1. Misplaced and
Dangling Modifiers

2. What is a misplaced modifier?
 Modifiers are words or word groups that describe other
words in a sentence. In the following sentence, the
words in bold modify woman.
The woman who is sitting by the door is my sister.
 A misplaced modifier, because it is not correctly
placed, describes the wrong word or words:
INCORRECT Marcy saw the neighbor’s dog drinking a
cocktail.
CORRECT Drinking a cocktail, Marcy saw the
neighbor’s dog.

3. Four types of modifiers are often misplaced. (See
your textbook for more specific details.)
 Modifiers such as only, almost, hardly, nearly, and
just.
 Modifiers that start with –ing verbs, like playing,
dancing, driving, singing.
 Modifiers that are prepositional phrases (phrases
that begin with prepositions like in, on, at,
around).
 Modifying word groups that start with who,
whose, that, or which.

4. What is a dangling modifier?
 A dangling modifier “dangles” because the
word or words it is supposed to describe are not
in the sentence.
INCORRECT Jogging in the park, a dog bit me.
[The dog wasn’t jogging in the park; the actual
jogger is missing from the sentence.]
CORRECT Jogging in the park, I got bitten by a
dog. OR While I was jogging in the park, a dog
bit me.

5. LET’S PRACTICE!
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