Dangling modifiers | Syntax | Khan Academy Video Lecture | Complete Course on English Grammar: Upgrade your Speaking & Listening - Personal Skills

hello grammarians hello Rosie hi Paige
so in this video we're going to talk
about something called a dangling
modifier so before we get into what a
dangling modifier is we can sort of talk
about just what a modifier is Rosie do
you want to tell us what the definition
of a modifier is sure so well one major
modifier that you think of is an
adjective so a lot of times a modifier
is describing something else in the
sentence right okay so it can be an
adjective or another or a phrase or Y an
adverb too so a modifier is always
supposed to come right before the word
or phrase that it's modifying but when
it doesn't do that that's what's called
a dangling modifier so this can look
something like flashing lightning and
thunder the little bunny struggled
through the storm so the sentence has a
dangling modifier and the modifier in
question is flashing lightning and
thunder so the the phrase that this
comes right before is the little bunny
and flashing lightning and thunder is
not describing the little bunny right I
don't think I've ever seen a bunny with
like lightning coming out of it or
anything
Rosie what is this modifier actually
supposed to be modifying so the modifier
is actually supposed to be modifying the
storm because we've got lightning and
thunder flashing all of those things
describe the storm right okay so we're
really not supposed to have a dangling
modifier like this so we need to fix
this sentence flashing lightning and
thunder the storm raged as the bunny
struggled so this is all better the
modifier flashing lightning and thunder
comes right before the storm now right
so this makes more sense we got rid of
the dangling modifier it's not you know
hanging out looking like it's modifying
the wrong noun so if you're if you're
doing editing or you're looking at a
sentence when you take a look at a
sentence see if you can spot what it is
that that modifier is supposed to be
describing and then just make sure that
that noun or phrase comes right after
the modifier right like in this example
we had to pretty much completely rewrite
the sentence it still gets across the
same idea but we had to put the nouns in
a different order so the modifier wasn't
dangling anymore running around on his
little hamster wheel
Albert watched his pet exercise this
whole part running around on his little
hamster wheel is the modifier in this
sentence but what comes right after it
is Albert which I don't think I don't
think he's the one running around on the
little hamster wheel right so this is
something you want to look out for and
maybe rewrite your sentence so that
doesn't happen right and we have a clue
that Albert is not the name of the
hamster or the pet because it says
Albert watched his pet exercise so we
have a good clue that Albert is probably
a human and he's probably not running on
a on a hamster wheel he shouldn't be
coming right after that that modifier
yeah exactly
running around on his little hamster
wheel the critter exercised while Albert
watched right so this is how we made our
change we we still have running around
on his little hamster wheel at the
beginning but then we sort of switched
around the order of Albert and his pet
so now we have the critter following the
modifier that it's supposed to be
modified by right yeah so like that is
dangling modifiers and how you get rid
of them they're words or phrases that
describe another word or phrase and when
they're dangling they're like in the
wrong place they're in front of the
wrong noun so when you have a modifier
at the beginning of your sentence and
it's set off with a comma like all of
these are um that's when you have to pay
attention and make sure that the noun or
a phrase coming right after the modifier
is matched up with with the modifier so
that it's describing the right thing
right you can get some crazy meanings
out of your sentences otherwise like the
bunny with lightning so that's stinging
modifiers you can learn anything page
out Rosie out