What's up with dangling modifiers?
Take a look at the following examples, both of which have dangling modifiers:
Wearing a yellow lei, a beach in Hawaii is where a polar bear danced.
Here’s why it’s wrong: according to the sentence, the thing that is “wearing a yellow lei” is a beach in Hawaii. That makes no sense: a beach in Hawaii cannot wear anything.
Wearing a yellow lei, apolar bear danced on a beach in Hawaii.
According to the new sentence, the thing that is “wearing a yellow lei” is a polar bear, which makes sense.
Feeling extremely hungry, a burrito was desired by Jake.
Here’s why it’s wrong: according to the sentence, the person who is “feeling extremely hungry” is a burrito. That makes no sense: a burrito cannot feel anything.
Here are two ways to fix it:
Feeling extremely hungry, Jake desired a burrito.
Because Jake felt extremely hungry, he desired a burrito.
(If this is still unclear to you, click on the link we put at the top, just above the dancing polar bear.)
On the SAT, dangling modifiers are among the easiest questions to answer. If you can quickly identify that it’s a modifier question, you can arrive at the answer in a matter of seconds. Here’s what we’re talking about. (Let’s say that the phrase in bold is being tested. On the SAT, it would be underlined.)
Wearing a yellow lei, a beach in Hawaii is where the polar bear danced.
A. a beach in Hawaii is where the polar bear danced
B. a Hawaiian beach is where the polar bear danced
C. on a beach in Hawaii a polar bear danced
D. a polar bear danced danced on a beach in Hawaii
E. a dance was done by a polar bear on a beach in Hawaii
Within a few seconds, we can tell that the only answer that could work is (D). It’s the only one that begins with “polar bear,” who could be “wearing a yellow lei.” Easy.
Hoping you now have a better understanding of dangling modifiers, we will end this post.
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