Which sentence uses a restrictive clause correctly to identify the book?

Which sentence uses a restrictive clause correctly to identify the book?

• A. The book that lies on the table is mine.
• B. The book, that lies on the table, is mine.
• C. The book lies on the table that is mine.
• D. The book that lies on the table is mine.

Answer: (A)

When you want to identify exactly which noun you’re talking about, you use a restrictive relative clause that follows the noun and you don’t put commas around it. Here, the clause that lies on the table tells us which book is being spoken about—the one that is on the table. That makes the meaning precise: among possible books, it’s the book on the table that belongs to the speaker. If you add commas around the clause, the sentence becomes nonrestrictive and sounds like extra information, not a identification of which book. And if the clause is attached to the wrong noun, the sentence would identify something else (like the table) instead of the book. So the construction with no commas after the noun and with that immediately after it correctly identifies the book.

When you want to identify exactly which noun you’re talking about, you use a restrictive relative clause that follows the noun and you don’t put commas around it. Here, the clause that lies on the table tells us which book is being spoken about—the one that is on the table. That makes the meaning precise: among possible books, it’s the book on the table that belongs to the speaker.

If you add commas around the clause, the sentence becomes nonrestrictive and sounds like extra information, not a identification of which book. And if the clause is attached to the wrong noun, the sentence would identify something else (like the table) instead of the book. So the construction with no commas after the noun and with that immediately after it correctly identifies the book.