A modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that describes something else. For example: The boy has a strong arm. The adjective “strong” is a modifier because it describes the boy’s arm strength. Therefore, in this sentence, you could say “strong” modifies arm. Now if we took those same words and rearranged them, we could say this:

The strong boy has an arm.

“Strong” now modifies boy, and this changes the meaning of the sentence.Here are examples of modifiers. By themselves, they sound incomplete. Attach them to a clause, however, and they emphasize, explain, clarify or qualify a thought.

By playing the guitar
To eat tacos
The player felt embarrassed

Examples

I spend my free time by playing the guitar.
My friend Pete likes to eat tacos.
The player felt embarrassed after missing both free throws.

Here is an important note: modifiers should be placed next to the word, phrase or clause that they are intended to modify. This may seem obvious. However, as sentences become more complex and involve more words, writers often misplace or dangle modifiers. Take the following example:

Exhausted from playing video games all night, excitement overcame Mike when he received the call from the principal that school was cancelled.

Here, “excitement” is modified by the phrase “exhausted from playing video games all night.” However, “excitement” is not a person, and--therefore-- probably can’t be exhausted. It seems more logical to assume that Mike is exhausted. This means we need to change the word order (or syntax) so that the modifying phrase “exhausted from playing video games” is placed next to Mike.

We could write it like this:

Exhausted from playing video games all night, Mike became overcome with excitement when he received the call from the principal that school was cancelled.

Or we could write this

Mike, exhausted from playing video games all night, became overcome with excitement when he received the call from the principal that school was cancelled.

Now it is also important to be aware of limiting modifiers. These are words that, when positioned improperly, become misplaced modifiers. Some of these include just, nearly, hardly, only, merely and almost. For example, do you notice the difference between these sentences?

Only Mike likes to play Xbox.
Mike only likes to play Xbox.
Mike likes only to play Xbox.
Mike likes to only play Xbox.
Mike likes to play only Xbox.
Mikes likes to play Xbox only.

To be sure you are precise with your writing, place the limiting modifier you wish to use directly in front of the word you want to modify. So if you want to say only Mike likes to play xbox, then place only in front of Mike.

Only Mike likes to play xbox.

And if you want to say that Mike likes to play x box, and only x box, then place the only in front of likes.

Mike only likes to play xbox.

Now let’s look at an example of a dangling modifier:

When only thirteen years old, my mom bought me a new car.

Now think about this sentence. Do you notice anything strange? You have five seconds to think. Go. The odd thing about this sentence is that it says the mom--when she was thirteen years old--bought her son our daughter a car. Now that is a weird and unlikely scenario. It is most likely, the writer meant to say this:

When I was thirteen years old, my mom bought me a car.

Now this scenario seems more believable. To correct this sentence, we needed to add the noun “I” to be modified. A modifier is considered dangling when a statement is unclear about what is being modified. That was certainly the case with the sentence Let’s look at another dangling modifier:

To improve your golf game, practice is needed.

This sentence is sneaky because for many people it sounds correct. However, if you read closely, you see that the sentence has no subject. There is nothing to be modified. To correct this sentence, you could write:

To improve your golf game, you need practice.

This sentence is now grammatically correct and easier to follow.

Now speaking of practice, let’s practice correcting sentences with both misplaced and dangling modifiers. Rewrite the following sentences that include an error in modification. If the sentence is correct, then leave the sentence alone,

1. After a quick lunch, the taxi picked me up at the corner.
2. Destroyed in the accident, John knew he’d have to buy another car.
3. Mike fed the chickens wearing his rain boots.
4. Working all night, the essay was finished in time for class.
5. Still sound asleep at 11 am, my dad thought I had the flu.
6. The sick child was referred to the pediatrician with stomach pains.
7. Greg saw a stray dog on the way home from work.
8. I love eating waffles for breakfast on the weekends.
9. Packing for a trip, a spider crawled into the luggage.
10. While running to Math class, the bell rang.

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