Select the sentence that reflects the correct use of punctuation.

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To determine the proper punctuation, we examine how the relative clause attaches to the noun phrase.
Option a: 'The man, who stole my wallet, was arrested last night.' The commas around 'who stole my wallet' create a nonrestrictive (nonessential) clause, implying that stealing my wallet is additional information about 'the man' and that the speaker already identified him as 'the man' without needing that clause. If the intention is to specify which man, the sentence would be restrictive and should not have commas. Therefore this option misuses punctuation for a restrictive meaning.
Option b: 'The man who stole my wallet; was arrested last night.' The semicolon here incorrectly separates two elements of the sentence. A semicolon joins independent clauses or separates items in a list; it does not pair a relative clause with the main clause in this context. This makes the sentence grammatically incorrect.
Option c: 'The man who stole my wallet was arrested last night.' This sentence uses no commas around the restrictive relative clause 'who stole my wallet,' which correctly specifies which man is being talked about. The structure is standard for identifying a particular person without adding extraneous, nonessential information, so the punctuation is appropriate here.
In summary, the correct use of punctuation aligns with a restrictive relative clause in option c, while options a and b either imply an unintended nonessential clause or misuse a sentence terminator. Hence, option c reflects the proper punctuation for this sentence.

ENG-1002-018 - 11967 - 202501 Quiz 1

Select the sentence that reflects the correct use of punctuation.

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