Hello. This question is incomplete. The full question is:
Read the sentence.
The canyon, formed by years of erosion, was a breathtaking sight to behold.
What best describes the underlined part of this sentence?
restrictive phrase
nonrestrictive phrase
restrictive clause
nonrestrictive clause
Answer:
nonrestrictive phrase
Explanation:
A nonrestrictive phrase is characterized by a non-essential sentence within a sentence. In this case, although this sentence is important and presents additional information about another sentence previously said, its existence within the sentence is not essential for the sentence to make sense. Thus, the removal of this sentence will not be missed by the reader, who will continue to understand the sentence.
An example of this can be seen above. This is because the phrase "formed by years of erosion," is not essential to establish the understanding of the phrase, being therefore a nonrestrictive phrase.
Answer:
A non restrictive clause further describes or modified the sentence, but is not essential to the meaning of the sentence. The canyon being formed by erosion does not change the fact that its a breathtaking sight to behold.
An example of a restrictive clause could be:
The canyon, as long as you're on the north side, is a breathtaking sight to behold.
