punctuation

What Are Dangling Modifiers? (And How to Fix Them)

Are you confused about what modifiers (specifically dangling modifiers) are? This article will clear things up for you.

Dangling modifiers are modifiers that do not do their job, like that one guy who only has one job assigned to him, but he never does it correctly (don’t you just hate that guy?).

Dangling modifiers are kind of like that.

These types of errors occur when the word that is supposed to be modified is not present in the sentence, leaving the modifier to not have anything to modify.

Example: Tired from the workout, it felt good to just relax in front of the T.V.

This sentence may sound okay and grammatically correct, but let me tell you something, it is not. It’s actually a dangling modifier. I know, crazy right?

The reason why is because it doesn’t state who was tired from the workout, which is the word that’s supposed to be modified.

To fix this, add a word, phrase, or clause for the modifier to modify (man, that was borderline a tongue twister).

Fixed example: Tired from the workout, Jimmy felt good relaxing in front of the T.V.

Dangling modifiers are a pretty common mistake that people make not just when writing, but also when they speak.

And it may seem confusing right now, but if you read more (like, books and articles, and that kind of stuff), noticing these errors will be as easy as scooping soft serve ice cream.

So read. Anything you want. And do it often.

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