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“Those girls, who serve in the restaurant are very enthusiastic.”

I’m from vietnam and my teacher said that relative clause which have demonstratives such as ‘this’,’that’,’these’,’those’ requires comma like the sentence above. Is that true ?

“Those girls who serve in the restaurant are very enthusiastic.”

Is this sentence whithout comma grammatically wrong? I would be grateful if someone can help me make it clear.

Vi Kiet Tieu
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  • You need another comma. Those girls, who serve in the restaurant, are very enthusiastic. (The clause is 'who serve in the restaurant' not 'those girls'.) But some would say that you don't need the commas at all. – Nigel J Jan 23 '18 at 14:27
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    “Those girls who serve in the restaurant are very enthusiastic.” [... "But the other girls seem less motivated."] must have zero commas to set off / identify a restrictive (which girls are enthusiastic? those who serve in the restaurant.) relative clause. But “Those girls, who serve in the restaurant, are very enthusiastic.” uses a non-restrictive relative clause. This needs a comma at each end. It may be paraphrased “Those girls (they serve in the restaurant, by the way) are very enthusiastic.” – Edwin Ashworth Jan 23 '18 at 14:36
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    Your example is okay without the comma. "Those girls who serve in the restaurant" is a restrictive relative clause construction. The restrictive relative clause "who serve in the restaurant" restricts the reference of "those girls" to just the ones who serve in the restaurant. – Greg Lee Jan 23 '18 at 14:41

1 Answers1

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The entire problem goes away if we change "those" into "the": "The girls who serve in the restaurant are very enthusiastic." "Those" specifies which girls you are referring to--but that is unnecessary when "who serve..." is included. And note that my suggested sentence does not require any internal punctuation.

Gregory Benoit
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