Here's a breakdown:
1. Modifiers:
* Modifiers are words, phrases, or clauses that provide additional information about another word or phrase in the sentence.
* They can be adjectives, adverbs, participial phrases, prepositional phrases, relative clauses, etc.
* Example: *The beautiful flower bloomed in the garden.* ("Beautiful" is an adjective modifying "flower")
2. Intervening:
* This means that the modifier comes *between* two other parts of the sentence.
3. Common Types of Intervening Modifiers:
* Prepositional Phrases: These are phrases that begin with a preposition (e.g., "in," "on," "of," "with") and modify a noun, pronoun, or verb.
* Example: *The dog with the brown spots barked loudly.*
* Participial Phrases: These are phrases that begin with a present participle (e.g., "running," "singing") or a past participle (e.g., "broken," "written") and act as adjectives.
* Example: *The car running down the street was red.*
* Relative Clauses: These are dependent clauses that begin with a relative pronoun (e.g., "who," "which," "that") and modify a noun.
* Example: *The book that I bought yesterday is really interesting.*
* Adverbial Phrases: These are phrases that act as adverbs and modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.
* Example: *The students studied very hard for the test.*
4. Importance of Intervening Modifiers:
* They enrich the sentence by providing context and detail.
* They add complexity and clarity to writing.
* They help to avoid repetition and make sentences more concise.
5. Placement of Intervening Modifiers:
* Intervening modifiers are usually placed after the word or phrase they modify, but they can also come before.
* When placing them, make sure they are grammatically correct and do not create confusion.
6. Potential Issues with Intervening Modifiers:
* Misplaced Modifiers: This happens when the modifier is placed in a way that makes the sentence ambiguous or nonsensical.
* Dangling Modifiers: This occurs when the modifier is not clearly attached to the word or phrase it is supposed to modify.
Example:
* Misplaced Modifier: *I saw a dog running down the street with a long tail.* (Is the street running down the street with a long tail?)
* Corrected: *I saw a dog with a long tail running down the street.*
* Dangling Modifier: *Running down the street, the dog barked loudly.* (Is the street running down the street?)
* Corrected: *As the dog ran down the street, it barked loudly.*
Understanding intervening modifiers helps to improve your understanding of sentence structure and enables you to write more clear and concise sentences.