Modifiers, as their name implies, are words that modify. Specifically, they’re words that modify their sentences’ meanings. How do you specify what somebody looks like? With modifiers. How do you describe how an action is being performed? With a

How are modifiers structured?

Typically, modifiers are placed right beside the noun they’re modifying. Usually, this means right before or after the noun:

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  My calico cat is always by my side.
  
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  The girls ordered a pizza without sauce.
  

This is also true when they’re modifying a verb or adjective:

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  He bought a bright blue van.
  
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  I told the students to listen carefully to the lecture.
  

When a modifier isn’t in this position, it can make the sentence confusing for a reader or listener. This is known as a misplaced modifier. Here are a few examples of misplaced modifiers:

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  They bought a car for my sister they call Pumpkin.
  
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  We built a house for them out of bricks.
  

In the first sentence, who is Pumpkin? Is it the sister or the car? In the second, did they run out of bricks? Did we build a house using bricks? Did they previously live in bricks?
Here are the same two sentences with their modifiers in the correct positions:

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  They bought a car that they call Pumpkin for my sister. 
  
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  We built a house out of bricks for them.
  

See the difference?

Squinting and dangling modifiers

One type of misplaced modifier is known as a dangling modifier. A dangling modifier is a modifier that doesn’t modify any specific word in the sentence. Here are a few examples:

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  After reading the book, the movie was great.
  
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  Before leaving, a squirrel crossed the sidewalk.
  

You might be able to guess what these sentences are communicating, but they feel awkward and choppy. That’s because their modifiers aren’t actually modifying any nouns. Clearer ways of writing these sentences are:

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