There is rarely anything funny that results when the rules of grammar are violated. In fact, such violations have probably driven more than a few English teachers to tears and thoughts of early retirement. But there can be exceptions. Consider the following examples.

Constructed out of solid oak and iron bolts, the soldiers could not batter down the castle’s door.

Neglected for years in our basement, I found my old electric train and tried to make it run.

Rambling and disorganized, the audience could not understand the candidate’s speech.

If they appeared on an essay, these sentences might cause a teacher to crack a smile. Those soldiers must have been pretty tough, having been constructed out of oak and iron. And what about that poor neglected guy who spent so much time in his basement? But he’s no worse than all those rambling and disorganized people who listened to the candidate’s speech.

Each sentence suffers from a misplaced modifier; that is, a word or phrase that, because of its inappropriate position, does not modify the word it was meant to modify. To avoid misplacing a modifier, make sure it goes right before the word (or words) it is meant to modify.

Constructed out of solid oak and iron bolts, the castle’s door could not be battered down by the soldiers.

I found my old electric train, neglected for years in our basement, and tried to make it run.

The audience could not understand the candidate’s rambling and disorganized speech.

The sentences above were fairly easy to correct because, although the modifiers were misplaced, it wasn’t hard to identify the words they were supposed to modify. In some cases, a modifier doesn’t appear to connect with any word in the same sentence. The resulting sentence is apt to be even more confusing and illogical than one with a misplaced modifier. Consider the following:

Before sending out invitations. a venue for the wedding has to be reserved.

On returning to the office, the copier was found to be broken.

Riding in the sports car, the drawbridge came up quickly.

These sentences suffer from dangling modifiers. There is no word — not even a misplaced word — to which these modifiers refer. An editor or a teacher might have difficulty figuring out what these sentences mean without consulting the writer. Some possible revisions could include the following:

Before sending out invitations, the engaged couple has to reserve a venue for their wedding.

On returning to the office, the staff found the copier was broken.

Riding in the sports car, the student driver came up quickly on the drawbridge.

One final observation — a misplaced modifier need not be a phrase; sometimes it can be a single word, as we see with these examples:

George realized he had almost fought every boxer in his weight class.

The neat treasurer’s bank book was eventually located in a hotel storage room.

In the first example, the adverb “almost” is misplaced, making it seem as if George couldn’t quite bring himself to duke it out with other boxers in his weight class. In the second, the adjective “neat” is probably misplaced since it presumably refers to the bank book rather than the treasurer’s appearance.

It’s important to realize that sentences with misplaced or dangling modifiers can be made by even good writers. Careful proofing by the writer as well as by another knowledgeable person (e.g., an alpha reader) can help assure such errors don’t make it into the final draft.