Location of Modification – Misplaced Modifiers

What's wrong with this sentence?

Finally thinking clearly, the book was able to be understood by Rebecca.

The meaning of the sentence seems clear enough: that Rebecca finally understood the book after she started thinking clearly.

But what does the sentence actually say? If you look more closely at the sentence, you'll see that, because of the placement of certain words, the sentence makes the book, not Rebecca, the subject of the sentence: which makes it sound as if the book was thinking clearly, not Rebecca. That's kind of funny – how can a book think clearly? - and not what we meant at all. So what went wrong?

If you'll recall, modifiers are often adjectives or adverbs, as covered above. But modifiers can also be groups of words – phrases or clauses – that act as one to describe another part of the sentence. Like adjectives and adverbs, these multiple-word modifiers must be placed as close as possible to the word or group of words they're modifying. Those modifiers that fail to observe this rule are called misplaced modifiers.

Misplaced modifiers can be highly deceptive - and are extremely common on the GMAT. Because we know what the sentence means to say, it's easy to miss this type of placement error, unless we have our eyes open for them.

Let's look again at the example above:

Even though the modifier is followed immediately by "the book," we might very easily assume that because a book can't think, we can overlook its placement in the sentence, as the phrase "Finally thinking clearly" must refer to Rebecca. But the GMAT isn't testing our ability to understand mangled sentences; it's testing our understanding of English grammar. And according to the rules of English grammar, a modifier must always be placed as close as possible to the word it's modifying. Thus, the modifier in this sentence must be describing the book. So this sentence is misleading - and incorrect - because the modifier "Finally thinking clearly" is not immediately followed by what it is modifying: that is, "Rebecca".

Try this next example:

On arriving at the train station, his friends greeted Jay and took him immediately to his speaking engagement in Springfield.

Once again, it's likely that this sentence sounds fine at first glance: Jay gets to the train station, after which his friends meet him and take him to his important engagement. Logical, no? But take a closer look: let's break it down, and check to make sure that the modifiers (and the objects being modified) are placed where they belong.

First find the modifying phrase: look for a descriptive group of words set off by a comma or commas. Here, we have one phrase that looks like that: "On arriving at the train station." After identifying the modifier, the next step is to figure out which word/s it should be modifying, and which word/s it is modifying. Who is arriving at the train station - Jay or his friends? Because the modifier is followed directly by the phrase "his friends," it sounds like Jay's friends are arriving, rather than Jay himself. We want Jay to be arriving at the station.

In this version of the sentence, it's suddenly quite clear that Jay arrived at the train station, and his friends greeted him and took him away. This was accomplished by placing the modifier "On arriving at the train station" right next to "Jay" - the person whom the modifier was meant to describe.

Incorrect: On arriving at the train station, his friends greeted Jay and took him immediately to his speaking engagement in Springfield.

Correct: On arriving at the train station, Jay was greeted by his friends, who immediately took him to his speaking engagement in Springfield.

Misplaced modifiers won't always occur at the beginning of sentences: any descriptive phrase or clause is a potential misplaced modifier. Just make sure the modifying phrase or clause is as close as possible to the word/s being modified.

Descriptive phrases are not always set off by commas. These pronouns often indicate modifying phrases:

which (refers to things)
that
who (refers to people)
whose
whom

In addition to helping you identify modifying phrases, these pronouns can be helpful when you're trying to fix a seemingly incorrect sentence. Look at the examples below:

Sounds Funny: Joan's father, preferring meat to vegetables, made a breakfast of eggs and bacon every morning.

Better: Joan's father, who preferred meat to vegetables, made a breakfast of eggs and bacon every morning.

Sounds Funny: Your tea kettle, having a leak in the bottom, was thrown away last week.

Better: Your tea kettle, which had a leak in the bottom, was thrown away last week.

Note the different uses of "who" and "which": "who" is used in the first example because it introduces a phrase that describes a person ("Joan's father"). "Which" is used to introduce a phrase that describes a thing (the "tea kettle"). "That" is also used to describe things, as opposed to people.

	Don't forget! Its is a possessive of it, and it's is the contraction of it and is.

Adjectives and Adverbs with Sense Verbs

Sample Questions