Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers
Misplaced Modifiers
A misplaced modifier accidentally modifies the wrong part of a sentence
Ex: Mike signed a letter of intent with Indiana University to play football in the living room.
(He must have quite the living room!)
Ex: Incorrect - The pool offers large beach towels to students marked with chlorine-resistant ID numbers.
Correct - The pool offers large beach towels with chlorine-resistant ID numbers to students.
Ex: Incorrect - They filled the burlap bags, grim and silent, with sand.
Correct - Grim and silent, they filled the burlap bags with sand.
Ex: Mike signed a letter of intent with Indiana University to play football in the living room.
(He must have quite the living room!)
Ex: Incorrect - The pool offers large beach towels to students marked with chlorine-resistant ID numbers.
Correct - The pool offers large beach towels with chlorine-resistant ID numbers to students.
Ex: Incorrect - They filled the burlap bags, grim and silent, with sand.
Correct - Grim and silent, they filled the burlap bags with sand.
Dangling Modifiers
A dangling modifier modifies a word not clearly stated in the sentence.
Ex: Positioning himself to make the winning goal in the soccer game, Jake's father yelled from the sideline.
(Is Jake's father about to score the winning goal?)
Ex: Incorrect - After eating the pasta, the plate was empty.
Correct - The plate was empty after I ate the pasta.
Ex: Incorrect - Waiting for the fireworks to begin, the mosquitos became bothersome.
Correct - While we waited for the fireworks to begin, the mosquitos became bothersome.
Ex: Positioning himself to make the winning goal in the soccer game, Jake's father yelled from the sideline.
(Is Jake's father about to score the winning goal?)
Ex: Incorrect - After eating the pasta, the plate was empty.
Correct - The plate was empty after I ate the pasta.
Ex: Incorrect - Waiting for the fireworks to begin, the mosquitos became bothersome.
Correct - While we waited for the fireworks to begin, the mosquitos became bothersome.