Grammar Pitfalls Vocabulary

a modifier that doesn't logically attach to anything in the sentence

“Walking to school, the sun shone brightly. (The sun wasn't walking.)”

Origin: From the modifier 'dangling' without a logical subject

a modifier too far from the word it modifies

“She almost drove her car into every mailbox. (She didn't almost—she almost hit them.)”

Origin: From the modifier being in the wrong place

placing an adverb between 'to' and the verb

“To boldly go where no one has gone before. Once forbidden, now often acceptable.”

Origin: From splitting the infinitive form (to + verb)

joining independent clauses with only a comma

“He ran fast, he still lost. (Use semicolon, period, or conjunction.)”

Origin: From 'splicing' clauses together with just a comma

joining independent clauses with no punctuation

“He ran fast he still lost. (Missing punctuation between clauses.)”

Origin: From 'fusing' sentences without proper separation

unclear antecedent for a pronoun

“John told Mike he was wrong. (Who was wrong—John or Mike?)”

Origin: From ambiguous reference of pronouns

mismatch between subject and verb number

“The list of items are long. (Should be 'is'—list is singular.)”

Origin: From disagreement in grammatical number

breaking parallelism in a series

“She likes hiking, to swim, and runs. (Should be: hiking, swimming, and running.)”

Origin: From failure to maintain parallel grammatical forms