Definition and Examples of a Dangling Modifier

A dangling modifier is a word or phrase (often a participle or participial phrase) that doesnt actually  modify  the word its intended to modify. In some cases, a dangling modifier refers to a word that doesnt even appear in the sentence. It is also called a dangling participle, hanging modifier, floater, floating modifier, or misrelated participle. Dangling modifiers are commonly (though not universally) regarded as grammatical errors. One way to correct a dangling modifier is to add a noun phrase that the modifier can logically describe. Another way to correct this grammatical error is to make the modifier part of a dependent clause. Fixing Dangling Modifiers Purdue OWL  says that to fix dangling modifiers, its helpful to first explore how a modifier should read in a grammatically correct sentence, giving this example: Having finished the assignment,  Jill  turned on the TV. This sentence is correctly composed because  Jill  is the subject, and the phrase having finished the assignment  describes Jill. By contrast, a sentence with a dangling modifier might read: Having finished the assignment,  the TV  was turned on. In this sentence, the phrase having finished the assignment is the dangling modifier. A TV  cannot  finish a homework assignment (at least not with the current state of technology), so the dangling modifier doesnt seem to modify anything in the sentence. You know from the previous sentence that the phrase is supposed to modify  Jill. Its Jill, after all, who finished the homework assignment. Purdue OWL offers another example of a dangling modifier: Having arrived late for practice,  a written excuse  was needed. Who arrived late? Purdue asks. Presumably, a  written excuse  cant arrive anywhere. To correct the dangling modifier, the writer needs to add something to the sentence, namely, the person who arrived late: Having arrived late for practice,  the team captain  needed a written excuse. In this correctly composed sentence, the reader knows that  the team captain  arrived late and needs a written excuse. Having thus added the noun—or person who did the action—the writer corrected the sentence and fixed the error of the dangling modifier. The Problem With Phrases Your Dictionary  notes that phrases—compared to a word or two—often confuse inexperienced writers when it comes to modifiers. For example: The  very happy  boy ran fast. Its easy to see that  happy  is an  adjective  that modifies  boy, while  very  is an  adverb  that modifies  happy.  A writer would be unlikely to unintentionally omit the subject of the sentence and write: The  very happy  ran fast. In this example, these words would constitute a  dangling modifier  because they dont modify anything in the sentence: The writer has removed the subject  boy. When it comes to phrases, however, its much easier to unintentionally create a dangling modifier, says Your Dictionary, as in: Hoping to garner favor, my parents were unimpressed with the gift. Note that the sentence does  have a subject,  my parents. The phrase  hoping to garner favor,  then, seems to modify the subject,  my parents.  But on closer inspection, note that the phrase is actually a dangling modifier.  The  parents  were not hoping to garner favor with themselves, so its left to the reader to wonder:  Who  is trying to garner favor? To fix the dangling modifier, add a subject that tells the reader  who  is hoping to impress the parents: Hoping to garner favor, my new boyfriend brought my parents a gift that failed to impress them. The phrase  hoping to garner favor  now describes  my boyfriend, so it is no longer a dangling modifier. To fully fix the sentence, the writer also added a verb,  brought, to describe what the boyfriend was doing and a  restrictive clause,  that failed to impress them, explaining how the gift went over with the parents. The Clue of  Passive Voice Sometimes—though not always—you can tell that a sentence contains a  dangling modifier  if it includes passive voice, as in this example from  Grammar Bytes:   Hungry, the leftover pizza was devoured. The single-word adjective,  hungry, is the dangling modifier in this sentence. A pizza, after all, cannot be  hungry  or  devour  itself. So  who  was hungry? The sentence needs a subject for the modifier to describe, such as these possibilities: Hungry,  we  devoured the leftover pizza.Hungry, the team devoured the leftover pizza.Hungry, I devoured the pizza. All of these sentences are correct and eliminate the dangling modifier. In the first, the modifier hungry describes we; in the second, it describes the team; and, in the third, it describes I. With any of the sentences, the reader clearly understands  who  is hungry. Dangling Participles As noted,  dangling modifiers  are also called  dangling participles. A  participle  is a  verbal  that typically ends in -ing  (the  present participle)  or -ed  (the  past participle). By itself, a  participle can function as an  adjective  (as in the  sleeping  baby or the  damaged  pump). You can sometimes tell that you have a  dangling modifier—or dangling participle—by looking to see if the sentence contains such an  -ing  verbal, says  Writing Explained, giving this example: Reading the regulations, the dog did not enter the park. The participial phrase  reading the regulations  is the dangling modifier because it does not actually modify anything in the sentence. A dog cannot read regulations, so the word or words that  reading the regulations  modifies have been omitted from the sentence, says the writing and grammar website.