In grammar, a modifier or qualifier is a word that modifies another word, a phrase, or a clause. In English, there are two kinds of modifiers: adjectives, which modify nouns and pronouns, and adverbs, which modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. A modifier phrase is a phrase that acts as a modifier; English has adjective phrases and adverb phrases. Neither modifiers nor modifier phrases are usually required by a clause's syntax; they are optional, and help modify or limit the extent of the meaning of the word or phrase they modify. Grammar is the study of rules governing the use of language. ... An adjective is a part of speech that modifies a noun or a pronoun, usually by describing it or making its meaning more specific. ... In English, a noun or noun substantive is a lexical category which can co-occur with (in)definite articles and attributive adjectives, and function as the head of a noun phrase. ... In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun phrase. ... An adverb is a part of speech. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... In grammar, a clause is a word or group of words with a subject and a verb. ... For other uses, see Syntax (disambiguation). ...

The adjective "green" in "a green tree" modifies and thus limits the meaning of the noun "a tree" in that it cannot be "a deciduous tree in winter", as the adverb "kindly" modifies the past tense of the verb "let" in "she kindly let me borrow her scissors". An adverb may also modify an adjective, such as in "abjectly poor". The past is the portion of the timeline that has already occurred; it is the opposite of the future. ... Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ...

Adverbial clauses (or particle phrases) such as "of course", "as it were", etc., commenting on the rest of the sentence or what has gone before in a previous sentence, may also be classed as modifiers, as in "Of course, he was never one to be silent" or "Unfortunately, we arrived late". An Adverbial Clause can best be described as what an Adverbial Phrase is, except the verb is a finite verb. ... In linguistics, the term particle is often employed as a useful catch-all lacking a strict definition. ...

Another way of defining a modifier is that it, the adjective or adverb, is more dependent on the part of the sentence it modifies, namely the noun or verb. The noun is independent and may exist on its own, such as "the tree" which then may be modified by "green", or the verb being independent as in "work" in "I work (every day)" may be modified by the adverb "hard" in "I work hard (every day)".

In compound nouns, the first of the two words so combined functions as a modifier, such as "elementary" in "elementary school", "mountain" in "mountain bike", etc. A compound is a word composed of more than one free morphemes. ...

Lastly, modifiers may be divided into pre-modifier + subject (noun) + post-modifier, as in "land (pre-modifier) mines in wartime (post-modifier)".

See also

• Dangling modifier