Misplaced Modifiers and Dangling Participles

A boy comes out of his house and tells another boy, who is playing outside, "They just said it's going to rain on the radio."

The other boy, puzzled, asks, "If it rains on the radio, won't that wreck it?"

-------------------------------------------------

This installment of "Tiger" offers a wonderful example of some of the most entertaining errors in the English language: misplaced modifiers and dangling participles.

A modifier is an adverb or an adjective, or a phrase acting as an adverb or adjective. The unfortunate misplaced modifier is placed too far away from the word it modifies. In the example above, "They just said" and "on the radio" are separated by "it's going to rain," and the meaning of the sentence is sacrificed (although it is quite funny!).

A dangling participle, on the other hand, is a participial phrase that is not placed directly before or directly after the noun it modifies. It will appear to modify the noun which is nearest to it and will result in confusion.

For example, "Driving down the street, Pizza Hut looked like a good place to go for dinner." Who or what was driving down the street?? Certainly not the Pizza Hut restaurant, but that is what this sentence is implying.

Your sense of judgement would not allow you to become seriously confused about whether or not the restaurant was driving down the street; nonetheless, the construction of this sentence is sloppy. It can easily be fixed, perhaps by saying, "As I drove down the street, I saw Pizza Hut and realized it would be a great place to go for dinner."

But these lost modifiers and participles can be so much fun! Take a look at the examples below and read them aloud. (I dare you to not get a mental picture of these ludicrous situations as you read.)

• Having finished my dinner, the waitress offered to bring out the dessert tray. (I am not tipping a waitress who eats my dinner!)
• At age seven, her grandfather passed away. (Obviously the grandfather did not pass away at age seven.)
• Decked out in a stunning vintage Versace gown, the man couldn't take his eyes off his Academy Awards date. (Oh, those crazy actors . . . )
• Removing each other's fleas, the zoo workers watched the monkeys intently. (Ick!)

Have you heard or read an example of a misplaced modifier or dangling participle? Post it in a discussion on this topic, and give us all a good laugh!

Go To Page: 1