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Modifiers are words or phrases that modify an element. Modifiers can be adjectives, adverbs, adjective or adverb clauses, infinitive, participle or prepositional phrases.
The poor, little boy who just wanted a meal jumped to pick a plate as a spider appeared out of the stack of plates.
Here,
Adjective: poor
Adjective clause: who just wanted a meal
Adverb clause: as a spider appeared out of the stack of plates
A modifier is an absolute necessity in the language and aids in adding information to a sentence. They can change/modify the semantics of a statement when used.
Here are a few examples of modifiers:
Adjective: small fish, another woman, big city.
Adverb: accidentally brushed against a poisonous plant
Phrase/Clause: I caught a fish bigger than 2 feet. When alone, I like to read.
Now, what are the usual errors one makes with modifiers?
The most common mistake with modifiers is misplacing the modifier. Remember that a modifier has to be placed close to what it modifies. Placing the modifier elsewhere causes problems.
- I had a cake with Divya on a plate.
- I had a cake on a plate with Divya.
What is the difference between the 2 sentences? They are grammatically right but they mean very different things. The first one does not sound logical at all.
I had a cake. The cake was on a plate. And I had the cake with Divya: This is what the sentence means to say. The first sentence says something that means differently. The first one means that Divya was on a plate.
The pair of dogs belonged to the old ladies, just drinking tea all day in the deck and tanning themselves.
Here again, there is ambiguity. You don’t know whether it’s the dogs or the old ladies who are drinking tea and tanning themselves.
Unlike most other political leaders, he resists the temptation to hoard money, which makes him a remarkable global figure.
What does which refer to here? There is no antecedent. And that is a problem because a pronoun must have an antecedent whatsoever. This is a modifier that does not make sense although we use this construct very often when we speak.
My friend Justin runs this successful business who has great business acumen.
This again is a case of misplaced modifier. It should ideally read, “My friend Justin who has great business acumen runs this successful business”.
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