GrammarPhile Blog

Dangling modifiers … it’s one of those terms editors seemingly toss around arbitrarily, accompanied by a command to correct the offending phrases. Well, of course, nobody wants their modifiers — or any other grammatical part — to dangle. But what on earth does that mean?

Defining Danglers

Modifiers are descriptive words, phrases or clauses. When the noun they’re describing is missing or unclear, they dangle. Modifiers can also be misplaced, which is a different kind of problem — and one we’ll talk about in next week’s post.

Most danglers are participles (verb forms used as adjectives) — either present (ending in ing) or past (usually ending in ed) — although gerunds (nouns made from verbs by adding -ing) can dangle too.

Talking about misused words and phrases can be tricky, especially given that the definitions in many commonly used dictionaries (e.g., Merriam-Webster) morph to reflect popular usage — even to the point where a word contains two definitions that mean the exact opposite, as in these examples:

Literally: (1) actually, (2) virtually; in effect
Peruse: (1) to look at or read in an informal or relaxed way, (2) to examine or read in a very careful way

Last week we talked about when to use onto (one word) versus on to (two words). As promised, we’re talking about the distinction between into versus in to this week. While some of the same guidelines apply, into can be trickier because it has more definitions and different strategies for remembering which form to use.

Demystifying Into

Like onto, into (one word) is a preposition that indicates movement. But into can mean so much more. Understanding the various definitions of into can help in figuring out whether to use one word or two. If you’re questioning whether to use into or in to, start by determining whether the problem sentence fits into one of the definitions or examples below.

While reading an article recently on 29 famous people who failed before they succeeded, I came across these two sentences:

[Walt Disney] went onto become the guy who redefined American childhood.

[Thomas Edison] went onto be fired from his first two jobs for not being suitably productive.

And voilà! A blog post was born. Any idea why? Here’s a hint: It’s not about Mickey Mouse and light bulbs. No, the inspiration is smaller than that. Much smaller. Four letters to be precise — o n t o — and the spacing between them.

With the celebration of the American flag on Independence Day and the recent flap around the Confederate battle flag, now seems a good time to talk about red flags in proofreading — the sneaky errors in documents that are easy to overlook, especially if you’re self-editing.

Thanks to everyone who took our proofreading quiz last week. Congratulations to Arlene Gregoire, who missed just three of the 51 errors, including some of the sneakiest ones.

The mistakes that tripped up most people appeared in the second and third sentences of paragraph 3: decreases/increases insulin and hyper/hypoglycemic. These errors go beyond basic grammar and punctuation mistakes, many of which Microsoft Word will highlight, and require a closer read to ensure the text makes sense.

  School’s out (or nearly out) across the nation and summer vacation beckons. We thought another proofreading quiz would be a good way to kick off the summer fun.

The five numbered paragraphs below are laced with errors — some glaring and some that are less obvious. But they’re all unequivocally wrong. Acceptable variations — such as words with different spellings (e.g., advisor, adviser) or sentences that could be punctuated multiple ways — are not included here.

This week we wrap up our three-part miniseries on pronouns by taking on one of the most hotly debated grammar questions — the use of like versus as — and how your choices will dictate which pronouns you use.