{"id":11305,"date":"2016-04-04T21:26:50","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T21:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/?p=11305"},"modified":"2019-09-05T16:00:01","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T16:00:01","slug":"gmat-grammar-biweekly-noun-modifiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/blog\/gmat-grammar-biweekly-noun-modifiers\/","title":{"rendered":"GMAT Grammar Biweekly: Noun Modifiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ManhattanDid you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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If you\u2019ve been following these posts, you already have one kind of\u00a0 noun modifier safely stashed away \u2013 opening modifiers<\/a>. Let\u2019s expand your repertoire using the same sentence:<\/p>\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you recognize \u201cbarking ferociously\u201d 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\u2019re 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?<\/p>\n

In fact, the other noun modifier also describes \u201cthe dog.\u201d The author describes the dog, \u201cwhich was known to be vicious.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

See if you can spot the noun modifiers in each of the following sentences:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  1. Her son was a swimmer of great renown.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    A simple sentence, but if you break this down to the core, you get \u201cHer son was a swimmer.\u201d The excluded part \u201cof great renown,\u201d must be a modifier. It logically describes the type of swimmer her son was, so \u201cof great renown\u201d is a noun modifier that modifiers \u201cswimmer.\u201dIf we moved this modifier away from its noun, we run into trouble: \u201cHer son was a swimmer in the ocean of great renown.\u201d 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:<\/p>\n

    2. The truck found by the side of the road was in poor condition.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Again, you need the sentence core in order to pick out the modifiers. The core is \u201cThe truck was in poor condition.\u201d Therefore \u201cfound by the side of the road\u201d 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:<\/p>\n

    3. Jujutsu, a method of fighting initially designed to defeat an armed opponent, has evolved to fit modern needs.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Core: \u201cJujutsu has evolved.\u201d See if you can find what the two excluded parts modify.<\/p>\n

    First, \u201ca method\u2026\u201d describes Jujutsu. Noun modifier! Second, \u201cto fit modern needs\u201d is tougher. It\u2019s describing the way this has evolved. As it\u2019s written, that\u2019s not a noun. This is a non-noun modifier, aka an adverbial modifier. Dealing with adverbial modifiers is another post, for now, let\u2019s disregard it.<\/p>\n

    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\u2019s a noun, that\u2019s 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\u2019t be done without changing the meaning of the sentence.<\/p>\n

    You\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

    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<\/strong>. These are always noun modifiers, so you can quickly jump to checking that the meaning works out.<\/p>\n

    Side note: \u201cthat\u201d should technically be on this list as well, but as it doesn\u2019t use a comma and can appear in non-modifier forms, it\u2019s a bit more complicated, and we\u2019ll save it for a \u201cthat\u201d exclusive post.<\/p>\n

    Check out these sentences and see if you can spot the errors:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    1. Joey ate tons of ice cream and cookies, who was known for his appetite.<\/em><\/p>\n

    The perfume smelled nice, which was a relief to Sara, who had an overdeveloped sense of smell.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    2. Joey, who was known for his appetite, ate tons of ice cream and cookies.<\/em><\/p>\n

    The second sentence has two relative pronouns: which and who. The \u201cwho\u201d 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\u2019s wrong with the \u201cwhich\u201d? It\u2019s more subtle than the first example. Instead of modifying the wrong noun, it\u2019s modifying a noun that doesn\u2019t exist in the sentence. Try to pinpoint what was a relief to Sara. It\u2019s not the perfume, nor is it the smell. It\u2019s the entire idea that the perfume smelled nice. That\u2019s not a noun, it\u2019s a clause. This needs an adverbial modifier. You\u2019d have to create a noun to make the sentence work with \u201cwhich.\u201d<\/p>\n

    3. The perfume smelled nice, a fact which was a relief to Sara, who had an overdeveloped sense of smell.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Practicing differentiation between noun modifiers and adverbial modifiers, then make sure the noun modifier is close to the noun it\u2019s describing. If you want a more thorough discussion of modifiers, visit Chapter 6 of our Sentence Correction Strategy Guide<\/a>.\u00a0?<\/p>\n

    \n

    Of course, the most in-depth way to learn the ins-and-outs of the GMAT is to take a complete course<\/a> with one of\u00a0our master instructors. You can try out any first session for free! No strings attached. We promise.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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    \"Emily<\/a>Emily Madan<\/a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Philadelphia.\u00a0<\/strong>Having scored in the 99th percentile of the GMAT (770) and LSAT (177), Emily is committed to helping others achieve their full potential.\u00a0In the classroom, she loves bringing concepts to life and her greatest thrill is that moment when a complex topic suddenly becomes clear to her students. Check out Emily\u2019s upcoming GMAT courses here<\/a>. Your first class is always free!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here. If you\u2019ve been following these posts, you already have one kind of\u00a0 noun modifier safely stashed away \u2013 opening modifiers. Let\u2019s expand your repertoire using […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[873,929,930,26,10],"tags":[52764,267,52817,52791,52818],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-current-studiers","category-gmat-prep","category-gmat-study-guide","category-sentence-correction","category-verbal-on-gmat","tag-adverbial-modifiers","tag-gmat-grammar","tag-noun-modifiers","tag-opening-modifiers","tag-relative-pronouns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11305"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11327,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11305\/revisions\/11327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11305"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}