Grammar Talk: Modify that Dangler.
Write Better Now
It’s a grammatical mistake that causes a lot of issues: dangling modifier.
I mean, seriously, just saying it sounds like a disease: dangling modifier. Ew, right?
Well, these bad boys are some of the biggest, snarkiest, easiest-to-mess up pieces of a sentence.
WHAT IS A MODIFIER?
It’s a noun or it’s an adjective. And it tweaks the meaning of the MAIN NOUN of your sentence.
Grammar-focused people get very upset when the bad boys don’t correctly modify the main noun. They write bad reviews about your book on Amazon. They think of you as lesser. Nobody wants that . . . usually.
So, a modifier that dangles is one that isn’t modifying the right thing.
A dangling participle is when there’s an -ing verb involved (usually).
There’s a lot of “usuallys” going on right here. That’s because there is always an outlyer because grammar-ing is hard.
TWO QUICK SENTENCES TO BEGIN TO EXPLAIN THINGS VIA EXAMPLE
I walked the dog. (no modifiers happening)
I walked the adorable dog to the restaurant. (two modifiers)
TWO QUICK SENTENCES TO SHOW YOU THINGS WRONGLY DONE.
Let’s do this one first:
Skipping to the park, the sight of children playing made me pause.
So, right there? The sight of children playing is what skipped to the park.
What the what, right?
Instead, you want to write:
As I skipped to the park, the sight of children playing made me pause.
Or:
The children playing in the park made me stop skipping.
Here’s another one:
After singing show tunes, musicals became less annoying.
So, that makes musicals the main noun, but musicals can’t sing no matter how much they believe they can.
So, the correct option (or one) could be:
After singing show tunes, she decided musicals weren’t quite as annoying.
Or
Musicals weren’t as annoying once she sang some awesome show tunes.
Amaze-balls, right?
The Other Big Problem:
A lot of the time when we fix these, we put in filler verbs that are distancing:
She saw
I smelled
He noticed
We heard
I thought
They knew
There are other modifier issues like:
Distant modifiers
These are separated from their main man noun by a massive amount of words.
Here’s an example:
Ham-Ham began following Gerry the Gerbil’s Instagram when he started making reels with a certain fevered devotion.
Wait, what’s the fevered devotion about, right? Is it how Ham-Ham is following Gerry or is it about how Gerry makes his reels. If your reader’s brain hitches like that, your modifier might be too distant.
Misplaced modifiers
These confuse us. We aren’t sure what they are modifying, but these modifiers might not be lightyears away from the main noun.
Ham-Ham bashed the zombie gerbil Gerry with the hamster wheel.
Wait. Did Ham-Ham bash Gerry with the wheel or does Gerry have the wheel.
WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE MODIFIERS?
You put them right next to the main man noun that it’s modifying.
Modifiers should come, if possible next to the word they modify. If several expressions modify the same word, they should be so arranged that no wrong relation is suggested. — The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.
Whew, it’s a lot, right? You’ve got it though. I believe in you.