Modifiers: Noun vs verb, How to identify?

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Resp007: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 35; Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2013 1:29 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 2 times; GMAT Score:680

by Resp007 » Fri Nov 15, 2013 6:29 pm

HI,
I have been preparing for a while now and have found "modifiers" as one of the most important area in SC that needs to be aced if I want my SC accuracy to improve further.

I feel the identification of modifiers becomes important at high level questions, and mostly when most of the sentence's part is underlined, as I cannot waste my time to understand the meaning of the sentence, I feel if I can understand the role of a modifier phrase then I can understand the error that arises when this clause is moved around with respect to other clauses/phrases.

So the question is how to identify whether a phrase is a verb or noun modifier?
Stacey / Ron / Rich please?

Thanks,
Resp007

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Fri Nov 15, 2013 6:29 pm

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Mike@Magoosh: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 768; Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2011 4:18 pmFollowed by: 140 members; Location: Berkeley, CA; Thanked: 387 times

by Mike@Magoosh » Mon Nov 18, 2013 11:47 am

Resp007 wrote:HI,
I have been preparing for a while now and have found "modifiers" as one of the most important area in SC that needs to be aced if I want my SC accuracy to improve further.

I feel the identification of modifiers becomes important at high level questions, and mostly when most of the sentence's part is underlined, as I cannot waste my time to understand the meaning of the sentence, I feel if I can understand the role of a modifier phrase then I can understand the error that arises when this clause is moved around with respect to other clauses/phrases.

So the question is how to identify whether a phrase is a verb or noun modifier?
Stacey / Ron / Rich please?

Thanks,
Resp007

Dear Resp007,

I'm happy to help.

First of all, here's a link on modifiers in general:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/modifiers- ... orrection/
Modifiers are part of what the GMAT calls Logical Predication, one of the most important areas tested on the GMAT:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/logical-pr ... orrection/

A modifying phrase or clause that modifies a noun thereby acts as an adjective, and is therefore called an adjectival phrase or clause:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-gramm ... d-clauses/
A modifying phrase or clause that modifies a verb or an entire phrase thereby acts as an adverb, and is therefore called an adverbial phrase or clause
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-gramm ... d-clauses/

One particularly tricky class of modifiers is the participles and participial phrases, because these can modify nouns, or verbs, or an entire clause.
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/participle ... -the-gmat/

Those are some general thoughts. Part of this is understanding the flow of the sentence and how every parts relates to every other part. This is a hard thing to explain in the abstract. If you provide some sentence that confused you, we can discuss their structure.

Mike

Magoosh GMAT Instructor
https://gmat.magoosh.com/

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Resp007: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 35; Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2013 1:29 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 2 times; GMAT Score:680

by Resp007 » Tue Nov 19, 2013 7:41 am

HI Mike,
How are you ?

Thanks for the reply.

I was looking for some thumb rule kind of thing as seen for the IDIOMS. I am able to recognize, for most of the cases, the type of modifier and avoid any silly mistakes but still I am not very much comfortable with them so I posted a question here. I thought, after posting, that it may be too general of a question but hey it would have benefited many students.

I will ask specifics when I will find a good question.
The best, I have read on the modifiers, is to judge as per the context that is whether a modifier is a noun or a verb on Manhattan forums...

Cheers,
Resp007

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Mike@Magoosh: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 768; Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2011 4:18 pmFollowed by: 140 members; Location: Berkeley, CA; Thanked: 387 times

by Mike@Magoosh » Tue Nov 19, 2013 10:27 am

Resp007 wrote:HI Mike,
How are you ?
Thanks for the reply.

I was looking for some thumb rule kind of thing as seen for the IDIOMS. I am able to recognize, for most of the cases, the type of modifier and avoid any silly mistakes but still I am not very much comfortable with them so I posted a question here. I thought, after posting, that it may be too general of a question but hey it would have benefited many students.
I will ask specifics when I will find a good question.
The best, I have read on the modifiers, is to judge as per the context that is whether a modifier is a noun or a verb on Manhattan forums...

