What Are Modifiers?

(with Examples)

DEFINITION

In English grammar, a modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that

functions as an adjective or adverb to provide additional information
about another word or word group (called the head). Also known as
an adjunct.

As illustrated below, modifiers in English include adjectives,

adverbs, demonstratives, possessive determiners, prepositional
phrases, degree modifiers, and intensifiers.

Modifiers that appear before the head are called premodifiers;

modifiers that appear after the head are called postmodifiers.

Modifiers may be either restrictive (essential to the meaning of a

sentence) or nonrestrictive (additional but not essential elements in
a sentence).

See Examples and Observations below. Also see:

 Modification
 Adjectival
 Adjective Clause
 Adjective Order
 Adjectivitis
 Adverb Clause
 Attributive Noun
 Compound Adjective
 Dangling Modifier, Misplaced Modifier, and Squinting Modifier
 Downtoner
 Epithet
 Predeterminer
 Qualifier and Quantifier
 Resumptive Modifier and Summative Modifier
 Sentence Adverb
 Similative
  Stacking
 Submodifier
 Transferred Epithet

Exercises

 Adding Adjectives and Adverbs to the Basic Sentence Unit

 Sentence Building With Simple Modifiers
 Sentence Combining With Basic Modifiers

Etymology
From the Latin, "measure"

EXAMPLES AND OBSERVATIONS

 "You can tell me now. I'm reasonably sober."

(Rick in Casablanca)
 Major Strasser: What is your nationality?
Rick: I'm a drunkard.
Captain Renault: That makes Rick a citizen of the world.
(Casablanca)

 "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

(Humphrey Bogart as Rick in Casablanca, 1942)
 "As the leader of all illegal activities in Casablanca, I am
an influential and respected man."
(Sydney Greenstreet as Senor Ferrari in Casablanca)

 "I met a girl who sang the blues

and I asked her for some happy news,
but she just smiled and turned away.
And the three men I admire most,
The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost,
They caught the last train to the coast
The day the music died."
(Don McLean, "American Pie")

 "Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable

ways it can change someone else's life forever."
(Margaret Cho)
 Types of Qualifying Modifiers
"We may use different types of conceptual units in qualifying a
thing or an instance of a thing and, accordingly, use different
types of modifiers in English. The sentences under (4) illustrate
the most common usages of qualifying modifiers in English. In
all of the examples, the head noun detective is qualified in
different ways. The modifiers are printed in italics.

(4a) Hercule Poirot is a brilliant detective.

(4b) Agatha Christie's detective Poirot is a legend all over the
world.
(4c) The detective with the waxed moustache solves the most
baffling cases.
(4d) Hercule Poirot is the famous detective created by the
English mystery writer Agatha Christie.
(4e) Poirot is a detective who has come to England as a war
refugee.

"In sentence (4a), the adjective brilliant modifies the predicate

noun detective. . . .

"In sentence (4b), the head noun detective is modified by the

complex noun phrase Agatha Christie's, where
the genitive morpheme 's expresses the relation of possession.

"In sentence (4c), the noun a detective is modified by

the prepositional phrasewith the waxed moustache. . . .

"In sentence (4d), two nonrestrictive modifiers are added to

qualify the definite referent detective: the adjective famous and
the participial phrase created by the English mystery-writer
Agatha Christie. . . .

"In sentence (4e), a detective is modified by a relative clause."

(Günter Radden and René Dirven, Cognitive English Grammar.
John Benjamins, 2007)
  Modifiers and Complements
"The notions modifier and complement can now be
characterized explicitly in a way that reconstructs the normal
usage of these traditional terms: a 'modifier' is a conceptually
dependent predication that combines with a head, whereas a
'complement' is a conceptually autonomous predication that
combines with a head. The table is consequently a complement
(or 'argument') of above in above the table, and this entire
prepositional phrase functions as a modifier of lamp in the lamp
above the table."
(Ronald W. Langacker, "Cognitive Grammar."Cognitive
Linguistics: Basic Readings, ed. by Dirk Geeraerts. Mouton de
Gruyter, 2006)

Pronunciation: MOD-i-FI-er

What Are Modifiers? (with Examples)

A modifier is a word, phrase, or clause which functions as an adjective or
an adverb to describe a word or make its meaning more specific.

