A mutual fund having billions of dollars

Cydney Seigerman, Magoosh Tutor

Hi Shray :)

A key difference between adverbial phrases (which can act as verb modifiers) and noun modifiers is the type of word each modifies. Like adverbs, adverbial phrases modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. On the other hand, and as the name indicates, noun modifiers modify nouns. Therefore, the type of modifier a phrase acts as depends on what the phrase is modifying. If the present participle phrase is describing an action, then it is considered an adverbial phrase. On the other hand, if it is used to modify a noun, it is a noun modifier.

In this sentence, "rarely holding..." describes the mutual fund and is thus a noun modifier. We can see this more clearly by rephrasing the sentence: "A mutual fund rarely holding more than one percent..." This idea could be expressed in the following way without changing the meaning: "A mutual fund that holds more than one percent..." In both cases, the phrase modifies the noun "mutual fund."

For a more in-depth review on modifiers and adverbial, I recommend checking out the following posts on our GMAT blog:

* http://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/modifiers-on-the-gmat-sentence-correction/
* http://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-grammar-vital-noun-modifiers/
* http://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-grammar-adverbial-phrases-and-clauses/

Hope this helps :)

Nov 21, 2015 • Reply

Jonathan , Magoosh Tutor

Hi. When we have a participle phrase after a comma, the participle refers to the subject of the clause before the comma. Here we have the present participle "holding," so the phrase should refer to the subject of the sentence, which is "mutual fund." Note that we could also put the the phrase at the beginning of the sentence:

"Rarely holding more than one percent of the shares of any particular corporation, a mutual fund having billions of dollars will typically invest that money in hundreds of companies."

Aug 4, 2015 • Reply