It's so widespread, and so meddlesome, that it deserves a special note. It was designed by and for people who like high-tech toys, not by and for people who write. It doesn't understand that possessives and contractions call for apostrophes , not open single quotation marks, although that problem is hard to spot with the naked eye. More serious, though, is Word's habit of turning initial apostrophes into open single quotation marks. See also Spelling Checkers and Grammar Checkers for comments on how word processors' attempts to be helpful can get in the way of good writing.
Modifiers are usually adjectives or adverbs .