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Hiram Bingham first crossed the Andes Mountains in February 1909, the wettest month of the year, which should have made his travels difficult.

Apparently, the correct sentence is:

Hiram Bingham first crossed the Andes Mountains in February 1909, the wettest month of the year, making his travels difficult.

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    Who says the first is wrong? He crossed by ornithopter, so the wetness didn't really bother him.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Sep 22, 2017 at 22:22
  • Suppose that instead of commas, we used parentheses to set of the "the wettest month of the year." That would give us this: "Hiram Bingham first crossed the Andes Mountains in February 1909 (the wettest month of the year), which should have made his travels difficult." It seems to me that the sense of the sentence is "Hiram Bingham first crossed the Andes Mountains in February 1909, which should have made his travels difficult" with an added parenthetical about why February was a particularly problematic month for travel. Since commas are interchangeable with parentheses for setting off...
    – Sven Yargs
    Commented Sep 23, 2017 at 4:09
  • ...a parenthetical, it seems to me that the original sentence can be read in exactly the same way as the version with parentheses. And since there is nothing wrong with the version with parentheses, the assertion that the original sentence is incorrect in some fundamental way seems to me to be false. Is there more context to the assignment, such as a description of the basis upon which you are supposed to determine that one version is better than the other?
    – Sven Yargs
    Commented Sep 23, 2017 at 4:12
  • Dropping the parenthetical from the second sentence leaves 'Hiram Bingham first crossed the Andes Mountains in February 1909, making his travels difficult.' Though I'd agree that it's silly to claim that the use of misplaced modifiers is always scandalous, I'd say that 'I made my travels difficult' sounds unidiomatic and so I'd avoid this rendering. I'd probably use 'Hiram Bingham first crossed the Andes Mountains (in 1909) in February – the wettest month of the year, which should have made his travels difficult.'
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Sep 23, 2017 at 14:19

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It might be a matter of voice and presentation. Sentence 1 is speculative, and Sentence 2 is informative. It might not be grammatically incorrect, but it would be sub-optimal if the point of the sentence is to inform and not to give opinion.

Hiram Bingham first crossed the Andes Mountains in February 1909, the wettest month of the year, which should have made his travels difficult.

Here, a speculation is being made that the fact that February in 1909 was the wettest month of that year was the reason that his travels might have been difficult. However, this is not presented as a fact.

Hiram Bingham first crossed the Andes Mountains in February 1909, the wettest month of the year, making his travels difficult.

Here, a statement or conclusion is being made that February 1909 being the wettest month of the year was absolutely the reason that his travels were difficult.

Whether the information is true or not, I don't know, but this is the only flaw I see with this pair of sentences.

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    I'd really like a justification for that down-vote.
    – psosuna
    Commented Sep 22, 2017 at 23:58
  • Well I am going to vote it up so there you go. I can see a very weak argument for a down vote, namely in that a sentence that does not mean what the person uttering it intends is way lower than sub-optimal. It is plain wrong. But I think what you intended was that such a sentence may be grammatical in form but will be incorrect.
    – Jeff Morrow
    Commented Sep 23, 2017 at 0:44
  • But psosuna noted "if" the point of the sentence is to inform and not to give opinion. But "if" the point of the sentence is to give opinion and not inform, the sentence is fine. .
    – Zan700
    Commented Sep 23, 2017 at 1:40
  • @zan I think you misunderstood my point. I was not at all disagreeing that the various sentences are grammatical. But the hypothesis was that the purpose was to inform, in which case the clause used fails, and therefore "suboptimal" is not well chosen. That is a valid criticism, but, in my opinion, it is too minor to warrant a down vote on what was a cogent, helpful, and generally correct answer.
    – Jeff Morrow
    Commented Sep 23, 2017 at 2:02
  • @JeffMorrow Whose hypothesis?
    – Zan700
    Commented Sep 23, 2017 at 2:50
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The clause "which should have made his travels difficult" suggests that his travels were not difficult without explicitly affirming that possibility.

The clause "which might have made his travels difficult" suggests that whether his travels were difficult is not known to the speaker or writer.

The clause " which made his travels difficult" explicitly affirms that his travels were difficult.

Thus, the first two are speculative; the third is informative.

All are grammatical. Each differs in meaning.

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