Dangling Modifiers (In Honor of National Coffee Day)

Welcome to the Grammar Minute, where we’re saving the English language sixty seconds at a time! I’m Lauren Smyth, and today we’re going to talk about one of my favorite grammatical mistakes: dangling modifiers. Consider the sentence: Exhausted after school, even coffee couldn’t keep me awake. You probably know exactly what this sentence means, so at least it’s clear. But it’s also grammatically wonky. That long modifier at the beginning of the sentence, “Exhausted after school,” is clearly supposed to be modifying “I,” but actually modifies the subject “coffee.” Which, if you think about it, makes no sense. Can “coffee” even get tired? The key here is to remember that when you have a dangling modifier at the beginning of a sentence, it will usually modify the subject of the following clause. So you could reword this sentence to say: Exhausted after school, I couldn’t stay awake even after drinking a huge cup of coffee. And it would be correct. That’s your Grammar Minute! Visit the grammarminute.com for more tips and tricks.