<p>1/
Is it possible to use a present participle with a verb in the past tense, as below?</p>
<p>Playing soccer, he got injured.
Is it correct?</p>
<p>2/
It reminds me of this question:
Unlike her best friend Margie, making the varsity soccer team as a freshman, Jill did not make the team until her junior year. No error</p>
<p>If the present participle can be used with the past tense: "did not", then the error is not related to tense consistency, but to something else. I think that something else is the ambiguity posed by the modifying phrase: "making the varsity soccer team as a freshman". We don't know if it's modifying Margie or Jill. Can someone confirm that I'm write in all what I just said?</p>
<p>Here’s a similar question:</p>
<p>Britain took over western Togoland, (later becoming part of Ghana-.
A) which later became part of Ghana
E) becoming part of Ghana afterward</p>
<p>Does this mean we eliminate E) because of the tense inconsistency caused by the present participle “becoming”?</p>
<p>Yes. Present participle as a modifier only means that its action was at the same time as the action in the following clause. Contrast with “Having eaten all the chocolate, Peggy started eating the dirt”–in this sentence, the chocolate eating preceded the dirt eating.</p>
<p>Sorry, that was in response to your first post. As for your second post, E) produces a modifier error so A) is the answer. It’s not a verb tense problem.</p>
<p>Thanks marvin. But what about about my second post (third question)?</p>
<p>I think that “becoming part of Ghana afterward” doesn’t make sense. If, as you said, the present participle describes an action that was at the same as the action in the preceding/following clause, then “afterward” disturbs that by indicating it happened after Britian took over western Togoland.</p>