What's a Relative Clause vs. an Appositive Clause?

A writing teacher once told me the goal is not just to write clearly, but to ensure the text cannot be misinterpreted. Indeed, sometimes a sentence changes meaning as it travels from my brain to the page. The grammar might still be correct, but the style and the details result in the reader coming away with a different understanding than I intended.

One way to ensure clarity is through clauses. These strings of words add clarifying information to your sentences. But there are different types of clauses, so let’s start with the difference between a relative clause and an appositive clause.

A relative clause describes or modifies the noun directly. An appositive clause, also simply called an appositive, renames the noun and adds information. To clarify, a relative clause answers the question “Which one?” and an appositive clause answers “Who/what is it?”

Relative: The portrait, which depicts my grandmother, is in a gold frame.
Appositive: The portrait, a painting of my grandmother, is in a gold frame.

Another way to tell the difference is to switch up the order of the words in a sentence. Appositives tend to be shorter and typically contain no verb. And since an appositive renames the subject, you can swap out the subject and the clause without losing the core meaning of the original sentence. Here is another example of an appositive:

Sara, a businesswoman, is sitting in the front row.
A businesswoman is sitting in the front row.

You might also enjoy

Grammar

How Can You Tell if a Comma Is Unnecessary?

Grammar

Common Grammatical Errors That Make Editors Cringe

Relative clauses often start with the words “who,” “which,” “that,” “whose,” or “whom,” which is another clue to telling the difference. If making the same swap of subject and clause breaks the sentence, it is a relative clause, because it cannot hold its own:

Sara, who owns a hotel downtown, is sitting in the front row.

Who owns a hotel downtown is sitting in the front row.

If you want to get even more specific, each of these clauses can function as either restrictive or nonrestrictive. That decision concerns whether the information is necessary to the meaning of the sentence, and if you need to use commas.

Featured image credit: Rockaa/ iStock

3 LIKES

Samantha Abernethy

Freelance Writer

Samantha Abernethy is a freelancer in Chicago. When she isn't staring at a laptop, you can find her sniffing out the best coffee with her greyhound Ruby, or chasing her kids around the nearest library.