking statues of horses and birds, small vases and bowls, each set upon a carved wooden base. -Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

7. Unscrambling #3 her shoulders drooping a little
her glasses winking in the sunlight
she was now standing arms akimbo
her cocked to one side
She was now standing arms akimbo, her shoulders drooping a little, her head cocked to one side, her glasses winking in the sunlight. -Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird