ShmoopTube

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Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by misplaced modifiers. We put signs up all

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over town, but as of yet, no report of their whereabouts.

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How should you change the below sentence, if at all?

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Stepping to avoid the large hole, I carefully tripped and fell.

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In the original sentence, the

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adverb "carefully" modifies the verbs "tripped and fell."

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Remember, adverbs are modifiers that only describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.

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When we see this particular modification we have to ask ourselves: when was the last time

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we saw somebody trip and fall, carefully?

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We're going to go out on a limb and say that choice (A) is incorrect because

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"carefully" is modifying the wrong thing.

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Choice (B) actually makes the same mistake, so we'll go ahead and cross it out as well.

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(D) makes a similar mistake to (A), only this time the speaker tells us that he or she "tripped

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carefully," but apparently "fell" in a normal way.

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Tripping is almost always something that happens when people are being careless not careful.

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(C) is the correct answer. Here, "carefully" modifies "stepping," and the sentence makes

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it understood that that speaker was doing his or her best to avoid what was apparently

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a treacherous hole.

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All right everyone, now watch your step.

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