Cheers,
Resp007

Dear Resp007,
Understand that the category of "modifiers" is so broad, so varied, that it would be impossible to formulate a simple "rule of thumb" to cover all cases. You want a simple rule, and grammar is not like that. You have to understand the living language and all its variety.

My friend, I have a hard question for you. How much do you read? I don't mean GMAT RC passages, and I don't mean light entertaining reading. How much reading that makes you work do you do? If you really want to build your intuition for grammar, you need to read hard, challenging material, at least an hour a day, over and above any GMAT preparation you are doing. Here's a blog recommending what to read:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-reading-list/
There's no quick formula for understanding sophisticated grammar. There's no substitute for the hard work of reading every day.

Does this make sense?
Mike

Last edited by Mike@Magoosh on Mon Nov 25, 2013 10:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

Magoosh GMAT Instructor
https://gmat.magoosh.com/

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lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 amFollowed by: 1535 members; Thanked: 2256 times; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Mon Nov 25, 2013 6:12 am

I received a private message regarding this thread.

Resp007 wrote:I feel the identification of modifiers becomes important at high level questions, and mostly when most of the sentence's part is underlined, as I cannot waste my time to understand the meaning of the sentence, I feel if I can understand the role of a modifier phrase then I can understand the error that arises when this clause is moved around with respect to other clauses/phrases.

I'm not clear on what the bold part means.

If it means "I think that trying to understand the meaning is a waste of time", then ... well, that outlook needs to change right now.

If it means "I need to understand the meaning quickly", then, ok. But don't rush that part. If it takes you a while to figure out the meaning, it's worth whatever time you spend doing so.

So the question is how to identify whether a phrase is a verb or noun modifier?

There are lots and lots of different kinds of modifiers, so this question is far too general for a single forum post. If you have specific examples to ask about, fire away.

If you are asking about modifiers in general, your best bet is to check out the modifiers chapter in our SC strategy guide. That will be a good start.

Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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On peut poser des questions Ã Ron en franÃ§ais
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Resp007: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 35; Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2013 1:29 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 2 times; GMAT Score:680

by Resp007 » Tue Nov 26, 2013 6:51 pm

HI Ron,
Thanks for the reply.

This question, as to how to identify Mdofiers, arose when I was at: OG13, SC, Q#7.
The intricate structure of the compound insect eye, having hundreds of miniature eves called ommatidia, help explain why scientists have assumed that it evolved independently of the vertebrate eye.

(A) having hundreds of miniature eyes called ommatidia, help explain why scientists have assumed that it
(B) having hundreds of miniature eyes that are called ommatidia, helps explain why scientists have assumed that fhey
(C) with its hundreds of miniature eyes that are called ommatidia, helps explain scientists' assuming that they
(D) with its hundreds of miniature eyes called ommatidia, help explain scientists' assuming that it
(E) with its hundreds of miniature eyes called ommatidia, helps explain why scientists have assumed that it

Here, I was able to cross out Having... (A and B) since its implying as if the structure had miniature eyes.
So I am left with all the options starting with With...
Here, it doesn't matter what "with.." is modifying as all the remaining options are starting with with..
and there are other ways of eliminating the incorrect options.
However while analysing I wasn't sure what with.. part is modifying. And so wanted to understand how to identify what kind of modifier it is and in general how to identify in general?

BTW, I am studying from the MGMAT SC guide.
Thanks

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lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 amFollowed by: 1535 members; Thanked: 2256 times; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Thu Nov 28, 2013 4:47 am

Resp007 wrote:However while analysing I wasn't sure what with.. part is modifying.

It's in the correct answer. Don't forget -- If something is in the correct answer, you can always figure out how it works, just by using the intended meaning.

Here, in context it's clear that "with its xxxxx" is intended to refers to the compound insect eye. Because that modifier appears in the correct answer, that's exactly what it must be modifying. (If it were modifying anything else, it would be wrong!)

Same thing with any other correct answer.
You may not pay much attention to the correct answers while you're solving the problem (because you'll mostly be thinking about elimination), but, when you go back and review the problems, you should spend a good bit of time with the correct answer. It's the only place where you can be absolutely certain about how everything works.

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