Quiz 36 · Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers

First, the idea

A modifier is a word or a group of words that describes another word in the sentence. In warm rolls, the word warm is a modifier: it describes the rolls. In the box that had the wrong label, the words that had the wrong label are a modifier too: they describe the box.

Every modifier belongs to one word, the word it describes, and a reader has to be able to tell which word that is.

Readers do not wait to be told. They give the modifier to the nearest word it could fit. Put that had the wrong label next to the box, and the reader gives it to the box. Put it next to the customer, and the reader gives it to the customer, whether the writer meant that or not. That reading habit is the whole subject of this quiz. A modifier placed where the reader will give it to the wrong word is a misplaced modifier. A modifier whose word is not in the sentence at all is a dangling modifier.

The hand in the photograph above was carved in Egypt more than 3,300 years ago, for a small statue. The statue is gone. The hand is all that is left of it, broken off at the wrist, the fingers still closed. It belonged to a body, and the body is not there.

A modifier is a hand, and the word it describes is the body the hand belongs to. A hand set on the wrong body is a misplaced modifier: the body it belongs to is in the sentence, but the hand is attached to someone else. A hand with no body is a dangling modifier: the body it belongs to never made it into the sentence, so the hand hangs there, and the reader attaches it to whatever stands nearest.

Here is a hand on the wrong body. Read it aloud once.

Marisol gave the cake to the customer with the chocolate frosting.

The words with the chocolate frosting are a modifier. They sit next to the customer, so the reader gives them to the customer, and now the customer has chocolate frosting on her. The words belong to the cake, and the cake is in the sentence, a few words back. Nothing else in the sentence helps the reader here: the cake and the customer are each one thing, and with fits either one. Only the position decides, and the position points to the wrong word. The body is there; the hand is just not on it.

The repair for a misplaced modifier is to move the hand to its body. One change: the modifier moves next to the cake.

Marisol gave the cake with the chocolate frosting to the customer.

Read that aloud too. Nothing stumbles now, because the description arrives beside the thing it describes.

Sometimes the grammar of a sentence shows which word a modifier belongs to, even when the modifier is in the wrong place. Read this one.

Daniela wrapped the loaves for the customer that were still warm.

The modifier that were still warm sits next to the customer. But look at its verb, were. Were goes with more than one. The customer is one person, and the loaves are more than one, so the verb tells the reader that the modifier belongs to the loaves. (Quiz 37 is about matching a verb to one or more than one.) When a clue like this is there, use it. The sentence would still read more smoothly with the modifier beside the loaves, and the test may ask you to move it there. But a modifier causes real confusion when nothing in the sentence shows where it belongs, as in the cake sentence. Then position decides, and the reader follows the position.

Here is a hand with no body. Read it aloud.

After mixing the dough, the bowl was covered with a cloth.

The opening words, After mixing the dough, describe an action. Ask who did it. The sentence offers one candidate, the first thing after the comma: the bowl. A bowl does not mix dough. The person who mixed it is not in the sentence anywhere. The hand hangs, and the reader gives it to the bowl.

There are two repairs for a dangling modifier, and each is one change. The first puts the doer right after the comma, where the reader will look for it.

After mixing the dough, Marisol covered the bowl with a cloth.

Who mixed the dough? Marisol. What comes right after the comma? Marisol. The hand has its body.

The second repair gives the opening words a subject of their own. That turns them into a clause, a group of words with its own subject and verb, instead of a phrase, a group of words without both. Then nothing is left hanging.

After Marisol mixed the dough, the bowl was covered with a cloth.

One change: mixing became Marisol mixed. The opener now says who did it inside itself, and it no longer needs the next words to supply a body.

So the first check is for sentences that open with a phrase, and it is a question: who did it? A sentence can open with an -ing phrase: Walking in. It can open with a to-verb phrase: To apply. It can open with a word like after, before, or while and an -ing form: After mixing. And it can open with a past form like Wrapped or Left: Left on the counter. Whenever a sentence opens in any of these ways, stop at the comma. Ask who did it, or whose state it is. Then read the very next words, which are the subject of the sentence. If the subject is the doer, the check passes. If it is not, the modifier dangles.

Three sentences show what the check does.

After mixing the dough, Marisol covered the bowl.

Who mixed? Marisol. Next words: Marisol. The check passes.

After mixing the dough, the bowl was covered.

Who mixed? Not the bowl. The check catches it.

After the dough was mixed, the bowl was covered.

Nothing dangles here. The dough was mixed is a clause with its own subject, so there is no hand looking for a body, and the check passes the sentence. But look at what it says. Nobody is in it. Nobody mixed, and nobody covered. On a sheet that tells a new baker what to do, the person is the point, and the test knows that. It wants the version that keeps the doer in the sentence. Legal is not best.

The best version on an instruction sheet is usually a command.

After mixing the dough, cover the bowl.

