A misplaced modifier is also known as a squinting modifier. A misplaced modifier refers to such modifier which has been placed wrongly in the sentence. A misplaced modifier can be a word, phrase, or clause. An adjective can be misplaced; an adverb can be misplaced; a phrase can be misplaced; a clause can be misplaced. If a modifier is misplaced, the intended meaning of the sentence becomes confusing or illogical, or ridiculous. Therefore, it is necessary to properly place the modifier.
Misplaced adjective:
Ø The man drank a cold cup of coffee.
If you look at the example carefully, you will see that meaning of the sentence has been distorted. We can understand that the intended meaning should be “cold coffee,” not “cold cup.” So, the correct answer should be:
Intended answer: The man drank a cup of cold coffee.
Ø The old man went to a book
shop.
Ø The man went to an old book shop.
Here, you have to decide whether you want to mean “old man” or “old book.”
Ø The striped man is wearing a shirt.
We can clearly understand that a shirt can be striped, not a person.
Misplaced Adverb
Ø I only hate him.
Ø Only I hate him.
Ø I hate only him.
You can see that with the change of the placement of modifier, the meaning of those sentences has become changed. In the first sentence, the emphasis has been given to “hate.” In the second sentence, “only I” means none but you. In the third sentence, you want to say that none but you hate anybody but “him.” Look at some more examples below:
Ø I quickly bought a mango which I ate
yesterday.
Ø I bought a mango which I ate quickly
yesterday.
Ø Just I was invited to join the
picnic.
Ø I was just invited to join the
picnic.
Ø I was invited just to join the
picnic.
Misplaced Phrase
Ø The girl came to me wearing a black t-shirt.
Always put
the modifier, be it a word, phrase, or clause, close to the noun it intends to
modify. In the above example, we understand that the phrase “wearing the black
t-shirt” is supposed to modify “girl.” So, we know that a modifier sits next to
the noun it modifies. Therefore, we need to bring the phrase close to the noun
“girl.”
Ø The girl wearing a black t-shirt came to me.
Misplaced Clause
Ø The parts are good which are made in Japan.
The clause “which are made in Japan” is supposed to modify “the pars,” and so the clause should come next to “the parts.”
The parts which are made in Japan are good.
Look at another example:
Ø Give it to him that I bought yesterday.
We can understand that the relative clause which starts with “that” cannot modify “him.” So, we need to replace this clause. We can write the sentence in the following way:
Ø Give it that I bought yesterday to him.
Double
Meaning
Sometimes improper use of modifiers can create double meaning. Look at the example below:
Ø He told us on Tuesday he would watch “Avatar”.
This sentence has created double meaning. He either told something on Tuesday or he watched “Avatar” on Tuesday. Therefore you can write the sentence in two ways to avoid ambiguity.
Ø On Tuesday he told us he would watch
“Avatar.”
Ø He told us he would watch “Avatar”
on Tuesday.