Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers: How To Avoid This Unseemly Grammatical Mishap

If there’s one thing that separates a pretty decent writer from a really good writer, it’s knowing how to AVOID dangling or misplacing modifiers. Although it’s a common mistake, dangling your modifiers in public is absolutely frowned upon (and can be pretty embarrassing, too).

When I was editing for an online media company, I found and fixed SO MANY misplaced modifiers that this mistake quickly turned into one of my top pet peeves. The problem with this particular grammatical error is that it’s not only embarrassing but can quickly make your writing illogical and even unintelligible.

It’s Rude to Dangle Your Modifiers

So what is a dangling or misplaced modifier? It’s when an adjectival phrase is describing the wrong noun or even no noun at all. (It’s also called a dangling participle. A participle is a verb that has turned itself into an adjective so that it can modify a noun: “The running boy was faster than everyone else.”)

Running away from the guards, the city was a maze and Aladdin quickly lost them.

In this sentence, “running away from the guards” should be describing Aladdin, but the noun that is closest to the adjectival phrase is actually “the city,” so this sentence is really saying that the city was running away from the guards.

Constance Hale (author of Sin and Syntax) put it nicely: “Dangling participles are adjectival phrases that have come unmoored from the nouns they are supposed to modify and instead modify the nearest noun they can find.” Those phrases really want to do their job—so badly, in fact, that they get a little overeager and just grab onto the first noun they can find. Sometimes, that results in some pretty hilarious sentences.

Dressed in a turquoise dress with golden jewelry, Abu the monkey spotted Jasmine in the crowd.

This sentence technically means that Abu is decked out in a stylish royal outfit rather than Jasmine.

You can see how this mistake can quickly make your writing confusing or illogical.

Amy Einsohn puts it another way in The Copyeditor’s Handbook: “The problem arises when a sentence begins with a clause that contains a participle […] and the subsequent independent clause does not begin with the subject that is doing the action denoted by the participle.”

Escaping from the palace for a while, the cloak helped Jasmine slip past the guards at the front gate.

The cloak wasn’t escaping from the palace (well…I guess that technically it was, but in this sentence, Jasmine is supposed to be the subject).

Dangling vs. Misplaced Modifiers

A dangling modifier doesn’t have a referent at all:

Falling into the Cave of Wonders, escape seemed impossible.

In this sentence, who is the subject or actor? It should be Aladdin and Abu, but they aren’t mentioned at all. In fact, this sentence is saying that “escape” fell into the Cave of Wonders. Weird.

A misplaced modifier is modifying the wrong noun because the noun it should be modifying is too far away:

While performing his elaborate musical number, Abu tried to steal some of the gold that the Genie had conjured up.

The subject for “while performing his elaborate musical number” should be Genie, but it’s actually modifying Abu because Abu is closer to it. Surely it would be difficult to steal some gold while you were performing an elaborate musical number.

Another kind of misplaced modifier is called a squinting modifier. This is when the modifier is placed in between two phrases or nouns, so it’s hard to tell which one they modify.

Flying on a magic carpet quickly makes you dizzy.

In this case, it could mean that flying on a magic carpet at a fast pace will make you dizzy OR that flying on a magic carpet will make you dizzy quickly. The adverb “quickly” doesn’t have an obvious verb to modify, which makes the sentence’s meaning unclear.

Put Those Modifiers Back Where They Belong

To fix a dangling or misplaced modifier, you must rearrange the sentence so that the adjective or adverb is clearly referring to the correct subject.

The Infographic Guide to Grammar states, “When you’re using modifiers, the words should be as close as possible to whatever they describe or elaborate on.” Chicago advises, “Recasting the sentence so that the misplaced modifier is associated with the correct noun is the only effective cure.”

There are a couple of easy ways to fix dangling or misplaced modifiers:

Option 1: Put the Subject Into the Phrase

You can put the subject into the phrase that is modifying that word so that it’s obvious what you’re describing.

Here’s a sentence with a misplaced modifier:

Though he had made it clear that he couldn’t make people fall in love, Aladdin wanted the Genie to make Jasmine love him.

And here it is fixed, with the subject inserted into the modifying phrase:

Though the Genie had made it clear that he couldn’t make people fall in love, Aladdin wanted the Genie to make Jasmine love him.

