Dangling modifier

Okay kiddo, have you ever seen a teacher's red pen on your homework? Well, one thing they might mark in your writing is a "dangling modifier".

Now, a modifier is something that changes, or "modifies", a word in a sentence. For example, if I say "the big dog", "big" is a modifier because it changes our image of the dog.

But sometimes, a modifier can get "dangled" in a sentence. That means it doesn't have a clear word to attach to, and it can confuse the reader. It's like trying to fit a puzzle piece into the wrong spot - it doesn't make sense!

Here's an example: "Running to catch the bus, my backpack fell off." Do you see the dangling modifier? "Running to catch the bus" is the modifier, but it doesn't clearly connect to any word in the sentence. It sounds like the backpack is running to catch the bus!

So, to fix it, we need to rearrange the sentence or add a word to make it clear. We could say "While I was running to catch the bus, my backpack fell off." Now, there's a clear subject ("I") and verb ("was running") to connect the modifier to.

See, it's like putting together a puzzle. We need all the pieces to fit together in the right way for our writing to make sense!