Avoiding Misplaced and
Dangling Modifiers
What is a misplaced modifier?
 A word, phrase, or clause that is
improperly separated from the word it
modifies/describes
 Sentences often sound awkward,
ridiculous, or confusing
On her way home, Jan found a gold
man’s watch.
 Is it a gold man’s watch?
 Or is it a man’s
gold watch?
How do we correct this?
 Correct by moving the modifier to a
more sensible place in the sentence.
 Usually next to the word it modifies.
On her way home, Jan found a man’s
gold watch
Correctly place modifier
Now it is the watch that is
gold.
Several kinds of misplaced
modifiers
 Misplaced adjectives
 Placement of adverbs
 Misplaced phrases
 Misplaced clauses
Misplaced Adjectives
 Adjective is incorrectly separated
from the nouns
 The child ate a cold dish of cereal for
breakfast this morning.
Misplaced adjective
(modifies dish)
 The child at a dish of cold cereal for
breakfast this morning.
Correctly placed adjective
(modifies cereal)
Let’s try one
 The torn student’s book lay on the
desk.
Misplaced adjective (modifies student)
 The student’s torn book lay on the
desk.
Correctly placed adjective (modifies book)
Placement of Adverbs
 If they are misplaced – can change
meaning.
 Just John was picked to host the
program.
 John was just picked to host the
program.
 John was picked to host just the
program.
Placement of Adverbs
 If they are misplaced – can change
meaning.
 Just John was picked to host the
program. (Only John was picked, no
one else)
 John was just picked to host the
program. (John was picked now)
 John was picked to host just the
program. (John hosted only the
program, nothing else.)
Misplaced Adverbs
 Misplacing an adverb
 alters the intended meaning
 also creates a sentence whose meaning
is highly unlikely or completely ridiculous
 We ate the lunch that we had brought slowly.
 We slowly ate the lunch that we had brought.
 Did we bring the lunch slowly or did we eat the
lunch slowly?
Often misplaced adverbs
 Watch out for adverbs such as only,
just, nearly, merely, and almost.
 I only contributed $10.00 to the fund
for orphaned children.
 I contributed only $10.00 to the fund
for orphaned children.
Let’s give it a try
 I nearly made $50.00 this week.
 When we opened the leather woman's
purse, we found the missing keys.
 The job scarcely took an hour to
complete.
 I only have five minutes to talk with
you.
 The striking Honda's paint job made
everyone gasp.
Misplaced Phrases
 May cause a sentence to sound
awkward
 May create a meaning that does not
make sense.
 The dealer sold the Cadillac to the
buyer with leather seats.
 The dealer sold the Cadillac with
leather seats to the buyer.
Misplaced Phrases
 The dealer sold the Cadillac to the
buyer with leather seats.
Does the buyer have leather seats?
 The dealer sold the Cadillac with
leather seats to the buyer.
Oh, the Cadillac has leather seats!
Misplaced Phrases
 The three bankers talked quietly in
the corner smoking pipes
 The three bankers smoking pipes
talked quietly in the corner
Who was smoking the pipes, the corner or the bankers?
Misplaced Phrases
 They saw a fence behind the house
made of barbed wire.
 They saw a fence made of barbed
wire behind the house.
I’ve never seen a house made out of barbed wire!
Can you do this?
 We hiked through the forest wearing
only light shirts and shorts.
 The salesman sold the picture to the
short woman in the silver frame.
 Michelle whistled to the dog on the
way to the movies.
Misplaced clauses
 May cause a sentence to sound awkward
 May create a meaning that does not make sense.
 The waiter served a dinner roll to the
woman that was well buttered.
 The waiter served a dinner roll that was
well buttered to the woman.
To fix this move the clause next to the noun
that is supposed to be modified.
Misplaced clauses
 Be careful! In correcting a misplaced
modifier, don’t create a sentence with
two possible meanings.
 The teacher said on Monday she
would return our essays.
Will the essays be returned on Monday or that the teacher spoke on
Monday?
Dangling Modifiers
 A phrase or clause that is not clearly and
logically related to the word or words it
modifies
 A dangling modifier cannot be corrected by
simply moving it to a different place in a
sentence.
 In most cases, the dangling modifier
appears at the beginning of the sentence.
Dangling Modifiers
Dangling modifier
 Looking toward the west, a funnel shaped
cloud stirred up dust.
 Who is looking toward the west? Since the
modifier is close to the funnel shaped
cloud, you would assume the cloud is
doing the looking.
Dangling Modifier
 What is this sentence saying?
Dangling modifier
 When nine years old, my mother
enrolled in medical school.
 This means that the mother was nine years
old when she enrolled.
 Walking to the movies, the cloudburst
drenched Jim. (Is the cloudburst walking to the
movies?)
Dangling modifier
How to correct a dangling modifier
1. Leave the modifier as it is.
2. Change the main part of the sentence so
that it begins with the term actually
modified.
3. This change will put the modifier next to
the term it modifies.
Looking toward the west, a funnel shaped cloud
stirred up dust.
Would be fixed to:
Looking toward the west, I saw a funnel shaped
cloud stir up dust.
Let’s fix this
 Walking to the movies, the cloudburst
drenched Jim.
 Walking to the movies, Jim was
drenched by the cloudburst.
Let’s fix this
 When nine years old, my mother enrolled
in medical school.
1. Change the dangling modifier to a
subordinate clause, creating a subject and
verb.
2. Leave the rest of the sentence as is.
 When I was nine years old, my mother
enrolled in medical school.
Activity
 Choose a strip with a dangling
modifier
 Create a picture that reflects the
dangling modifier.
 Write the dangling modifier at the top
of the page, and the corrected
sentence at the bottom.
 Write your name, and class on the
back.
Rubric
 Colorful/Neat/No Pencil
10 points
 Illustration represents
dangling/misplaced modifier 15 points
 Corrected sentence
15 points
 Punctuation/Spelling
10 points
Thanks to:
http://www.towson.edu/ows/moduledangling.htm