What is the correct placement of commas in the sentence: "Erika helped the elderly woman with her shopping basket which was overflowing with vegetables"?
To determine the correct placement of commas in the given sentence, let's look at the different elements and how they function within the sentence.
The sentence is:
"Erika helped the elderly woman with her shopping basket which was overflowing with vegetables."
1. "Erika helped the elderly woman" is the main part of the sentence, describing the action taking place.
2. "with her shopping basket" provides additional information about how Erika helped.
3. "which was overflowing with vegetables" is a relative clause that provides more details about the shopping basket.
Now, let's break down how commas can be used:
1. When a relative clause is non-essential (provides additional information but can be removed without changing the essential meaning of the sentence), it should be set off by commas. In this case, "which was overflowing with vegetables" is non-essential because it provides additional information about the shopping basket. Therefore, we should use commas to set it off.
Corrected sentence: "Erika helped the elderly woman with her shopping basket, which was overflowing with vegetables."
Now, the sentence is grammatically correct and conveys the information clearly.