Restrictive and Non-restrictive Adjectival Clauses
[ Home ] [ Up ] [ The Great Game ] [ The Missing Auxiliary ] [ Clause Reduction with the Kentucky Quilt ] [ Answers to Combining Clauses ] [ Practice with Demonstratives ] [ Creating Simple Sentences ] [ Creating Adverbial Complex Sentences ] [ A Challenge with Finite Verb Phrases ] [ Changing Indirect and Direct Quotes ] [ Writing Direct and Indirect Quotes ] [ Identifying Prepositions ] [ Restrictive and Non-restrictive Adjectival Clauses ]

 

Table of contents

How to Find Information

Schedule

Members

Join

There are two kinds of adjectival clauses.
 restrictive 
 non-restrictive

A  Lesson in Restrictive and Non-restrictive Adjectival Clauses   

  Restrictive adjectival clauses are dependent adjectival clauses  which provide necessary and required information if the referent is to be understood. The independent clause and dependent clause are not separated by any punctuation. 
 Non-restrictive adjectival clauses are dependent adjectival clauses which contain additional information that is not required to identify the subject of the independent clause.  The independent clause and dependent clause are separated by a comma.

Examples of Restrictive and Non-restrictive Adjectival Clauses 

Strawberries that are large and juicy command a premium price. 

 RESTRICTIVE

The reference is restricted to strawberries that are large and juicy. If you can use "that," the adjectival clause is restrictive!!   

My grandmother, who  lives in Chicago, loved to cook.  

 NON-RESTRICTIVE

I have only ONE grandmother, and she lives in Chicago.  

My grandmother who lived in Chicago loved to cook.

 RESTRICTIVE 

I have two grandmothers, and I am referring to the one who lived in Chicago.

The girl whom I saw last night was eating fruit.

 RESTRICTIVE 

I saw only one specific girl.   

Watermelons and cantaloupes, which are part of the melon family, ripen in August.

 NON-RESTRICTIVE

All watermelons and cantaloupes are part of the melon family.   

The students who brought lunch must clean up.

 RESTRICTIVE

Only some students brought in lunch.

Click here for adjectival sentences