Correcting Misplaced Modifiers

It is a word or phrase that, due to its placement, mistakenly refers to the wrong word.

• Dangling Modifier

• Participles

• Misplaced Modifier

• Verbals

Identify the misplaced modifier:

Covered with cream sauce, my husband loves spinach soufflé.

• Covered with cream sauce

• my husband

• spinach soufflé

• my husband loves spinach soufflé

To fix a misplaced modifier, relocate it next to the _____ it is supposed to modify.

• adjective

• verb

• noun

• preposition

The young lady was walking the dog on the telephone.

Choose the sentence with the corrected misplaced modifier:

• She needed one day to almost complete the assignment.

• She needed almost one day to complete the assignment.

Choose the sentence with the corrected misplaced modifier:

• She needed one day to almost complete the assignment.

• She needed almost one day to complete the assignment.

Revise the following sentence so that the modifier is correctly placed. If there is more than one correct answer, choose all correct answers. Watching the sunset, the evening seemed to be perfect.

• Watching the sunset, Kara thought the evening was perfect.

• The evening seemed to be perfect, as Kara was watching the sunset.

• It seemed to be a perfect evening, watching the sunset.

• The evening, watching the sunset, seemed to be perfect.

Correct the misplaced modifier in this sentence: "The student read the book in the library that was overdue."

• The student read the overdue book in the library.

• In the library, the student read the book that was overdue.

• The student in the library read the book that was overdue.

• The overdue book was read in the library by the student.

Answer explanation

The correct choice is 'The student read the overdue book in the library.' This option correctly places the modifier 'overdue' next to 'book' to show that the book, not the library, was overdue.

Correct the misplaced modifier in this sentence: "She almost drove her kids to school every day."

• She drove her kids to school almost every day.

• Almost she drove her kids to school every day.

• She drove almost her kids to school every day.

• She drove her almost kids to school every day.

Answer explanation

The correct choice is 'She drove her kids to school almost every day.' This option correctly places the modifier 'almost' next to 'every day' to indicate frequency.

Rewrite the sentence to correct the modifier: "Running quickly, the finish line seemed to approach."

• Running quickly, he saw the finish line seemed to approach.

• The finish line seemed to approach as he was running quickly.

• He seemed to approach the finish line running quickly.

• The finish line, running quickly, seemed to approach.

Answer explanation

The correct choice rephrases the sentence to correctly place the modifier 'running quickly' before the action it describes, which is 'he was running quickly.'