Examples of Modifiers
Modifiers can play the roles of adjectives or adverbs.

Modifiers As Adjectives

When a modifier is an adjective, it modifies a noun or a pronoun. (In

these examples, the modifiers are shaded, and the words being modified
are bold).

 Lee caught a small mackerel.

(Here, the adjective small modifies the noun mackerel.)

 Lee caught a small mackerel.

(Don't forget that articles (i.e., the, an, and a) are adjectives too.
Here, a modifies the noun mackerel as does small.)
 Lee caught another one.

(Here, the adjective another modifies the pronoun one.)

Modifiers As Adverbs

When a modifier is an adverb, it modifies a verb, an adjective, or another

adverb. For example:

 Lee accidentally caught a small whelk.

(Here, the adverb accidentally modifies the verb caught.)

 Lee caught an incredibly small mackerel.

(Here, the adverb incredibly modifies the adjective small.)

 Lee supposedly accidentally caught a small whelk.

(Here, the adverb supposedly modifies the adverb accidentally.)

A Modifier Can Be a Phrase or a Clause

Don't forget that phrases and clauses can play the roles of adjectives
and adverbs too. For example:

 Lee caught a mackerel smaller than a Mars bar.

(This is an adjective phrase modifying the noun mackerel.)

 Lee caught a mackerel of tiny proportions.

(This is a prepositional phrase functioning as an adjective. It modifies

the noun mackerel.)

 Lee caught a mackerel which was smaller than a Mars bar.

(This is an adjective clause modifying mackerel.)

 When alone, Lee tried to catch mackerel.

(This is an adverbial phrase (of time) modifying the verb tried.)

 When we left him alone, Lee set up his rod to catch mackerel.

(This is an adverbial clause (of time) modifying the verb set up.)

As shown by these examples, a modifier can come before whatever it

modifies (called a premodifier) or afterwards (called a postmodifier).

Read more about adjective phrases.

Read more about adjective clauses.
Read more about adverbial clauses.
Read more about adjective phrases.

Interactive Test
Your score:

Click on the one with a single-word modifier:

A. She likes cakes.

B. She likes my cakes.

Beware
Dangers with Modifiers
A modifier is best placed alongside whatever it's modifying. If your
modifier is too far away, it could lead to an ambiguous or wrong meaning
(first example below). Also, be aware that occasionally a modifier might
feasibly modify two ideas in the same sentence (second example). Also,
it is a very common mistake (believe it or not) for the thing being
modified to be missing from the sentence (third example).
Read more about misplaced modifiers.
Read more about squinting modifiers.
Read more about dangling modifiers.

See Also...
What are misplaced modifiers?What are dangling modifiers?What

are squinting modifiers?What is a limiting modifier?What are

prepositional phrases?What are indefinite adjectives?What are

interrogative adjectives?What are predicate adjectives?What are

possessive adjectives?What are articles?What are compound

 adjectives?What are demonstrative adjectives?What are possessive

adjectives?Glossary of grammatical terms

Please help to improve Grammar Monster.

 Do you disagree with something on this page?
 Did you spot a typo?
 Do you have any tips or examples to improve this page?

Please tell us using this form.

Do you have a grammar question?

You can ask us on our grammar forum.

Share this page.

You can use this link to share this page with your friends:

Get help with grammar.

 Sign up for a free trial of Grammarly's grammar checker.
 Sign up for our free grammar tips by email.
 Buy our book: "Grammar Rules."

Stuff you might have missed.

