Modifiers – Explanation and Its Types

Modifiers: 

• A modifier is a word or a group of words that gives information about a noun or a verb. It modifies or changes the meaning of a noun or a verb. 

Examples: 

• The man talking on the phone is my boss. 
• We have a car of the same design. 

Misplaced Modifiers: 

• When a modifier is placed a little far away from the word or words it modifies in the sentence, it creates ambiguity and modifies the wrong word or words. That is called a misplaced modifier. 
• It is placed a little far away from the word or words it modifies, and because of that it is called  a misplaced modifier. 

• Example: 

“Getting ready for the office, the food was eaten by Jon in a hurry.” 

• Here the phrase “getting ready for the office intended to modify the noun “Jon.” But by mistake in this sentence that phrase modifying the word “food.” 
• Correct one: “Getting ready for the office, Jon ate the food in hurry.” 
• Let’s see how misplaced modifiers change the meaning of the sentence. 

• So, we have some limiting modifiers. 
• Limiting modifiers that limit the meaning of the word or words they modify. 

• Examples: Only, Just, Nearly, Hardly, Almost, etc. 
• Another kind of misplaced modifier is squinting modifier. 
• When a modifier conveys two different meaning, it is called a squinting modifier. 
• Examples: 

1. “Insulting people sometimes maligns your image.” 

Meaning: 

• Modifies the verb Insulting, telling the frequency. 
• Modifies the verb Maligns, telling the frequency. 
• A misplaced modifier is generally one of the modifiers: 
• Preposition phrase 
• Participle phrase 
• Present participle phrase 
• Past participle phrase 
• Relative clause 
• A phrase is a meaningful sequence of two or more words that work as a unit in a sentence. 
• In these sentences, the related words form a sentence that has either a subject or a predicate.  
• So, these set of words are called phrases. 
• It contains neither subject nor a verb. 
• It is not complete sentences in itself. 

Clauses: 

A Clause is a group of related words that has both the subject and predicate (verb). 

There are two types of clauses, 

1. Dependent 
2. Independent

Dependent Clause: 

• Cannot stand alone as its own sentence, because it depends upon something else to give it a meaning. 
• When written as a sentence, is a fragment. 
• Begins with a subordinating conjunction. 

Independent Clause: 

• An independent clause is a clause that can stand on its own as a sentence because it has a complete thought expressed.