What Are the Difference Between Restrictive and Non-Restrictive Clauses?
When you’re trimming down a piece of writing to make it more succinct and brief, it’s not unusual to go after phrases and clauses that don’t really contribute an integral piece into individual statement’s meaning. That’s when the concept of restrictive and non-restrictive clauses usually come in. Restrictive Clauses To put it simply, these are ones that are necessary to deliver a sentence’s meaning. For instance, when saying “The computer that has the lightest weight is the one I want,” there is no way to remove the clause “that has the lightest weight” without rendering the sentence meaningless. As such, it is a restrictive clause which will need to be kept to maintain your statement’s clarity. Non-restrictive Clauses Non-restrictive clauses, on the other hand, are ones that can be removed without affecting the overall message. For instance, when saying “The computer that I want, which is very light, sits on the third row,” the clause “which is very light” can be easily removed withou
