Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers

Have you ever been left hanging?

Doesn’t feel very good, does it?

Maybe that guy you went on a date with never called, or your coworker was just about to fill you in on the latest gossip at work when in walked the boss, turning her mute. Or maybe, your favorite TV show left off on a cliffhanger, and you’re practically ripping your hair out in agony, because how is a girl supposed to sleep at night without knowing who the father of Rory’s baby is?

While dangling and misplaced modifiers don’t pack as severe a punch, they do leave us hanging in a different sense of the word.

A dangling modifier is a grammatical error that occurs when the modifying word in a sentence does not have a clear subject attached to it.

To “modify” means to describe, change, or enhance. A modifier can be a word or a phrase, and it can occur at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence.

Example:

“Laughing at the irony of it all, Lorelai wrapped her daughter in a tight hug.”

In this sentence, “laughing” is the word that describes Lorelai in the moment before she goes in for a Mama Bear squeeze. It is the modifier of the subject, Lorelai.

But what happens when we take out Lorelai, the target of the modifier?

“Laughing at the irony of it all, the screen cut to black.”

Is the screen laughing? While that might be a cool trick, it’s inaccurate. From the little information offered in this sentence, we have no knowledge of who is laughing.

That, my friends, is a dangling modifier.

While dangling modifiers are very common, they are a problem because they can confuse and disorient the reader. If I was to read that sentence again and try to picture the scene in my head, I wouldn’t be able to conjure up anything except a blank silhouette followed by an even blanker screen.

Pretty bleak, eh?

Modifiers are designed to add clarification, but if we don’t pair up our subjects with our modifiers, then modifiers are unable to do their job.

Let’s look at another example.

“Cringing at the thought of her one-night stand, the possibility of a Wookiee being her child’s father scared the **** out of her.”

This one gets a bit more complicated. In this sentence, the subject doing the cringing is referred to twice by the pronoun “her.” Yet, the way the sentence is constructed leads us to believe that “the possibility” is doing the cringing. Or, perhaps, the Wookiee.

Both are incorrect.

This, my friends, is a misplaced modifier.

Even though there is a correct subject in this sentence, it is hidden at the very end. When the placement of the modifier lies nowhere near its target, the result can mislead the reader into misreading the sentence.

While there is a subtle difference between dangling and misplaced modifiers, have you noticed the common factor in these last two examples?

Both sentences began with a modifier.

While this is not always the case, you will often see a modifying error when the first word of the sentence is a modifier ending in –ing.

TIP: The next time you read a sentence that starts with an –ing word, compare the modifier with the subject that follows immediately after the comma. If they don’t add up, then, chances are, you have a dangling or misplaced modifier on your hands!

So what do you do with a dangling or misplaced modifier?

The best way to fix this mistake is to restructure the sentence so that the modifier has a clear subject. The modifier should never be far away from its target, and if the appropriate subject does not already exist in the sentence, you may have to add a word or phrase to accommodate it.

Example: “Laughing at the irony of it all, Lorelai smiled as the screen cut to black.”

Example: “Cringing at the thought of her one-night stand, Rory was scared ****less by the possibility of a Wookiee being her child’s father.”

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Now, it’s your turn! Take a look at the examples below, and see how many you can fix. Each example will contain a dangling modifier, a misplaced modifier, or neither. Write down your guesses and compare them with the answers at the bottom of this post.

1. As Luke rounded the corner, a van steered by Taylor and piled high with reenactment supplies nearly crashed into him.
2. Crossing the name off the guest list, Michel rolled his eyes at their lack of punctuality.
3. Stifling her contractions in the Dragonfly kitchen, the babies were going to have to wait.
4. After waiting in line all day for tickets, the concert was bound to live up to Lane’s expectations.
5. Jess couldn’t bear to watch her raise the baby all on her own; he only could help her.
6. Dancing with Lorelai hadn’t been the plan, but who was Christopher to object?
7. Torn between the woman he loved and the woman he was about to marry, things couldn’t possibly get any worse.
8. Knowing it was now or never, it felt like the weight of the world rested on Emily’s shoulders.
9. When you leave, I will follow anywhere that you tell me to.
10. Watching her life pass her by without making a stand was not Paris’s forte.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answers:

1. Neither [no change]
2. Neither [no change]
3. Dangling modifier [Correction: Stifling her contractions in the Dragonfly kitchen, Sookie told the babies they were going to have to wait.]
4. Misplaced modifier [Correction: After waiting in line all day for tickets, Lane figured the concert was bound to live up to her expectations.]
5. Misplaced modifier [Correction: Jess couldn’t bear to watch her raise the baby all on her own; only he could help her.]
6. Neither [no change]
7. Dangling modifier [Correction: Torn between the woman he loved and the woman he was about to marry, Logan felt things couldn’t possibly get any worse.]
8. Misplaced modifier [Correction: Knowing it was now or never, Emily felt like the weight of the world rested on her shoulders.]
9. Neither [no change]
10. Neither [no change]

 

That’s all for this month. If you have any questions about dangling or misplaced modifiers, or you just want to vent about that Gilmore Girls ending, write me a comment below!

As always, thanks for reading!