For instance,
Angry, I smashed his head into the wall
Or should it be
Angrily, I smashed his head into the wall
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1Does this answer your question? "Thirsty, we drank."– Edwin AshworthCommented Oct 24, 2020 at 18:19
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@EdwinAshworth That's an excellent answer. My takeaway from it is, "Yes, but in this case don't." Is that what you meant?– David KCommented Oct 25, 2020 at 2:39
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@David K: It's not a matter of ungrammaticality. 'Angry with the concentration camp commander, I smashed his head into the wall' is fine while 'Angry, I smashed his head into the wall' just doesn't work. 'Exhausted, I collapsed into the chair' is also fine, and uses a bare absolute adjective (don't confuse this with the absolute ... comparative ... superlative usage, or with the gradeable v classifying, extreme, absolute classification of adjectives). Devastated and inconsolable would work, but not sad. Size matters here. // Please close-vote as a duplicate if you agree; adverb usage is basic.– Edwin AshworthCommented Oct 25, 2020 at 14:52
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1@EdwinAshworth I agree, but sadly I'm a few hundred points short of "close vote" privileges here.– David KCommented Oct 25, 2020 at 15:22
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2 Answers
It can be either and that depends on what the person wants to say. If they want to say that they smashed someone's head into a wall because they were angry, then the first sentence is the right one. if instead they simply want to say that they were angry while smashing someone's head into a wall, then the second sentence is what has to be used.
The appositive meaning of "Angry" and "he" is clear and unambiguous so there is no reason to avoid the construction.
quotes an identical construct, albeit with a participial adjective "undaunted":
"Undaunted, we started to think about the problem."
You may also like the example of "Silent We Stood", which is the title of a novel by Henry Chappell.
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3The variant with the past/passive participle is routine (though beware the dangling thereof); plain adjectives tend to sound a little odder. Also, O.P. has given us not he but rather I as the main-clause subject for the modifier to modify.. Commented Oct 24, 2020 at 0:01
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1@BrianDonovan Or if not a little odder, perhaps a little older as though decorated with oratorical flourishes. Sickly and despairing they came to him; healed and rejoicing they left him.– tchrist ♦Commented Oct 24, 2020 at 2:32
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A closer example - in both form and awkwardness - would be
Dauntless, we started to think about the problem.– mcalexCommented Oct 25, 2020 at 7:01 -