Dangling, Misplaced, and Squinting Modifiers

Occasionally, you may inadvertently use a dangling or misplaced modifier in speech, and it might create a laugh. Examine the nonstandard sentence below.

Nonstandard

Covered with red and white tissue paper, Nura appreciated the homemade valentine.

What’s humorous about this sentence is that the descriptive phrase (the modifier) “covered with red and white tissue paper” is closer to the noun “Nura” than to the “homemade valentine,” and thus it appears that Nura was the one decorated with colorful paper.

Standard

Nura appreciated the homemade valentine, which was covered with red and white tissue paper.

To correct the misuse, the modifier was moved to the end of the sentence, and to be especially clear, the words “which was” were added.

Here are some more examples.

Nonstandard

Being only three years old at the time, the car didn’t scare me too much.

What or who was “three years old at the time”? Probably not the car!

Standard Sentences

Because I was only three years old at the time, the car didn’t scare me too much.

Three years old at the time, I wasn’t too scared of the car.

The first way to fix the dangling or misplaced modifier was adding a subject “I” to the modifier in the sentence. The second way was to add a nearby noun for the modifier to describe.

Let’s look at a few more:

Nonstandard

Almost a hundred years after he died, Nicholas Rowe wrote one of the first biographies of Shakespeare.

It appears that Nicholas Rowe was a ghost when he wrote Shakespeare’s biography.

Standard

Almost a hundred years after Shakespeare died, Nicholas Rowe wrote one of his first biographies.

That example was changed by replacing the pronoun in the modifier with its antecedent.

Nonstandard

Experiencing a cough, fever, nausea, and vomiting, the Centers for Disease Control announced on January 21, 2020, that the thirty-five-year-old man had tested positive for COVID-19.

That’s an example from a 2022 news report. But it wasn't the CDC that experienced a cough, fever, nausea, and vomiting. Here’s one way to make the sentence standard:

Standard

On January 21, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control announced that the thirty-five-year-old man who was experiencing a cough, fever, nausea, and vomiting had tested positive for COVID-19.

Squinting modifiers are ambiguous. Unlike dangling and misplaced modifiers, they are not obviously describing the wrong noun. Instead, the reader sees multiple options that the modifiers could be describing. 

Nonstandard: Ambiguous

The car that was backfiring loudly crashed into a muddy ditch.

In this one, you “squint” to tell if the car’s backfiring was loud or if the crash was loud.

Standard: Clear

The car that was loudly backfiring crashed into a muddy ditch.

Standard: Clear

The car that was backfiring crashed loudly into a muddy ditch.