What a dangling modifier is, how to spot one in your draft, and two ways to fix it
A dangling modifier is a phrase that ends up describing the wrong thing. "Walking into the meeting, the coffee spilled" says the coffee walked in. The obvious ones are funny; the subtle ones slip past careful writers and editors. Here are the red flags to look for, examples, and two ways to fix every one.
What it is
A modifier is a word or phrase that describes something. English readers attach an opening phrase to the first noun after the comma. When that noun is not the one doing the action, the phrase dangles.
- Dangling: Having worked in sales for twenty years, the book was easy to outline.
- Fixed: Having worked in sales for twenty years, I found the book easy to outline.
Chicago's blog, CMOS Shop Talk, points out that the problem is location, and that moving things around is usually the best solution. It treats dangling and misplaced modifiers together; the difference is whether the right word is somewhere in the sentence (misplaced) or missing entirely (dangling).
Four red flags
The same Chicago post lists the places danglers hide most often. Our examples:
| Red flag | Dangling | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
| An opening phrase with an -ing or -ed verb (a participle) | Edited twice, my publisher accepted the chapter. | My publisher accepted the chapter, which had been edited twice. |
| An opening "after" or "by" + -ing word (a gerund) | After interviewing forty clients, the pattern was clear. | After interviewing forty clients, I saw the pattern clearly. |
| "It" or "there" as the subject after the comma | Reading the reviews, it was obvious the title worked. | Reading the reviews, we could see the title worked. |
| Passive voice after the comma | Looking back, many mistakes were made in year one. | Looking back, I made many mistakes in year one. |
Red flags from CMOS Shop Talk (sections 5.112 to 5.113 in the 16th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style); examples written by Scribe Media.
Two ways to fix one
- Name the doer right after the comma. Whoever did the action in the opening phrase comes next. "Running late, I skipped the outline" (not "Running late, the outline was skipped").
- Give the phrase its own subject. Turn it into a full clause. "Because I was running late, the outline got skipped."
A third option, for misplaced modifiers in the middle of a sentence: move the phrase next to the word it describes. "She told the story of her company on a podcast that started in a garage" becomes "On a podcast, she told the story of her company, which started in a garage."
Checking your manuscript
Danglers cluster in openings: the first sentence of a paragraph, a scene or a chapter, where writers like to start with an -ing phrase. Search for sentences that start with words ending in "ing" or "ed" followed by a comma, and check who comes right after it. Nonfiction authors writing about their own experience often drop the "I," which is exactly how danglers happen.
A copy editor catches the rest; see what a copy editor does. For other sentence-level fixes, see comma splices and semicolon vs colon.
Start here: read the first sentence of every paragraph in one chapter. Any that opens with an -ing or -ed phrase, check that the next word after the comma is the one doing it.
Common questions
What is a dangling modifier?
A phrase that describes something, placed so it seems to describe the wrong thing, or nothing in the sentence at all. "Walking into the meeting, the coffee spilled" says the coffee was walking. The phrase is left dangling with no sensible word to attach to.
What is an example of a dangling modifier?
"After finishing the draft, the manuscript went to my editor." The manuscript did not finish the draft; I did. Fixed: "After finishing the draft, I sent the manuscript to my editor."
How do you fix a dangling modifier?
Two ways. Put the person or thing doing the action right after the opening phrase ("Walking into the meeting, I spilled the coffee"), or turn the phrase into a full clause with its own subject ("As I walked into the meeting, the coffee spilled").
What is the difference between a dangling and a misplaced modifier?
A misplaced modifier describes a word that is in the sentence but in the wrong place, so it seems to attach to something else. A dangling modifier has nothing in the sentence to attach to at all. Chicago's blog treats them together, and the fix is the same idea: put the description next to what it describes.
Sources: CMOS Shop Talk (The Chicago Manual of Style's blog), Sections 5.112–13 in the Spotlight (dangling participles and gerunds; misplaced modifiers; moving words as the usual fix; red flags: participles, gerunds, it or there as subject, passive voice; based on the 16th edition), read November 2, 2026. All examples and guidance were written by Scribe Media. Published by Scribe Media.