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00:00Are you going to spend your whole vacation on that thing?
00:07Fine, then I'm answering a letter.
00:11Dear Tim and Moby,
00:13My aunt says my emails are filled with misplaced modifiers.
00:17What is she talking about?
00:19Thanks, Theo.
00:21In grammar, modifiers describe or alter the meaning of another word or phrase.
00:26Like how adjectives illustrate something about a noun.
00:29Or adverbs explain the way you did something.
00:33A misplaced modifier is when these words are positioned incorrectly.
00:38That can twist the meaning of your sentences.
00:41And make them sound awkward or confusing.
00:44Like this caption from your InstaSnap feed.
00:47You wrote,
00:48Enjoying a hot cup of cocoa.
00:50Adjectives generally modify the word that comes right after them.
00:54Here, you're really saying that the cup was hot.
00:58Well, I know it probably was, but you really meant the cocoa.
01:03Enjoying a cup of hot cocoa leaves no room for confusion.
01:08And most times, our sentences don't have helpful pictures to go along with them.
01:12Like your status update from yesterday.
01:15You wrote,
01:15I almost swam all day.
01:18In this sentence, almost is modifying swam.
01:22So it means that all day long, you came close to swimming.
01:26But never actually swam, which would be, uh, false.
01:31Put almost next to the word or phrase it's describing.
01:36You didn't almost swim, you did swim.
01:38Almost all day.
01:42Yep, only follows the same rules.
01:45It modifies whatever comes right after it.
01:48I only caught an old soda can.
01:50So of all the things you could have done with this can, you only caught it.
01:55You didn't dance with it, play chess, or see a movie.
01:59To correct this sentence, put only right before an old soda can.
02:05It's not just single words.
02:07Phrases can be modifiers, too.
02:09And they need to be placed in the right position.
02:12Here's one.
02:14I made s'mores for Tim with extra large marshmallows.
02:17I believe the s'mores had extra large marshmallows, not me.
02:21You need to move the prepositional phrase closer to s'mores.
02:25Even though the initial sentence sounded OK, it's incorrect.
02:30Be extra careful when you start a sentence with a modifying phrase.
02:34Ready to go at the crack of dawn, our day was one giant adventure.
02:39This sounds like the day itself was ready to go.
02:44Whatever you're describing needs to come right
02:46after the introductory phrase.
02:48Who was up at the crack of dawn?
02:52Right, we were.
02:53But we are not even in the sentence.
02:56When the word you're modifying is missing,
02:58that's called a dangling modifier.
03:00A simple tip is to place the modified word right after the comma.
03:04There are lots of ways to correct dangling modifiers.
03:07So try out different approaches until your sentence is clear.
03:12Squinting modifiers are another special category.
03:15You can't tell if they're modifying the words before or after them.
03:19Tim reminded me on Sunday we'd have to leave.
03:24Did I remind you on Sunday?
03:26Or did we have to leave on Sunday?
03:30Well, we know what happened.
03:32But someone reading this would have no idea.
03:34Let's change it to Tim reminded me that we'd have to leave on Sunday.
03:39See, now all your sentences are clear.
03:42Oh, except for this one.
03:45Tim kept me up snoring all night.
03:47It sounds like you were the one snoring instead of...
03:50Wait a second, I don't snore.
03:52I... I don't, do I?
03:58Yeah, I don't.
04:01Right?