A command's subject is you, understood, as Quiz 31 said. Who mixed the dough? You. Who covers the bowl? You. The opening phrase attaches to you, and the sentence is short and complete. This is why instruction sheets are full of opening phrases that work. They break the moment the writer stops telling you what to do and starts describing what the bowl has done.

The second check is for modifiers anywhere in the sentence, and it is also a question: next to what? Find the modifier. Look at the word it sits beside. Ask whether that is the word it describes. If it is, leave it. If it is not, move the modifier next to its word.

Three sentences again.

Marisol gave the customer the cake with the chocolate frosting.

Next to what? The cake. A cake can have frosting. The check passes.

Marisol gave the cake to the customer with the chocolate frosting.

Next to what? The customer. The check catches it.

Marisol almost sold every loaf by noon.

Read that one aloud, and nothing stumbles. The whole city says it, and everyone knows what it means: by noon, a few loaves were left. Reading aloud will not catch it. The check by eye does. Almost sits next to sold, so, read strictly, the sentence says that the selling nearly happened and did not. The word that carries the meaning she wants is every, and almost belongs beside it.

Marisol sold almost every loaf by noon.

Both versions are grammatical. The test wants the one where almost sits directly before the word it limits. The same goes for only, nearly, and just: small words that limit whatever they stand next to. Legal is not best.

In speech, none of this matters much. Coming off the bridge, the skyline is right there gets said in every car coming into the city. No one pictures a skyline coming off a bridge, because the speaker is right there to be the body. On paper the speaker is gone, and a stranger reads what the sentence says. The test marks it, and so does anyone reading a notice with a stranger's eye. Quizzes 42 and 57 are where moving between the two, the spoken sentence and the written one, becomes a named strength.

On the test, these arrive as dropdowns inside workplace documents: instructions, memos, notices, the places where a writer tells people what to do. Watch for the moment a document stops telling you and starts describing the trays. That is where the hands come loose.

Worked example — thinking out loud

A note taped to the walk-in, the bakery's big cold room. Here is its first line, whole.

Left on the counter overnight, the morning crew should throw the rolls out.

Read it aloud once. It opens with a phrase built on a past form, Left, and the phrase describes a state: something was left on the counter overnight. That calls for the first check. Whose state is it? The first words after the comma are the morning crew. The morning crew was not left on the counter overnight. The rolls were. The rolls are in the sentence, at the very end, but the reader handed the phrase to the crew before getting there.

The tempting repair is to make sure the rolls are in the sentence and leave the rest alone.

Left on the counter overnight, the morning crew should throw out the rolls.

The body is named now. Run the check anyway. Whose state? Still the first thing after the comma, still the crew. Taking the comma out moves nothing either.

Left on the counter overnight the morning crew should throw the rolls out.

The hand is still on the crew.

Why it fails, in one sentence: an opening phrase attaches to the first body after the comma, and naming the right body later in the sentence does not undo that.

The right path puts the rolls where the phrase can reach them, right after the comma.

Left on the counter overnight, the rolls should be thrown out.

Whose state? The rolls. Next words: the rolls. The check passes.

It holds because the body stands where the reader looks for it. But this is a note to the morning crew, and the crew has now disappeared from it. A version that keeps them is the command.

Throw out any rolls left on the counter overnight.

Run the second check on that one. Next to what? Left on the counter overnight sits beside rolls, the thing it describes, and the doer is you, the crew reading the note. Two legal repairs; the one that keeps the crew in the sentence is best.

The note's second line needs the second check on its own.

There is a box of butter in the walk-in that belongs to the café next door.

Next to what? That belongs to the café next door sits beside the walk-in. The walk-in belongs to the bakery. The words belong to butter, four words back. The tempting repair is a comma, in the walk-in, that belongs to the café next door, and a comma moves nothing; the hand is still beside the walk-in. Move the location to the front instead, so the description sits beside the butter.

In the walk-in there is a box of butter that belongs to the café next door.

Next to what? The butter. The check passes, and the note says what it meant.

☞ Behind you: Quiz 31 (clauses and phrases, and the command's subject, you, understood), Quiz 32 (fragments: an opening phrase left with no sentence to attach to at all), Quiz 35 (parallel structure: the other way a sentence's parts fall out of line), and Quiz 43 (the comma after an opener, Job 2; this quiz is about what comes after that comma). Ahead: Quiz 37 (subject–verb agreement, which begins with finding the subject, the same first words after the comma that you practiced here) and Quiz 42 (wordiness, where the doer who vanished from the bowl was covered comes back).

Part B · The skill in the wild

The posting from Quiz 35 worked: Okafor's has a new night baker. Marisol wrote this sheet for the first week on nights. Five decision points. At each dropdown, choose the version where every modifier is attached to the word it belongs to. Decision point 3 offers three grammatical versions; choose the one that puts only directly before the word it limits.

