Defining and non-defining clauses

[Bassim]

These are some exercises which I have done on defining and non-defining clauses.
Please, would you correct my mistakes.

1.The story is told by a nameless narrator, a man from Somalia now living in Spain, who describes in detail the war in his homeland.

2.Miss Smith, who has been headmistress for years, is retiring in the autumn to live in a little village.

3.This spring he started painting his cottage which has not been done for five years now.

4. The professor, who came to the university to deliver his lecture last week, had forgotten his papers in the hotel room in another town.

5. Her grandfather, who was born in Portugal, still speaks Portuguese and her mother, who always liked to read books and learn languages, speaks four different languages.

6.The president, who has always been healthy. has now began to show the first signs of illness.

[TheParser]

[QUOTE=Bassim;812170]

NOT A TEACHER


3.This spring he started painting his cottage which has not been done for five years now.
(I believe that you need a comma after "cottage." "Which" here is being used to refer to the action of the cottage being painted because you said "done"; if you had said "painted," then I feel that "which" would refer to the cottage. In any case, I feel that that the clause is non-defining. I feel that it would defining only in something such as:This spring he started painting the cottage that had not been painted for five years.)


6.The president, who has always been healthy. has now began to show the first signs of illness. (I believe this is excellent, except for the little mistake. It should be begun.

Let's see what the teachers tell you and me. I am a learner just like you, and I think that you have done a great job.

[5jj]

6.The president, who has always been healthy. has now began to show the first signs of illness. (I believe this is excellent, except for the little mistake. It should be begun.
And there is a typo - the full stop after 'healthy should be a comma.

TheParser is correct.There is no need for a teacher to add anything.

However (one of my favourite words), #4 is possible without commas. In your (correct) version, we know which professor we are talking about. In the version without commas, the defining relative clause would tell us which professor we are talking about.