Correcting Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers

Examples:

-Slithering through the wet grass, we watched the garden snake.-(Who is doing the slithering here?)

Misplaced Modifiers: A misplaced modifier appears to modify the wrong word in a sentence.

They often distort the meaning of the sentence or make it impossible for the reader to understand the meaning. To correct misplaced modifiers, move it closer to the word it modifies.

Misplaced ModifiersCorrect the misplaced modifiers.

6. A person who steals in nine cases out of ten is driven to do so by want.

7. These buckles are sold in any quantity designed exclusively by us.

8. Our teacher’s explanations are better which she gave us this morning.

9. Our journey was ended having found the right road.

10. She wore an expensive clip on her hair which her mother bought in Paris.

Dangling Modifiers: A dangling modifier appears to modify either the wrong word or no wordat all because the word it should logically modify is missing from the sentence. To correct a dangling modifier, add the missing word and rewrite the rest of the sentence as necessary.

-Pausing briefly to congratulate Barbara, the conversation continued.

Pausing briefly to congratulate Barbara, __ continued the conversation.

-Driving through the desert at night, the cactuses looked eerie.

-When he was three years old, Jerry’s uncle showed him how to fly a kite.

To get to town quickly, the highway is best.

While jogging one morning, the solution was suddenly obvious.

At the age of five, Paul’s uncle took him to the circus.

Dangling ModifiersEliminate the dangling modifiers in the following sentences.

Having read the story , the book was returned to the library.

After spending an hour writing the theme, it was submitted to the teacher.

Placed on a large dish, my father stood up to carve the roast turkey.

Walking down the street, a pretty cottage came into view.Unable to bear the pain, the dentist pulled my tooth.

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