The Modifier…

What is a modifier? A word or group of words that describes, limits, or

qualifies the meaning of another word or phrase. Modifiers can be a word, a phrase, or a clause. For example:

The silver fish (word) The fish in the pond (phrase) The fish that he caught (clause)

A sentence example: The little boy standing by the concession stand reminds me

of my brother.What are the modifiers?

little standing by the concession stand

Mistakes made with modifiers…Dangling

Misplaced

Squinting

Dangling Describes something that isn’t even in your sentence.

For example:

Falling asleep, the car steered into the bushes.

Was the car falling asleep? NOSo, let’s correct the sentence…

Corrected sentence:

Falling asleep, Jeff steered the car into the bushes.

Falling asleep (modifier) should describe a driver NOT the car.

Misplaced Words or phrases placed in the wrong part of

the sentence. For example:

The woman was feeding the cat in blue heels. Wait a second…the cat was wearing blue heels?

Now let’s correct the sentence…

The woman in blue heels was feeding the cat. (modifier)

TIP: Try to keep modifier close to the word it’s modifying.

Squinting Placed between two things that it could

reasonably modify, meaning the reader has no idea which one to choose. For example:

Children who laugh rarely are shy.This sentence can have two different meanings…

1. Children who rarely laugh are shy. OR

2. Children who laugh are rarely shy.CONFUSING, huh?

Now on to your assignment…