Question

Which sentence contains a restrictive phrase? Madeline (the neighbor’s cat) was sleeping peacefully in the sun. The novelist—my favorite by far—was kindly autographing books. Jonah, the fastest runner on the track team, injured his left ankle. The window in the living room provides the best natural sunlight.

Answer 1

The window in the living room provides the best natural sunlight

Answer 2

Restrictive clauses are defined as a clause, or sentence, which functions as an adjective to describe the subject, or word, it modifies. Usually, restrictive clauses are confused by people with non-restrictive clauses, because in both cases it seems that the added clause is just additional information to the main sentence. However, there is a big difference between the two structures. Non-restrictive clauses are usually added information that if it is taken out, will not alter the main sentence; this is why, non-restrictive clauses are always placed between commas, or other limiting grammatical punctuation marks. However, restrictive clauses are not simply added information that can be removed from the main sentence without altering its meaning; they are vital information that further explains the meaning within a sentence. This is why the correct answer here is the last option: "The window in the living room provides the best natural sunlight" because the clause "in the living room" modifies the information of the window to let the reader understand exactly the location and thus the importance, of that window.