What Is a Dangler Modifier?

What are dangling modifiers, or "danglers" for short, you ask? In a nutshell, a dangler is a little phrase — not a complete sentence — that is used at the start of a sentence to describe something, but that something is not the subject doing the main action of the sentence.

What is an example of a dangling modifier?

Adjective Phrases as Dangling Modifiers

For example, "The big" doesn't make sense without telling what is big, which leaves "big" as a dangling modifier. However, "the big dog" is a complete phrase. Adjectives and adjective phrases can become dangling modifiers when they don't have anything to modify.

What is an example of a modifier?

A modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that modifies—that is, gives information about—another word in the same sentence. For example, in the following sentence, the word "burger" is modified by the word "vegetarian": ... The modifier "vegetarian" gives extra information about what kind of burger it is.