1
Employees who handle payment data must complete the additional security training.
8 Restrictive Clause Examples
Use these examples to study structure, specificity, tone, and variation. They are demonstrations—not claims about a real person or organization unless the example itself makes that explicit.
Before you copy
What to notice in the examples
Writers handle restrictive clauses well when the clause is genuinely necessary for identification, punctuation does not incorrectly set it off as optional, and relative-pronoun choices remain natural for the audience and style.
- Ask whether the noun is fully identified without the clause.
- Keep essential restrictive information integrated rather than surrounded by commas.
- Use who for people and that or which according to the style and construction involved.
- Compare the sentence with the clause removed to test whether the reference changes.
2
The files that contain customer identifiers are stored separately.
3
Applicants who submit after Friday will be reviewed in the next cycle.
4
The road that crosses the northern ridge is closed in winter.
5
Compare: “My brother who lives in Delhi…” can imply more than one brother, with the clause identifying which one.
6
Students who need extra time should contact the coordinator before the exam date.
7
Products that require refrigeration are marked with a snowflake symbol.
8
The chapter that explains the experiment should be read before the results section.
Keep the underlying decision or pattern, then replace the subject, evidence, relationship, constraints, and tone with details that belong to your situation. If your final line still works after swapping only one noun, it may be too close to the example.