Relative Clauses
A defining relative clause identifies which specific person or thing you mean. It is essential to the meaning and has no commas: "The students who passed can move on." A non-defining clause adds extra information about a noun that is already specific. It is set off by commas and can be removed without changing the core meaning: "My sister, who lives in Toronto, is visiting next week."
A defining relative clause identifies which specific person or thing you mean. It is essential to the meaning and has no commas: "The students who passed can move on." A non-defining clause adds extra information about a noun that is already specific. It is set off by commas and can be removed without changing the core meaning: "My sister, who lives in Toronto, is visiting next week."
Practice
Which sentence is correctly punctuated?
The reportI submitted yesterday contained a major error.
Put the words in the correct order (non-defining clause):