ENG II B: COMMAS EXERCISE LEARNING TARGET 4 FORMATIVE 5 EXERCISE 4
LEARNING TARGET 4: Use commas to set off nonessential clauses and nonessential phrases. A nonessential
clause or participial phrase adds information that is not necessary to the main idea in the sentence.
DIRECTIONS
Determine whether each of the following sentences is punctuated correctly. On the line
provided, write C if the punctuation is correct or I if it is incorrect. If a sentence is punctuated incorrectly, correct
it by writing the word preceding the comma and the comma.
EXAMPLES
1. That boy who just ran by is my teammate.
I boy, by,_____________________________________________________________________
2. The ring, which belonged to my grandmother, is very precious to me.
C______________________________________________________________________________
1.
The friendliest squirrel, which Nicole had named Swifty, came brazenly to the
patio door each day.
_____________________________________________________________________
2.
Sara whom I have known for years lives next door to me.
_____________________________________________________________________
3.
The town hall which was built more than a century ago looked out of place among
the modern buildings.
_____________________________________________________________________
4.
The halls of the old high school built for half its present enrollment were jammed
between classes.
_____________________________________________________________________
5.
The students, tired from studying late into the night, filed into the examination
room.________________________________________________________________
6.
We enjoyed our vacation, which we had planned for months.
_____________________________________________________________________
7.
A major reason for the success of public transit is that cars are forbidden in the
downtown area, and the stores and specialty shops many of which have been
redesigned can be reached only by bus, cycle, or foot.__________________________
8.
The group of students many of whom had not heard the news waited anxiously for
the announcement. ___________________________________________
BE SURE TO TURN YOUR PAPER OVER
KMH
taken from Warriner’s English Composition and Grammar Workbook (Green)
page 246
rev.04/14
9.
Tennis which he found challenging was Alexander’s favorite sport.
_____________________________________________________________________
10.
Catherine, feeling very surprised, was given an award for her
photographs._________________________________________________________
11. Saturday night’s performance which many people had planned to attend was
cancelled because of rain.
_____________________________________________________________________
KMH
12.
The weather which had been warm and sunny suddenly became cold and windy.
_____________________________________________________________________
13.
The poisonous coral snake, which has beautiful markings, can be mistaken for the
non-poisonous king snake.
_____________________________________________________________________
14.
We found our old house which looked much smaller than I
remembered.__________________________________________________________
taken from Warriner’s English Composition and Grammar Workbook (Green)
page 246
rev.04/14