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Being a German mastering the English language and having to read specialist literature in both languages for business reasons, it is likely ....

I am referring especially to the first part of the sentence...

Nathan Tuggy
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lilli
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    Are you refering to "Being... mastering..." or to "Being... having..."? (N.B.: I suspect it's the first case, as indicated by the bolded emphasis, but that emphasis was not made by the OP.) – apsillers Jun 28 '16 at 19:26
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    Seems like it would read better if you didn't exclude the "who is"... "Being a German who is mastering the English language..." – Catija Jun 28 '16 at 19:28
  • It's fine. The meaning is "As I am a German mastering the English Language ...". Mastering is a verb heading a non-finite clause functioning as postmodifier to the noun German. The entire sequence up to the comma is an adjunct. The subject of the sentence is "it". – BillJ Jun 28 '16 at 19:57
  • I don't really see how the dupe matches this... the usage of the words is different and the gerunds are not consecutive. – Catija Jun 28 '16 at 21:55

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Although this "rule" (it's not really a grammatical rule but a stylistic suggestion) is often broken by native speakers, you want an opening clause like yours to modify the subject of the main clause; your main clause begins with "it".

Also, you don't need being.

As a German (who is) mastering the English language and having to read specialist literature in both languages for business reasons, I ...

Here's an example of a "dangler":

As someone who likes good beer, please have plenty of it in the fridge when I come to visit.

Better:

As someone who likes good beer, I hope to find plenty of it in the fridge when I come to visit.

This might seem rather forward. Imagine you're saying it to your brother, and that you indulged his penchant for pepperoni pizza when he came to visit you.

TimR
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