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The Modifier…. What is a modifier?. A word or group of words that describes, limits, or qualifies the meaning of another word or phrase. Modifiers can be a word, a phrase, or a clause. For example: The silver fish (word) The fish in the pond (phrase) The fish that he caught (clause )
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What is a modifier? • A word or group of words that describes, limits, or qualifies the meaning of another word or phrase. • Modifiers can be a word, a phrase, or a clause. • For example: • The silver fish (word) • The fish in the pond (phrase) • The fish that he caught (clause) • A sentence example: • The little boy standing by the concession stand reminds me of my brother. What are the modifiers? • little • standing by the concession stand
Mistakes made with modifiers… • Dangling • Misplaced • Squinting
Dangling • Describes something that isn’t even in your sentence. • For example: Falling asleep, the car steered into the bushes. Was the car falling asleep? NO So, let’s correct the sentence… • Corrected sentence: Falling asleep, Jeff steered the car into the bushes. Falling asleep (modifier) should describe a driver NOT the car.
Misplaced • Words or phrases placed in the wrong part of the sentence. • For example: The woman was feeding the cat in blue heels. Wait a second…the cat was wearing blue heels? • Now let’s correct the sentence… The woman in blue heels was feeding the cat. (modifier) TIP:Try to keep modifier close to the word it’s modifying.
Squinting • Placed between two things that it could reasonably modify, meaning the reader has no idea which one to choose. • For example: Children who laugh rarely are shy. This sentence can have two different meanings… 1. Children who rarely laugh are shy. OR 2. Children who laugh are rarely shy. CONFUSING, huh?