 Our top 50 punctuation errors
 Our gallery of tattoo fails with grammar or spelling errors
 Grammar mistakes graded by seriousness
 The origins of sayings and proverbs

Search
Search this site.

Follow Us on Twitter
 Grammatical modifier
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain
unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help
to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (March
2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

In grammar, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure.[1][circular reference] A

modifier is so called because it is said to modify (change the meaning of) another element in the
structure, on which it is dependent. Typically the modifier can be removed without affecting the
grammar of the sentence. For example, in the Englishsentence This is a red ball, the adjective red is
a modifier, modifying the noun ball. Removal of the modifier would leave This is a ball, which is
grammatically correct and equivalent in structure to the original sentence.
Other terms used with a similar meaning are qualifier (the word qualify may be used in the same way
as modify in this context), attribute, and adjunct. These concepts are often distinguished
from complements and arguments, which may also be considered dependent on another element,
but are considered an indispensable part of the structure. For example, in His face became red, the
word red might be called a complement or argument of became, rather than a modifier or adjunct,
since it cannot be omitted from the sentence.

Contents
[hide]

 1Premodifiers and postmodifiers

 2Types of modifiers
 3Ambiguous and dangling modifiers
 4See also
 5References

Premodifiers and postmodifiers[edit]

Modifiers may come either before or after the modified element (the head), depending on the type of
modifier and the rules of syntax for the language in question. A modifier placed before the head is
called a premodifier; one placed after the head is called a postmodifier. For example, in land
mines, the word land is a premodifier of mines, whereas in the phrase mines in wartime, the
phrase in wartime is a postmodifier of mines. A head may have a number of modifiers, and these
may include both premodifiers and postmodifiers. For example:

 that nice tall man from Canada whom you met

In this noun phrase, man is the head, nice and tall are premodifiers, and from Canada and whom
you met are postmodifiers.
Notice that in English, simple adjectives are usually used as premodifiers, with occasional
exceptions such as galore (which always appears after the noun) and the phrases time
immemorial and court martial (the latter comes from French, where most adjectives are
postmodifiers). Sometimes placement of the adjective after the noun entails a change of meaning:
compare a responsible person and the person responsible, or the proper town (the appropriate town)
and the town proper (the area of the town as properly defined).
It is sometimes possible for a modifier to be separated from its head by other words, as in The man
came who you bumped into in the street yesterday, where the relative clause who...yesterday is
separated from the word it modifies (man) by the word came. This type of situation is especially
likely in languages with free word order.

Types of modifiers[edit]
The two principal types of modifiers are adjectives (and adjectival phrases and adjectival clauses),
which modify nouns; and adverbs (and adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses), which modify other
parts of speech, particularly verbs, adjectives and other adverbs, as well as whole phrases or
clauses. (Not all adjectives and adverbs are necessarily modifiers, however; an adjective will
normally be considered a modifier when used attributively, but not when used predicatively –
compare the examples with the adjective red at the start of this article.)
Another type of modifier in some languages, including English, is the noun adjunct, which is a noun
modifying another noun (or occasionally another part of speech). An example is land in the
phrase land mines given above.
Examples of the above types of modifiers, in English, are given below.

 It was [a nice house]. (adjective modifying a noun, in a noun phrase)

 [The swiftly flowing waters] carried it away. (adjectival phrase, in this case a participial phrase,
modifying a noun in a noun phrase)
 She's [the woman with the hat]. (adjectival phrase, in this case a prepositional phrase,
modifying a noun in a noun phrase)
 I saw [the man whom we met yesterday]. (adjectival clause, in this case a relative clause,
modifying a noun in a noun phrase)
 His desk was in [the faculty office]. (noun adjunct modifying a noun in a noun phrase)
 [Put it gently in the drawer]. (adverb in verb phrase)
 He was [very gentle]. (adverb in adjective phrase)
 She set it down [very gently]. (adverb in adverb phrase)
 [Even more] people were there. (adverb modifying a determiner)
 It ran [right up the tree]. (adverb modifying a prepositional phrase)
 [Only the dog] was saved. (adverb modifying a noun phrase)
In some cases, noun phrases or quantifiers can act as modifiers:

