Noun Modifiers modifying slightly faraway noun

Question

The fifth car in the row, which is black in color, belongs to Jack.

Here, Which can modify fifth car - slightly faraway now as row can't be black in color and in the row won't make sense if placed else where. But this is incorrect according to Wiley's SC Grail. Please help

Source: Wiley's SC Grail.

AndrewN · Answer

Can you say with  certainty  that the  which  clause does  not  modify the noun right before the comma,  row ? That is the real issue here. Maybe you could make a case for  which  to modify  car , but does it necessarily have to? Again, what if I say the grammar suggests it modifies  row ? A row (of something)  could  be black. Perhaps a row of parking spots had been painted black to designate funeral parking, or somebody had been inspired by the Rolling Stones' classic rock song and taken to black-washing some pavement. On another note, the prepositional phrase could be moved to the head of the sentence without changing the meaning:

In the row, the fifth car, which is black in color, belongs to Jack.

I am not sure I like the seemingly unnecessary  in color , and if the above sentence were in a lineup with four other answer choices, I would look for alternatives that lopped off the reference to color in general, but I would be happier with the less ambiguous grammatical structure, in any case. The takeaway: a  which  clause should be considered with caution not because of what you think it refers to, but because of what it could refer to, which is typically the noun closest to it. Many such clauses on the GMAT™ fail a basic test for unintended meaning, just as the sentence you shared above does.

I hope that helps. If you have further questions, feel free to ask.

- Andrew

monikakumar · Answer

Is it because the fifth car itself identifies the one that belongs to Jack,so special mention for color is not important?

AndrewN · Answer

Hello again,  monikakumar . To be sure, there is no problem with mentioning the color of the car, but there is no need, in my mind, to identify  black  as  black in color . The latter adds nothing in the way of essential meaning that the former does not convey. Compare:

1) In the row, the fifth car, which is black in color, belongs to Jack.
2) In the row, the fifth car, which is black, belongs to Jack.

I would choose sentence 2) any day of the week over sentence 1), simply because I understand that the car is black from the terser version of the  which  clause. That was all I was hoping to say on the issue of color in my earlier post. Still, if you have further questions, you know how to get my attention: just ask.

- Andrew

VerbalBot · Answer

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Noun Modifiers modifying slightly faraway noun

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