I love dangling and misplaced modifier errors on the SAT. Why? Because, if uncorrected, they can result in some hilarious grammatical outcomes. Read on to see what I what mean.
Don’t let your modifiers dangle!
It sounds so precarious, doesn’t it? But what on earth is a modifier, and what does it look like when dangling?
Let’s consider this sentence:
Barking loudly and pawing at the door, I opened it.
The participial phrase “Barking loudly and pawing at the door” is our modifier. But look what comes after it! As it stands, this sentence implies that I, a human, am barking loudly and pawing at the door. Modifiers like this must clearly refer to specific nouns or pronouns! Here, the dog is absent from the sentence, so the modifier is dangling.
Here are a couple of ways to revise the previous sentence:
Barking loudly and pawing at the door, my dog begged to be let out.
Because my dog was barking loudly and pawing at the door, I let him out.
Notice how there’s no question of who was doing the barking and pawing!
Check out another example.
Because they love to eat aphids, gardeners are in luck.
What’s implied here? That gardeners love to eat aphids! Hilarious. Where are the ladybugs when we need them? Let’s fix the sentence.
Because they love to eat aphids, ladybugs make gardeners feel lucky.
Excellent! Now it’s clear who loves to eat aphids.
Don’t misplace your modifiers!
Like a dangling modifier, a misplaced modifier results in silly grammatical outcomes. Misplaced modifiers can occur anywhere in a sentence. Here are two examples:
Jane and I stumbled across a lovely boutique wandering in Paris yesterday.
Look carefully. This sentence implies that the lovely boutique is doing the wandering, rather than Jane and the speaker.
Let’s fix the error.
Wandering in Paris yesterday, Jane and I stumbled across a lovely boutique.
Let’s look at another example:
Susan wore her favorite dress during her interview, which, unfortunately, was stained with wine.
This sentence implies that Susan’s interview—and not her dress—was stained with wine.
Let’s fix the error.
During the interview, Susan wore her favorite dress, which was stained with wine.
Hopefully everything’s clear! Modifiers must refer to specific nouns or pronouns. Make sure sentences aren’t loaded with unintended grammatical consequences!
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