Test Questions
(answers are bolded)
Choose weather the following statement has a displaced or dangling modifier.
1) I was eating pizza with my friend that was cheese flavoured.
a – Misplaced
b – Dangling
2) Cooked through, she took the thanksgiving turkey out of the oven.
a – Misplaced
b – Dangling
3) The women walked her dog with her neighbor that was white and fluffy.
a – Misplaced
b – Dangling
4) I bought a pair of pants with my friend that were black and shiny
a – I bought a pair of pants with my friend
b – Black and shiny, I bought a pair of pants with my friend
c – I bought a pair of black shiny pants with my friend
d – None of the above
5) Blue and clear, the women looked over the lake
a – The women looked over the lake that was blue and clear.
b – The women looked over the lake.
c – Blue and clear, the women gazed over the lake.
d – None of the above.
Sentences and style: 3B. dangling modifiers. LibGuides. (n.d.). Retrieved December 13, 2021, from https://libguides.royalroads.ca/sentences/danglingmodifiers.
Luo, A. (2020, January 17). An introduction to modifiers. Scribbr. Retrieved December 13, 2021, from https://www.scribbr.com/language-rules/modifiers/#:~:text=Both%20terms%20refer%20to%20modifiers,missing%20from%20the%20sentence%20altogether.
Modifiers are words in a sentence or phrase that describe something. Modifiers change or modify the subject of the sentence. An example of a modifier is in the phrase “the big dog”. The modifier in this phrase is the word “big”, and the word “dog” is the subject. So instead of the subject just being a dog, the modifier changes the subject of the sentence from “the dog” to “the big dog”. Modifiers must be placed close to the word they are describing or else they will become a dangling or a misplaced modifier.
Misplaced modifiers are when the subject and modifier (or modifiers) are placed too far apart in a sentence. An example of this is, “I was eating pizza with my friend that was cheese flavored”. In this sentence the subject is “pizza”, and the modifier is “cheese flavored”. This sentence is not grammatically correct because it sounds like its saying that the friend was cheese flavored, instead of the pizza. Although it’s implied that the pizza is cheese flavored and not the friend, it still doesn’t make sense. To fix a misplaced modifier you may just need to rearrange the order of the words. “I was eating cheese flavored pizza with my friend”, is the correct way to fix this sentence. A dangling modifier is when you have a modifier in a sentence, but no subject is clearly stated in the sentence. For example, the phrase “blue and clear, the women looked over the lake” has a dangling modifier. The words “blue” and “clear” are the modifiers, and the lake is meant to be the subject. This sentence is not correct because although we just assume the women is looking over the blue and clear lake, it is not stated in the sentence. To fix dangling modifiers, some words may need to be added or the sentence may need to be rearranged. “The women looked over the lake that was blue and clear”, is a correct way to fix this sentence.