Here’s one more example:

Flying through the cloudy night sky, no one in the city could see Aladdin and Jasmine on the magic carpet.

“No one in the city” is not the correct subject for “flying through the cloudy night sky,” so we can put Aladdin and Jasmine into that first phrase to make it more clear.

As Aladdin and Jasmine flew on the magic carpet through the cloudy night sky, no one in the city could see them.

Option 2: Put the Subject DIRECTLY After the Phrase

Another option is to make sure that the independent clause following the adjectival phrase BEGINS with the subject performing that action. In other words, make sure to squish the subject as close as possible to the describing phrase.

Powerful, angry, and evil, Aladdin was afraid to face Jafar but knew he had to.

Aladdin isn’t “powerful, angry, and evil”: Jafar is. Here’s the corrected sentence:

Powerful, angry, and evil, Jafar was a frightening villain but Aladdin knew he had to face him.

Here’s another misplaced modifier example:

Seeing how much Aladdin and Jasmine loved each other, a royal marriage was finally permitted between them by the Sultan.

The royal marriage didn’t see how much Aladdin and Jasmine loved each other: the Sultan did. Here are the two options for fixing it:

OPTION 1: The Sultan saw how much Aladdin and Jasmine loved each other, so he finally permitted a royal marriage between them.

OPTION 2: Seeing how much Aladdin and Jasmine loved each other, the Sultan finally permitted a royal marriage between them.

RED FLAGS

There are a few red flags to watch out for that can be key indicators that you’ve got a potentially dangling or misplaced modifier in your sentence.

WATCH OUT for Possessive Nouns

Though his powers are seemingly limitless, the Genie’s lamp restricts his freedom.

This one is tricky because the subject is Genie, which is close to the phrase that describes him. However, the noun here is technically the Genie’s LAMP, not the Genie himself. To fix it, get that subject on its own.

Though his powers are seemingly limitless, the Genie is held captive in his lamp.

WATCH OUT for “There Is” and “It Is”

“There” and “it” are often undefined subjects, so if they’re close to the adjectival phrase, you might have a dangling modifier on your hands.

Freed from the restrictions of the previous law, there was nothing stopping Aladdin and Jasmine from getting married.

“There” is the subject being modified by “freed from the restrictions of the previous law” in that sentence, which doesn’t really make sense. Move the subject closer to the modifier to fix it.

Freed from the restrictions of the previous law, Aladdin and Jasmine had nothing stopping them from getting married.

WATCH OUT for Another Verb Starting the Independent Clause

Having gained his freedom through Aladdin’s wish, traveling the world was next on the Genie’s to-do list.

This is another situation when a different phrase (“traveling the world”) is being modified rather than the correct subject (Genie). Move the correct subject closer to the adjectival phrase to fix it.

Having gained his freedom through Aladdin’s wish, the Genie had plans to travel the world.

WATCH OUT for the Passive Voice!

The passive voice is a frequent offender when it comes to dangling and misplaced modifiers. It tends to hide or bury the subject, which leads to some awkward sentences.

Flying high over the ground, the pyramids were seen by Aladdin and Abu.

Presumably, the pyramids were not the ones flying high over the ground. Change the independent phrase to the active voice to make the subject more clear.

Flying high over the ground, Abu and Aladdin saw the pyramids.

WATCH OUT for Misplaced or Dangling Modifiers that DON’T Start the Sentence

The most common place for a misplaced or dangling modifier is at the beginning of a sentence, but that’s not the only place where they can occur.

Princesses have a responsibility to help their people while they rule.

Technically, this is saying that the people are ruling (and not the princesses). Rearrange the sentence to get the modifying statement (“while they rule”) closer to the correct subject.

While they rule, Princesses have a responsibility to help their people.

So keep everything appropriate, logical, and clear by getting those dangling and misplaced modifiers back where they belong!

Sources:

• American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 7th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2020.
• Einsohn, Amy. The copyeditor’s handbook. 3rd ed. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: Univ of California Pr, 2011.
• Hale, Constance. Sin and syntax: How to craft wicked good prose. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2013.
• Kern, Jara. The Infographic Guide to Grammar: A Visual Reference for Everything You Need To Know. New York: Adams Media, 2020.
• The Chicago Manual of Style. 17th ed. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2017.