DANGLING MISPLACED MODIFIERS English Lesson

hey everyone welcome to another English grammar lesson today we're gonna be covering dangling and misplaced modifiers so the word modify means to change to change the meaning of something change of time change of place change of situation so modifier in sentence is any word or phrase that modifies or changes another word or phrase in that sentence let me show you the man's broken computer was fixed versus the broken man's computer was fixed now the modifier in question here is the word broken but notice how depending on where this word is placed the sentence could have an entirely different meaning the man's broken computer was fixed in this sentence we're saying that the computer is the thing that's broken the broken computer however in the second sentence broken doesn't actually modify computer it modifies man the broken man's computer was fixed so in this sentence you are technically saying that the man himself is broken which is interesting so you see that it's very important to put your modifiers in the correct place and that's what we call misplaced modifier when the modifier is in the wrong place the second common type of modifier error is what we call dangling modifier which would look something like this hungry the sandwich was eaten by me versus hungry ate the sandwich now the modifier here is hungry and it should modify the word or phrase right next to it so if that's true if the modifier is technically supposed to be modifying the thing right next to it then what would this first sentence really be saying well believe it or not you would actually be saying that the sandwich was hungry which is obviously lot different from the second sentence where you'd be saying that was hungry right so some of you might be thinking okay well yeah kind of get that but how am supposed to remember the difference between dangling modifier and misplaced modifier and the honest answer is it doesn't really matter as long as you can tell when there's modifier error and you know how to fix it then you don't really need to worry about what specific kind of modifier error it was let's take look at some examples and see if you can fix them on paper plates we ate the hotdogs so technically this would be dangling modifier but that's not the point the point is there's something wrong with this sentence so first of all can you even tell me what the modifier is in this sentence to even know what it is give you some point if you said on paper plates now remember what said earlier modifiers are supposed to talk about the thing right next to them and here that would be the word we so really what this sentence is saying is that we were on paper plates like we were sitting on paper plates and eating our hotdogs probably not what you're trying to say right so the question is how do we fix it how do we rearrange the sentence so the modifier error goes away well I'll give you second to think about it the correct version of this sentence would be we ate the hotdogs on paper plates now the modifier on paper plates is actually modifying the hotdogs which is what we want next one saw dollar walking home so technically this would be misplaced modifier but don't really care what really want to know is first of all what even is the modifier in the sentence the answer is walking home okay so what is that phrase modify well like said earlier it's supposed to modify the thing right next to it and in this sentence that would be dollar so yes yes indeed you would be saying that there was dollar walking home like on its little dollar legs or something and imagine that would be problem so how do we fix it where do we put that modifier so the sentence actually makes sense think about it for second should have said right here walking home saw dollar now the modifier refers to the word meaning that was the one walking home which actually makes sense couple more because he was late the teacher gave John detention okay so another dangling modifier here technically but my first question as always is what is the modifier what am even looking at here and the answer is because he was late and what does that phrase modify well again it's supposed to modify the thing right next to it so teacher okay so because the teacher was late he gave John and attention so the teacher showed up late and then gave student named John and attention okay so how do change this sentence that actually makes sense think about it and the answer is no matter what you do you just need to make sure that the modifier is connected to John not the teacher so what would do personally is just take out the word teacher entirely because if the teacher is male we might actually have two people who the word he could refer to and that could get very confusing so for me personally would say something like this because he was late John received detention or John was given detention or John got detention whatever the point is the phrase because he was late needs to be modifying John so it needs to be right next to John okay last one grabbed the sled with my snow pants on okay so this would be misplaced modifier technically but as always what even is the modifier here answer is with my snow pants on now tell me written as it is what is this sentence actually saying well technically it's saying that you grab the sled and that the sled had your snow pants on like the sled was wearing your snow pants okay so how do fix this what do do so that things actually make sense answer is do this with my snow pants on grab the sled this way your modifier is actually talking about the word meaning that was the one with the snow pants on cool well whether you came here for refresher or just now learning this stuff for the first time hope this video helped be sure to check out the free practice down in the description and we'll see you next time Thanks