There are some grammar rules that society loves to poke fun of. The writers on Brooklyn 99 love a good grammar joke. (See Season 2, Episode 3 “Jimmy Jab Games” when Holt says, “You want to hear the funniest thing ever? I also split an infinitive and she didn’t notice”.) Poking fun of someone who knows the rules to a language we think we know so well is definitely satisfying. I think for the majority of folks, language is a mystery…until you learn the secrets!
Let’s just be clear: it’s not the end of the world to split an infinitive (To boldly go…). But what about dangling modifiers? Even as grammar rules seem to relax, dangling modifiers are still on the list of things to know and fix. Why is that? If you think about grammar rules, often they are put in place to add clarity. By fixing dangling modifiers, you are able to communicate with more clarity to your reader. So, just what are dangling modifiers, how to fix them, and why does it even matter? Read on, good reader.
Dangling modifiers
Let’s start at the beginning. What the heck are dangling modifiers? See if you can spot them in this list below:
- While out for a dog walk, the leash broke.
- Laughing loudly, the children noticed me.
- Wild and creative, the world of high school seemed small.
Fun Fact: dangling modifiers are all about what is missing.
That was a trick . . . all of these sentences have dangling modifiers.
- While out for a dog walk, the leash broke. The leash wasn’t on a walk. (Add a subject to add clarity: While I was out for a walk, the leash broke.)
- Laughing loudly, the children noticed me. The children weren’t the ones laughing loudly. (Add clarity: As I was laughing loudly, the children noticed me.)
- Wild and creative, the world of high school seems small. The world of high school (in this case) is not wild and creative. (Add clarity: Wild and creative, she thinks the world of high school seems small.)
What are dangling modifiers?
Modifiers modify. Modifiers give more information about something in a sentence. Modifiers are the fun parts that help us differentiate and add detail to our writing. For instance, a hotdog can be significantly modified by adding the word vegan.
So how do modifiers end up dangling?? Simple: the word or phrase or thing that is being modified is missing. For example, While out for a walk, the leash broke. In this case, the leash isn’t doing the walking, but who is?? The subject here is missing. Or, Laughing loudly, the children noticed me. It’s implied that there is a subject . . . but it’s not clear. Are the children laughing loudly, or are you laughing loudly?
Fun fact: There is a difference between dangling modifiers and misplaced modifiers.
Misplaced modifiers
So now that we know about dangling modifiers, what about misplaced modifiers (which are similar, yet different). Well, a misplaced modifier is when all of the words are there, but just in the wrong order.
- The community association president hopes to hire a teacher for young children with a university degree. (So…these kids have university degrees?! Fix this sentence by rearranging the modifier: The community association president hopes to hire a teacher with a university degree to work with the community’s young children.)
Fixing dangling modifiers
Fixing a dangler is pretty easy if you remember that it’s all about clarity.
- 1. Place the modifying word as close as possible to the one it modifies.
Fix 1: Laughing loudly, the children noticed me: The children noticed me as I laughed loudly.
- 2. Provide the missing subject.
Fix: While out for a walk, the leash broke: While I was out for a walk, the leash broke.
- 3. Make a dangling phrase into a subordinate clause.
Fix: Wild and creative, the world of high school seemed small: Because I am wild and creative, the world of high school seemed small.
If dangling modifiers caught your attention, and you love playing with words, be sure to Google “funny dangling modifiers” and look at some of the images that show up. You won’t be disappointed!
In the end, dangling modifiers help us remember that we need to add clarity to our writing so that we can bring our readers along with us. Correcting dangling modifiers are as easy as adding in a single word (like a subject), or might require an entire sentence re-write. Either way, hopefully now that you know what dangling modifiers are, you can work to avoid them (or work to revise them) in your own writing.
Happy writing!
Photo by Alexis Brown on Unsplash