(F) NO CHANGE (G) who, though they are not exactly friends, are (H) who, though they are not exa

(F) NO CHANGE (G) who, though they are not exactly friends,...

Key Concepts

Relative Clauses

Relative clauses are subordinate clauses that modify a noun or pronoun by providing additional information about it. They often begin with relative pronouns such as 'who' or 'which' and are essential in creating complex sentences by linking ideas without starting a new sentence.

Parenthetical Expressions

Parenthetical expressions are phrases that, while useful for adding additional context or commentary, do not alter the fundamental meaning of a sentence if removed. They are typically set off by commas, parentheses, or dashes to indicate that they provide extra information rather than essential details.

Comma Usage

Comma usage is crucial in clarifying the structure of a sentence, especially when dealing with relative clauses and parenthetical expressions. Correct placement of commas can indicate whether information is essential or supplemental, and thus helps maintain the clarity and readability of a sentence.

Transcript

00:01 Number eight, the sentence in question is, there are lots of people who, though they are not exactly friends, or a regular part of my life.

00:09 You'll notice that what they're changing is the placement of one or two or three commas.

00:15 Here we just have one after who.

00:17 Answer choice, g, we get commas after who and after friends.

00:22 H, we just get, we have three commas, actually, after who after friends, but also after exactly.

00:28 And then, jay, we just get the one comma.

00:32 So you'll notice that what's going on here with that phrase, who though they are not exactly friends, we have this element called a parenthetical.

00:43 A parenthetical coming from the word parentheses just means an extra piece of information that they're going to shove in the middle of the thought to kind of add elaboration.

00:54 So all of those elements, just like parentheses, encase extra pieces of information, we always are going to need some kind of punctuation to encase a parenthetical.

01:06 Those can be in the form of parentheses.

01:08 They're also more commonly, though, just in the form of commas on either side or dashes on either side.

01:15 For your purposes on the act, these three ways parentheses, commas, and dashes are identical.

01:21 You're never going to have to choose between them.

01:23 In this case, they're playing with commas.

01:25 So the question is, what is essential in the sentence and what is extra? the parenthetical is meant to be extra, which means everything else around it needs to be absolutely essential and needs to make sense, even if you remove the parenthetical.

01:42 So we'll look to the answer choices that include at least two commas to check that out.

01:48 The first one is g...

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