OKAFOR'S BAKERY — Nights: Your First Week

From Marisol

Welcome. I worked this shift for three years, and most of what is on this sheet I learned the hard way. Read it once before your first night, and keep it by the bench.

1 [a. After lighting the ovens at ten, the first doughs should be mixed by eleven. / b. After lighting the ovens at ten, mix the first doughs by eleven. / c. After lighting the ovens at ten, by eleven the first doughs should be mixed.] The rye goes in first, because it takes the longest.

2 [a. Leave the rye loaves still cooling on the rack for the morning crew. / b. Leave the rye loaves for the morning crew still cooling on the rack. / c. Still cooling on the rack, leave the rye loaves for the morning crew.] They slice better after an hour.

The proofer, the warm cabinet where shaped dough rises, is the slow spot on this shift. 3 [a. Only the proofer holds twelve trays, so start a second round at two. / b. The proofer only holds twelve trays, so start a second round at two. / c. The proofer holds only twelve trays, so start a second round at two.]

The sourdough starter is the jar of live dough on the second shelf; every sourdough loaf begins with a spoonful of it. 4 [a. To keep the sourdough on schedule, the starter must be fed at midnight. / b. To keep the sourdough on schedule, feed the starter at midnight. / c. To keep the sourdough on schedule, the starter feeds at midnight.]

5 [a. Hanging on the hook by the back door, the key to the flour room is easy to find. / b. Hanging on the hook by the back door, you will find the key to the flour room. / c. Hanging on the hook by the back door, the flour room has a key you will need.] Lock the flour room when you leave.

If something goes wrong, call me. I would rather be woken up than find out at six.

Marisol

The key — and why the tempting answers tempt

Part A

1. B. Who waited for the bread to cool? Not the counter. Nobody in the sentence did, so the opening phrase hangs. A tempts because it begins with the same words; but Daniela stands right after the comma, and she can wait. C has no opener at all: while the bread cooled is a clause with its own subject, so nothing is looking for a body. D puts the phrase between commas, which Quiz 43 taught to read as extra information; extra or not, it sits beside Daniela, its body.

2. A. Who walked into the shop? You. Next words after the comma: you. The hand has its body. B is the version the whole city says. You is in the sentence now, but the first thing after the comma is the first thing, and it did not walk in. C moves the phrase, but next to the smell: the smell is walking now. D takes out the comma. A comma moves nothing, in or out.

3. D. Only sits directly before on Fridays, the words it limits: rye on no other day. All four are grammatical; this is the one that says what the sign means. Legal is not best. B is the sign as written, and it tempts most because it is what everyone would say aloud; read strictly, it limits bake. A limits we: nobody else bakes rye on Fridays. C limits rye: nothing but rye on Fridays. Each is a true sentence about a different bakery.

4. C. The words now sit beside the receipt, their body. A adds a comma and moves nothing: the words are still beside the driver. D is the near-miss with a twist: changing that to who makes the words fit the driver so smoothly that nothing stumbles, and the sentence now says the driver had the wrong total. B moves the words to the front, where they attach to Daniela: a hand on the wrong body, and the wrong body is the one who did the handing.

5. D. A sales book is what gets updated every night. The words describe the book, five words back. C is the nearest word, which is exactly why the sentence reads wrong: an office is not updated every night. A is the doer, and the words are about what he updates, not about him. B is an echo: night is inside the modifier itself, so it cannot be the thing the modifier describes.

6. A. A command: the subject is you, understood, and you are the one who opens the register and counts the float. Both checks pass, and the person stays in the sentence. C also fixes the dangling modifier, by giving the opener its own subject, and it tempts because it is fully correct. But nobody is in it, and the stem asked for the version that keeps the person. Legal is not best. D names the doer at the very end; the phrase attached to the float long before whoever opens arrived. B takes out the comma, which changes nothing.

Part B — the first-week sheet

1. b. Who lit the ovens? You, the new baker. Mix the first doughs is a command, and its subject is you. Option a is the slip the lesson warned about: the writer stopped telling you and started describing the doughs, and the doughs did not light the ovens. Option c moves by eleven forward, which changes nothing; the first body after the comma is still the doughs.

2. a. Still cooling on the rack sits beside the rye loaves, the things that are cooling. Option b puts the phrase beside the morning crew, who are not cooling on any rack. Option c opens with the phrase, and in a command the subject is you, so you are the one cooling on the rack.

3. c. Only sits directly before twelve trays, the limit the sentence is about. All three are grammatical; this one says what Marisol means. Legal is not best. Option b is what she would say aloud, and read strictly it limits holds. Option a limits the proofer: nothing else in the shop holds twelve trays, which is a different fact and not the one the sheet needs.

4. b. Who keeps the sourdough on schedule? You do, by feeding the starter. A command puts you right where the opening phrase can reach you. Option a hands the phrase to the starter, which does not keep any schedule. Option c gives the starter the verb as well, so the sentence is grammatical and says that the starter feeds itself; a hand given a body that cannot do the job.