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Peter Sokolowski,
Editor at Large

Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Clauses

Posted Friday, March 05, 2010

Comments (11)

Editor Kory Stamper takes another look at a recent question.

In our last blog post, you will remember that one of our readers asked a question about the difference between these two sentences:

The old lady who was injured in the accident is now in the hospital.
The old lady who is now in the hospital was injured in the accident.

We discussed modifying clauses and their placement, but these two sentences give us a chance to talk about two specific kinds of modifying clauses: restrictive clauses and nonrestrictive clauses.

A restrictive clause identifies the noun or verb that precedes it and is needed to understand which person or thing is meant:

I preferred the soprano who sang last year.
The old lady who was injured in the accident is now in the hospital.

A nonrestrictive clause adds information about something but is not needed to understand which person or thing is meant:

My uncle, who I haven't seen in years, works for the government.
The old lady, who is now in the hospital, was injured in the accident.

As you can see, nonrestrictive clauses are separated from the rest of the sentence by one or two commas; restrictive clauses are not separated from the rest of the sentence by commas.

There are a few other interesting usage points when considering whether a clause is restrictive or nonrestrictive. Clauses that begin with which and refer to the entire main clause are nonrestrictive:

She ignored my advice, which surprised me.

When a restrictive clause begins with a relative pronoun or relative adverb, the pronoun or adverb can often be omitted:

The reason (that) he gave wasn't convincing.
That was the year (when) I went to Romania.

But this is never possible in nonrestrictive clauses, or in clauses where the pronoun is the subject:

CORRECT: He had a magazine, which he had finished reading.
INCORRECT: He had a magazine, he had finished reading.

CORRECT: They're the relatives who raised me.
INCORRECT: They're the relatives raised me.

In the two sentences we looked at last time, the first sentence ("The old lady who was injured in the accident is now in the hospital") uses a restrictive clause: there many be many old ladies in the hospital, but the one we are talking about now is the old lady who was injured in the accident. The second sentence ("The old lady, who is now in the hospital, was injured in the accident") uses a nonrestrictive clause: the main point of the sentence is that the old lady was injured--that she is in the hospital does not clarify which old lady we are talking about as there may be many old ladies at the hospital, but there is presumably only one old lady who was injured in the accident.

Join the discussion!

Mar 05, 2010 04:17:51 pm, albion:

thanx for restrictive and non restrictive clauses.

i often watch WWE and TNA wrestling , because i like commentary.

wrestling commentators use one sentence a lot

"IT CAN NOT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS"

i heard this sentence at least 10 times

what do you mean by

[ it can't get any better than this]

Mar 06, 2010 02:51:41 am, Dihan:

I would also like to add the following rules:

1-the reletive pronoun "that" must not used in nonrestrictive adjective clauses either.

2-after proper nouns adjective clauses must be nonrestrictive.

3-If an adjective clause puts in comma means All of.

Example: The children,who wanted to play, ran the field.(means all of the children).

The children who wanted to play ran the field.( means only some of the children)

Mar 07, 2010 05:22:26 am, takkie:

Hello, Mr. Sokolowski.

I have a question.

Your dictionary and your editor Kory say that "I will <do>" and "I'm going to <do>" are interchangeable when in the sense of "expected to happen."

Then, can you say "I'm going to get [answer] it" instead of "I'll get [answer] it" when you answer the ringing telephone?

If so, is the sentence "I'm going to get it" frequently used in this context?

Mar 09, 2010 02:12:25 am, alessio:

Hello Dear Editors,
I got one question:
Does "Can I take a rain check on the party next week?" mean "I want to change the date of the party to next week" or " I want to change next week's party to another time"?

Mar 09, 2010 09:26:43 am, Emma:

Thanks for the blog. It´s really helpful. I´m not sure there´s still time to participate in the discussion. Anyway, I sometimes wonder if I should use ‘who’ or ‘whom’ in sentences like the ones below and I would also like to know whether they sound okay or a little ‘strange’ (not idiomatic).

Sally sees internet as a completely new world and is surprised to have developed a warm friendship to Philip, a man who (1) she has never personally met. She has even told him that the other day:

_ You´re the only close friend I have who (2), though I´ve never really met, I really care and worry about.

Mar 09, 2010 04:15:30 pm, Kory Stamper:

Albion: The sentence "It can't get any better than this" means that whatever is happening now is the best, most exciting, etc. that could happen during this specific event. It is also sometimes used ironically to say that things can get better ("First the concert was cancelled, then the subway train broke down, and now it's raining. It just can't get any better than this."). Context is, as always, the key to knowing which sense is being used.

Dihan: Your rules are absolutely right! When used to introduce a modifying clause, the relative pronoun "that" is always restricive ("The companies that own the land are going bankrupt."). Clauses after proper nouns are generally nonrestrictive ("Kory, who is an editor at Merriam-Webster, sometimes writes blog posts for this Web site."). And adjective phrases like the one in your example are restrictive. Great job!

Takkie: When answering the telephone, "I'll get/answer it" is idiomatic. "I am going to get/answer it" isn't grammatically incorrect, but it's not idiomatic in this particular use.

Alessio: "Take a rain check" when used of events means you cannot attend the event as it was originally scheduled but hope to attend if or when it is rescheduled. The sentence "Can I take a rain check on the party next week" means that you cannot attend the party next week, but if the host reschedules the party, you will try to attend. While this particular sentence is grammatically correct, it sounds a bit off to my ear. "Take a rain check" is more often used of last-minute events, like dates, dinner, movies, etc. that the speaker has been invited to ("I can't go out for coffee tonight. Can I take a rain check?") and not for events that have been planned, like a party.

Emma: There is confusion even among native English speakers as to when to use "who" and when to use "whom"! Since this is a usage problem for everyone, native speaker and ESL learner alike, I think I will write a blog post to answer your question instead of answering it here.

Mar 10, 2010 03:12:28 am, alessio:

Thank you for your explanations to my question.
That's really helpful for me.

Mar 10, 2010 03:53:54 am, takkie:

Thank you for your answer, Kory.

Now I understand.

Mar 11, 2010 10:59:49 am, Emma:

Thank you, Kory. If you do write about the subject, could you please comment whether 'whom' is commonly used in spoken English? Or is it considered very formal?

Aug 09, 2010 04:35:52 am, shoppingtiffany:

Sep 09, 2010 05:53:52 am, hanlyone:

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