GMAT Grammar Biweekly: Noun Modifiers
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If you’ve been following these posts, you already have one kind of noun modifier safely stashed away – opening modifiers. Let’s expand your repertoire using the same sentence:
Barking ferociously, the dog, which was known to be vicious, ran down the street, chasing the boy who had been poking at it just moments before.
If you recognize “barking ferociously” as an opening modifier, excellent! Opening modifiers are noun modifiers too. Why? Well, because they modify nouns. Profound, right? We started with them because they’re so specific. Not only do they modify nouns, they modify subjects (in this case, the dog). But the sentence has another, slightly less specific, noun modifier. Take another look. What else describes a noun?
In fact, the other noun modifier also describes “the dog.” The author describes the dog, “which was known to be vicious.” That clause is describing the dog, which is a noun, so it makes it into our category of noun modifiers.Noun modifiers must be positioned as close as possible to the noun they modify.
See if you can spot the noun modifiers in each of the following sentences:
- Her son was a swimmer of great renown.
A simple sentence, but if you break this down to the core, you get “Her son was a swimmer.” The excluded part “of great renown,” must be a modifier. It logically describes the type of swimmer her son was, so “of great renown” is a noun modifier that modifiers “swimmer.”If we moved this modifier away from its noun, we run into trouble: “Her son was a swimmer in the ocean of great renown.” The ocean is now the noun that is being modified and the meaning is just crazy. Try another sentence with a different kind of noun modifier:
2. The truck found by the side of the road was in poor condition.
Again, you need the sentence core in order to pick out the modifiers. The core is “The truck was in poor condition.” Therefore “found by the side of the road” is a modifier. The only logical thing it can modify is the truck. Truck is a noun, we just found another noun modifier. Ok, last one:
3. Jujutsu, a method of fighting initially designed to defeat an armed opponent, has evolved to fit modern needs.
Core: “Jujutsu has evolved.” See if you can find what the two excluded parts modify.
First, “a method…” describes Jujutsu. Noun modifier! Second, “to fit modern needs” is tougher. It’s describing the way this has evolved. As it’s written, that’s not a noun. This is a non-noun modifier, aka an adverbial modifier. Dealing with adverbial modifiers is another post, for now, let’s disregard it.
So what patterns did you notice with the noun modifiers? The second two modify the subject of the sentence, but the first doesn’t. As long as it’s a noun, that’s fine. More importantly, the noun modifier is immediately next to the noun it’s modifying. Go back to the sentences and try moving the noun modifier further from the noun. It can’t be done without changing the meaning of the sentence.
You’ll have to check that the meaning and the grammar line up. If the modifier is meant to modify a noun, grammatically it has to be near that noun.
Keep a particularly careful eye open for relative pronouns. While there are lots of relative pronouns, you should memorize and recognize the most common ones: which, where, when, who, whose, whom. These are always noun modifiers, so you can quickly jump to checking that the meaning works out.
Side note: “that” should technically be on this list as well, but as it doesn’t use a comma and can appear in non-modifier forms, it’s a bit more complicated, and we’ll save it for a “that” exclusive post.
Check out these sentences and see if you can spot the errors:
1. Joey ate tons of ice cream and cookies, who was known for his appetite.
The perfume smelled nice, which was a relief to Sara, who had an overdeveloped sense of smell.
The first sentence runs into trouble because the modifier is modifying the wrong noun. As written, it means the ice cream and cookies were known for his appetite. Obviously, we have a problem with that meaning. The fix is to move the modifier closer to the appropriate noun.
2. Joey, who was known for his appetite, ate tons of ice cream and cookies.
The second sentence has two relative pronouns: which and who. The “who” modifier is correct. Sara is the person with the overdeveloped sense of smell, and she is also the noun immediately before the comma. But what’s wrong with the “which”? It’s more subtle than the first example. Instead of modifying the wrong noun, it’s modifying a noun that doesn’t exist in the sentence. Try to pinpoint what was a relief to Sara. It’s not the perfume, nor is it the smell. It’s the entire idea that the perfume smelled nice. That’s not a noun, it’s a clause. This needs an adverbial modifier. You’d have to create a noun to make the sentence work with “which.”
3. The perfume smelled nice, a fact which was a relief to Sara, who had an overdeveloped sense of smell.
Practicing differentiation between noun modifiers and adverbial modifiers, then make sure the noun modifier is close to the noun it’s describing. If you want a more thorough discussion of modifiers, visit Chapter 6 of our Sentence Correction Strategy Guide. ?
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