 [A few more] workers are needed. (quantifier modifying a determiner)

 She's [two inches taller than her sister]. (noun phrase modifying an adjective)

Ambiguous and dangling modifiers[edit]

Main article: Dangling modifier
Sometimes it is not clear which element of the sentence a modifier is intended to modify. In many
cases this is not important, but in some cases it can lead to genuine ambiguity. For example:

 He painted her sitting on the step.

Here the participial phrase sitting on the step may be intended to modify her (meaning that the
painting's subject was sitting on the step), or it may be intended to modify the verb phrase painted
her or the whole clause he painted her (or just he), meaning in effect that it was the painter who was
sitting on the step.
Sometimes the element which the modifier is intended to modify does not in fact appear in the
sentence, or is not in an appropriate position to be associated with that modifier. This is often
considered a grammatical or stylistic error. For example:
  Walking along the road, a vulture loomed overhead.
Here whoever was "walking along the road" is not mentioned in the sentence, so the modifier
(walking along the road) has nothing to modify, except a vulture, which is clearly not the intention.
Such a case is called a "dangling modifier", or more specifically, in the common case where (as
here) the modifier is a participial phrase, a "dangling participle".

What Are Modifiers? How

to Use Them Correctly
GRAMMARLY ·

 Basics

What Are Modifiers?

A working definition for the word “modify” is to change or to alter something. This
definition is the same when considering the purpose of modifiers within a sentence.

A modifier changes, clarifies, qualifies, or limits a particular word in a sentence in

order to add emphasis, explanation, or detail. Modifiers tend to be descriptive words,
such as adjectives and adverbs. Modifier phrases, such as adjective clauses and
adverbial phrases, also exist and tend to describe adjectives and adverbs.

To illustrate the power of modifiers, consider the following simple sentence:

Sarah was a sure fit for junior prom queen.

Now consider the same sentence with multiple modifiers added:

The blonde girl named Sarah, who was a foreign exchange student from England,
quickly climbed the ladder of popularity during her junior year, smiling her way
through cheerleading and an ASB presidency term she inched near the top and was a
sure fit as junior prom queen.

The additional details in the sentence, by way of modifiers, engage the reader and
hold their attention.

Like most writing techniques, modifiers can be brilliant when used correctly and
effectively. On the other hand, if a modifier is used incorrectly, the meaning of the
 sentence can become blurred or distorted. This is true with dangling
modifiers and other problematic modifiers.

Misplaced Modifiers
One of the most common problems is where to place them. Specifically, modifiers can
cause confusion or unintentional humor in a sentence when they are placed too far
from the noun they are modifying. For example, consider the following sentence:

They bought a car for my sister they call Pumpkin.

In this sentence, Pumpkin is the car’s name, not the sister’s, but this isn’t clear. This
confusion and unintentional humor is the result of a misplaced modifier. To correct
this error, move the modifier closer to the noun it modifies:

They bought a car they call Pumpkin for my sister.

Limiting Modifiers Limiting modifiers such as only and always enforce restrictions on
the subject, noun, or pronoun they immediately precede. The following is a list of
other common limiting modifiers:

 Just

 Almost

 Hardly

 At first

 Simply

If a limiting modifier does not precede the subject or noun, the meaning of an entire
sentence can change. Notice the difference in the following sentences:

Only Jessica wants pizza.

This sentence implies that Jessica is the only person who wants pizza.

Jessica wants pizza only.

On the other hand, the sentence above indicates that Jessica wants pizza and nothing
else.
The best way to ensure that a limited modifier is used right in a sentence is to consider
the meaning that is to be conveyed and ensure the subject or noun associated with that
meaning is placed as close as possible to the limited modifier.

See also[edit]