Restrictive vs non-restrictive (especially with "who") Am I punctuating these sentences properly?

Restrictive vs non-restrictive (especially with "who") Am I punctuating these sentences properly?

I can get confused as to what's restrictive and what's non-restrictive, especially regarding "who." Have I punctuated these three sentences properly? Thanks.


1) He passed the chalice to Shelby, who drank from it without taking her eyes off the dazzling Hemana.

2) She looked at Earl, who was still short and fat but no longer wearing the sombrero, and she smiled and squeezed his hand.

3) Shelby wasn’t that vain, but she might want to have a family someday, especially since it looked like neither her artist brother nor her sister, who worked at Bob’s Mega Burger, would ever have kids.

(Shelby only has the one sister.)


I've searched around and read up about essential and non-essential information, and sometimes it's super-clear which way to go, but sometimes it seems hazy. Any simple tips for identifying essential (restrictive) vs non-essential (non-restrictive)? Thanks.

Sage said:

All of those are correct.

The way to figure it out is: if you take off the phrase starting with "who," do you still know exactly which person you're talking about? If so, comma. If not, no comma.

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That's perfect, Sage. Thank you!