Dangling Modifiers

[Some of the examples and explanations in this file have been taken from William Safire's column ON LANGUAGE which appeared in the November 6th edition of The New York Times Magazine.]

A modifier is a word or phrase that qualifies, limits, or describes other words. Here's a sentence with a modifier:

This is a nice house.

The word NICE modifies the word HOUSE. When the modifying word modifies a noun or a pronoun, it is called an adjective.

There goes a powerful motorcycle.

An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.

Jerry jumps higher than anyone else.

Modifiers serve the same purpose as the adjective oradverb, even when they are phrases or clauses.

That Chevrolet, with the silver tail fins, is still in good shape.

Placement of the modifier in the sentence is critical. The writer should always make clear to the reader what the modifier refers to.

Here's an exaple from an ad for a product called Attends:

Attends patented Perma-Dry fibers pull in wetness faster than other leading retail brands to help protect you.

This should have been written this way:

To help protect you, Attends patented Perma-Dry fibers pull in wetness faster than other leading retail brands.

Placing the modifying phrase at the beginning, leaves no doubt about the meaning. When it's at the end, like this, it's said to be "dangling."

Sometimes the modifier is misplaced and confusion results. In the following example, such confusion is comical.

I once bought a piano from a woman with mahogany legs.

The correct form for this sentence is:

I once bought a piano with mahogany legs from a woman.

or two sentences, like this:

I once bought a piano from a woman. The piano had mahogany legs.

In some cases, the modifier's reference is left dangling, rather than being misplaced. The reference is unclear rather than misplaced.

Running through the woods, a root tripped him.

This sentence should be reworded so that the particple can modify the right word.

Running through the woods, he tripped over a root.