Defining vs non-defining clauses worksheet

Name: ____________________   Date: ____________________

Answer key & explanations

1. The students who passed celebrated. — Without commas, the clause identifies which students celebrated.
2. My tutor, who lives nearby, cycles. — The commas mark supplementary information.
3. My car, which is old, works. — A non-defining clause about a thing uses which.
4. Omit the object pronoun — The email you sent arrived is grammatical: the object relative pronoun is omitted.
5. Whether the clause identifies or adds information — The meaning and identifying role determine the punctuation.
6. Only the brothers living abroad. — The defining clause restricts the group to brothers living abroad.
7. Extra information about the brothers. — The commas mark a non-defining clause, giving extra information about the identified group.
8. The phone which I bought is broken. — Which can become that in the defining clause without commas, but not in the two non-defining clauses.
9. The bag that I lost was red. — That is an object in the first sentence. Non-defining pronouns and full-clause subject pronouns stay.
10. The boxes that were damaged were replaced. — The defining clause selects damaged boxes rather than presenting all boxes as damaged.

Want more defining vs non-defining clauses practice?

The online topic pack has 40 exercises across four sets, including sentence work and original writing. This printable covers the ten-question warm-up.