- [Voiceover] Hello grammarians, hello Rosie.
- [Voiceover] Hi Paige.
- [Voiceover] So in this video we're gonna talk about
something called a dangling modifier.
So, before we get in to what a dangling modifier is,
we can sort of talk about just what a modifier is.
Rosie, do want to tell us what the definition
of a modifier is?
- [Voiceover] Sure, so, well one major modifier that
you think of is an adjective.
So a lot of times a modifier is describing
something else in the sentence.
- [Voiceover] Right, okay.
So it can be an adjective or
like a, - [Voiceover] An adverb
- [Voiceover] A phrase, yeah an adverb too.
So a modifier is always supposed to come right before
the word or phrase that it's modifying.
But when it doesn't do that,
that's what's called a dangling modifier.
- [Voiceover] So this can look something like,
Flashing lightning and thunder,
the little bunny struggled through the storm.
- [Voiceover] So this sentence has a dangling modifier,
and the modifier in question is,
flashing lightning and thunder.
So the phrase that this comes right before is,
the little bunny.
And flashing lightning and thunder is not describing
the little bunny, right.
I don't think I've ever seen a bunny
with like, lightning coming out of it or anything.
- [Voiceover] Rosie what is this modifier actually
supposed to be modifying?
- [Voiceover] So, the modifier is actually supposed
to be modifying the storm.
Because we've got lightning and thunder, flashing,
all of those things describe the storm.
- [Voiceover] Right, okay, so,
we're really not supposed to have a dangling modifier
like this so we need to fix this sentence.
- [Voiceover] Flashing lightning and thunder, the storm
raged as the bunny struggled.
- [Voiceover] So this is all better,
the modifier, flashing lightning and thunder,
comes right before the storm, now.
- [Voiceover] Right.
- [Voiceover] So, this makes more sense.
We got rid of the dangling modifier,
it's not you know, hanging out,
looking like it's modifying the wrong noun.
- [Voiceover] So if you're doing editing,
or you're looking at a sentence,
when you take a look at a sentence,
see if you can spot what it is that
that modifier is supposed to be describing.
And then just make sure that that noun or phrase
comes right after the modifier.
[Voiceover] Right, like in this example we had to
pretty much completely rewrite this sentence.
It still gets across the same idea,
but we had to put the nouns in a different order
so the modifier wasn't dangling any more.
- [Voiceover] Running around on his little hamster wheel,
Albert watched his pet exercise.
(laughing)
- [Voiceover] This whole part,
running around on his little hamster wheel,
is the modifier in the sentence,
but what comes right after it, is Albert,
which I don't think he's the one running around
on a little hamster wheel.
- [Voiceover] Right so,
this is something you want to look out for,
and maybe rewrite your sentence so that doesn't happen.
- [Voiceover] Right and we have a clue that
Albert is not the name of the hamster or the pet,
because it says Albert watched his pet exercise.
So we have a good clue that Albert is probably a human,
and he's probably not running on a hamster wheel.
(laughing) - [Voiceover] Right?
- [Voiceover] So he shouldn't be coming right after that,
that modifier.
- [Voiceover] Yeah, exactly.
- [Voiceover] Running around on his little hamster wheel,
the critter exercised while Albert watched.
- [Voiceover] Right, so this is how we made our change.
We still have running around on his little hamster wheel
at the beginning,
but then we sort of, switched around the order of
Albert and his pet.
So now we have the critter following the modifier
that it's supposed to be modified by.
- [Voiceover] Right.
- [Voiceover] Yeah so like, that is dangling modifiers,
and how you get rid of them.
They're words or phrases that describe
another word or phrase,
and when they're dangling they're like in the wrong place,
they're in front of the wrong noun.
- [Voiceover] So, when you have a modifier
at the beginning of your sentence,
and it's set off with a comma, like all of these are,
that's when you have to pay attention,
and make sure that the noun or phrase
coming right after the modifier is
matched up with the modifier,
so that it's describing the right thing.
- [Voiceover] Right. You can get some crazy
meanings out of your sentences otherwise.
Like the bunny, with lightning.
So that's dangling modifiers.
You can learn anything.
Paige out.
- [Voiceover] Rosie out.