Place it right

Misplaced modifiers can make sentences sound nonsensical.

Modifiers are words or phrases or clauses that provide description in sentences.

Take a look at these sentences.

Meera dropped her snack box. (A sentence without any modifier)

Poor Meera, who was in a hurry to have a bite before the bell rang, dropped her snack box. (The same sentence with modifiers)

The word ‘Poor’ and the phrase ‘who was in a hurry to have a bite before the bell rang’ give more details about Meera. They are modifiers.

Describe it

Essentially, modifiers breathe life into sentences.

Modifiers include adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases, and so on.

But when a modifier is wrongly placed in a sentence, things can get quite confusing.

Eg: The waiter served a roll to the woman, which was well buttered. (misplaced modifier)

Eg: Aby went to his village to sell his land, along with his wife. (misplaced modifier)

See how the modifiers are wrongly placed. There is confusion and ambiguity. The sentences sound nonsensical, don’t they? It is important to place the modifiers correctly. A modifier should always be placed close to the word or phrase it describes.

So, the above sentences can be corrected by repositioning the modifiers.

The waiter served a roll, which was well buttered, to the woman. (Correctly placed modifier)

Aby, along with his wife, went to the village to sell his land. (Correctly placed modifier)