Correcting Placement of Limiting Modifiers

Place adjectives carefully to avoid ambiguity. The following sentence is ambiguous:

The colorful student’s clothes created a sensation.

Is the sentence about a student with a “colorful” personality, or a student who has “colorful” clothes? Positioning the modifier appropriately eliminates the ambiguity, as in the following revision:

The student’s colorful clothes created a sensation.

Place adverbs carefully to avoid ambiguity like that in the following example:

Seeing birds fly quickly the fox crouched behind a bush.

What moves quickly, the “birds” or the “fox”? The modifier should be positioned appropriately, as in the following revision:

Seeing the birds fly, the fox crouched quickly behind a bush.

Three adverbs are particularly problematic: almost, even, and only. Misplacing these distorts the sentence’s meaning, as in the following example:

Hugo had almost answered every question on the exam.

Did the writer mean that Hugo had left each question not quite answered? Placing the adverb just before the word it actually modifies makes the meaning clear, as in the following revision:

Hugo had answered almost every question on the exam.

In the above revision, Hugo has answered nearly all of the questions.

Of all adverbs, only is the most often misplaced, as in the following example:

Only walk on the sidewalks while visiting the restored Shaker Village.

Did the writer really mean that while you are on the sidewalks you cannot also hold your child’s hand, talk to the guides, or eat a snack?

Walk on the sidewalks only while visiting the restored Shaker Village.

Did this writer mean that you should not walk on sidewalks anywhere else?

To correct these examples, place only directly before the word or phrase that it modifies:

Walk only on the sidewalks while visiting the restored Shaker Village.

This revision is the equivalent of saying “keep off the grass” while visiting the Shaker Village.

Click the sentence that clearly states that dogs must be leashed to enter the park. Dogs only are permitted in the park if they are leashed. Dogs are permitted in the park only if they are leashed.