Count the direction
Both listeners’ pages, column two. Sort every entry into two piles: commas you added that should not be there, and commas you left out that should.
Write the two numbers on the board as a class. They will not be equal, and the direction is the lesson.
Six pairs. Match each correct sentence to the version usually produced.
Two minutes of a real argument
Transcribed and punctuated exactly as the student wrote it
The people, who made this decision, do not live in the streets it covers.
The exemption, that applies to residents from before 2019, is the part I object to. The residents, who moved in after that date, pay the full charge.
It cost four million, what nobody in the debate mentions.
The committee who its members were appointed in 2021 has never published anything.
Four questions about the passage. Every sentence in it is grammatical except two.
1. The people, who made this decision, do not live in the streets it covers. What does it claim?
2. The residents, who moved in after that date, pay the full charge. Who pays?
3. Three of the four sentences add commas. How many drop them?
4. Why is the error one-directional?
Six families, and one direction
An honest finding. Comma errors in relative clauses are not random. They run almost entirely one way: added, not omitted.
The reason is mechanical. Portuguese punctuates more by rhythm than English does, a relative clause is long enough that a speaker would pause before it, and a comma is what a pause looks like. So the comma goes in.
And because a comma turns a defining clause into a non-defining one, the dominant false claim is always the same: there is only one of these. Which is exactly the claim least likely to be true.
The six families, and what fixes each
| Family | Looks like | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Commas added | Removal test. If the sentence breaks without the clause, no commas | |
| Commas omitted | One mother, so the clause is extra. Two commas | |
that in commas | that is barred wherever commas are | |
| Wrong pronoun | who for people, which for things | |
what as a relative | that after a noun; which after a clause | |
| Word kept twice | The pronoun already is the subject, or the possessive |
The passage from the input, repaired. Zero to three words per gap; write - for no pronoun.
The people made this decision do not live in the streets it covers. The exemption applies to residents from before 2019 is the part I object to. The residents moved in after that date pay the full charge. It cost four million nobody in the debate mentions. The committee members were appointed in 2021, has never published anything.
Eight sentences, at least one from each family. Fix each and name the family.
1. The students, who failed, will resit in June. — some failed
2. My brother who lives abroad is coming. — one brother
3. The report, that took a year, is finished.
4. She is a person which listens.
5. The advice what she gave me still works.
6. The colleague who her desk is next to mine is leaving.
7. The man who lives next door is a nurse.
8. He arrived two hours late, what surprised nobody.
What does it claim?
Ten sentences. Eight need work; two are correct. For each, say what the sentence currently claims.
1. The residents, who moved in after 2019, pay the full charge. — only those residents
2. My grandmother, who lived in that house for fifty years, never locked the door.
3. The four pages, that matter, are at the back.
4. The committee, which designed it, has never met here. — one committee
5. The person which I spoke to was helpful.
6. The scheme, that came in last April, covers four streets.
7. It took eighteen months, what nobody disputes.
8. The councillor who his ward it covers voted for it.
9. The people, who complain loudest, drive least. — some people
10. The exemption that applies to older permits is the problem.
Four clauses have been removed. Put each back where the punctuation around the gap tells you it belongs.
The exemption [1] is the only part of the scheme anybody argues about.
The council, [2], has not published the original undertaking.
The residents [3] were not consulted at all, which is either an oversight or a decision.
It cost four million pounds, [4].
Zero to three words per gap. Decide what each clause is doing before you write a comma.
My mother trained as a nurse in 1974, worked nights for twenty years. The hospital she worked has since closed. The colleagues she still sees meet once a year. And the ward she ran, had eleven beds, is now a car park.
Say what it claims
Task card · Pairs · Editing then speaking
Your partner’s column two from Lesson 5. You are their editor, and your only question is what each sentence currently claims.
Four sentences repaired, each with the false claim named out loud first.
- Say what it claims as written: this says there is only one committee.
- Then apply the removal test out loud.
- Then punctuate it, and say what it claims now.
- At least one of your four must be a comma that was missing rather than added.
Then, ninety seconds each. Say four sentences about your own family or work, two defining and two non-defining, with the intonation doing the punctuation.
Your partner writes them down with commas. If their punctuation does not match your meaning, your voice did not mark it.
Both directions
Four sentences. Two have commas too many, two too few. Fix each and say which.
1. The candidates, who passed, will hear next week. — some passed
2. The town where I grew up which has one shop is an hour away.
3. The emails, that I sent in March, were never answered.
4. Fernanda who taught me for a year left in 2011.
One test, before you punctuate
Three questions.
1. Which way do comma errors in relative clauses mostly run?
2. So what is the dominant false claim?
3. What do you do before you punctuate?
Before next lesson. Write your opinion out in full. Then go through every relative clause, apply the removal test, and write D or N beside each before you look at the commas.
Bring it on paper. Next lesson you cut it to 250 words and every comma has to agree with its letter.