ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Demonstrate command of grammar conventions Videos 5 videos
Want even more deets on That vs. Which? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.
This video explains what dangling modifiers are and, more importantly, how to avoid them. It provides a useful formula for using a modifying phrase...
Do you know a prepositional phrase when you see one? Take a look at this AP English Language and Composition question and find out.
Dangling Modifiers 2642 Views
Share It!
Description:
This video explains what dangling modifiers are and, more importantly, how to avoid them. It provides a useful formula for using a modifying phrase to ensure strong sentence construction.
Transcript
- 00:00
Thank you We sneak in misplaced modifiers Allah shmoop you're
- 00:07
driving down a narrow road in the middle of the
- 00:09
night Suddenly a suicidal deer jumps in front of your
- 00:12
car There are two ways to break the news to
- 00:18
your insurance agent You could say a deer just hit
Full Transcript
- 00:21
my car windshield Or a deer hit just my car
- 00:27
windshield Well welcome to the wonderful world of modifiers If
- 00:32
you couldn't guess a modifier is a word or phrase
- 00:34
that modify another word or phrase Yeah sometimes if you're
- 00:40
not careful you can misplace a modifier A misplaced modifier
- 00:44
is a modifier that modifies the wrong thing A modifier
- 00:49
khun b a single word like only just or almost
- 00:52
let's Look at a couple of examples you could say
- 00:54
mike ate only venison or mike only ate venison In
- 00:59
these examples the word on ly modifies the word behind
- 01:02
it giving these senses completely different meanings if you say
- 01:06
like a lonely venison what you mean is that mike
- 01:09
ate nothing but dead dear If you say mike on
- 01:15
ly ate venison However what you mean is that the
- 01:18
only thing mike did with the deer meat was eating
- 01:21
He didn't cook it and he didn't buy it from
- 01:24
his local grocer You could also use a short phrase
- 01:31
at the beginning of a sentence as a modifier Here's
- 01:33
the formula short modifying phrase plus comma Plus the rest
- 01:39
of the sentence gets you there Just remember whatever the
- 01:42
modifying phrase were first who should immediately follow the comma
- 01:46
Here are some examples While you could say freshly cooked
- 01:51
lisa left the venison said cool down what you really
- 01:54
mean is freshly cooked the venison was left bite elisa
- 01:58
to cool them well you might be tempted to say
- 02:01
covered in flies the highway crew pulled the deer carcass
- 02:04
off the road What you really mean is covered in
- 02:07
flies The deer carcass was pulled off the road by
- 02:10
the highway crew When it comes to modifiers the smartest
- 02:13
thing you could do is pay attention to what you're
- 02:16
writing You don't want to misplace a modifier any more
- 02:20
than you want to misplace any leftover bam really bambi 00:02:26.47 --> [endTime] is that nice
Related Videos
This video explains the difference between affect and effect and provide tips for remembering which is which and when to use each one. If you suffe...
Want even more deets on Your vs. You're? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.
What’s the difference between its and it’s (spoiler alert: it’s more than just an apostrophe). This video covers the use of both of these wor...
Want even more deets on Question Marks? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.
