So here’s a tip: I think you’re underestimating/underusing word order clues.
In English, simple modifiers tend to modify something within the next few words to their right. (And prepositional phrases tend to modify something a little to their left.) If you’re going to violate that, you should have a reason.
This has direct relevance to analyzing the sentence and also can be used for testing things. If you think a word modifies something, try putting it in front and reread to see how it works. Here are three examples with the moved word bolded and in the third one I also deleted a comma:
Creatures of Lummox’s breed always were ready for a little snack, even after a full meal.
Creatures of Lummox’s breed even were always ready for a little snack, after a full meal.
Creatures of Lummox’s breed even were always ready for a little snack after a full meal.
For each of these, consider:
- Does it make sense?
- Does it work grammatically?
- Did the meaning change compared to the original?
You can also try moving both words, in either order, with or without the comma, and see if any of those versions provide useful information:
Creatures of Lummox’s breed even always were ready for a little snack, after a full meal.
Creatures of Lummox’s breed always even were ready for a little snack, after a full meal.
Creatures of Lummox’s breed even always were ready for a little snack after a full meal.
Creatures of Lummox’s breed always even were ready for a little snack after a full meal.
@Eternity Follow along on this discussion but don’t worry about understanding all the details or doing activities.