Question

The dog that is brown and sitting under the table belongs to the neighbor who happens to live next door.

Which is the BEST revision of the wordy sentence?
A) The brown dog sitting under the table belongs to the next-door neighbor.
B) The brown dog that is sitting under the table belongs next door to the neighbor.
C) The dog that is brown, sitting under the table, belongs to the neighbor who lives next door.
D) The brown dog sitting under the table belongs to the neighbor who happens to live next door.

Answer 1

The best revision of the wordy sentence is A) The brown dog sitting under the table belongs to the next-door neighbor.

Option A) is the correct one because the phrase "that is brown", which is postmodifying the noun, has been eliminated and "brown" has become a premodifier of "dog" instead. Therefore, this change makes possible to express the same idea using less words. Moreover, the conjunction "and" and the defining relative clause "who happens to live next door" have also been deleted. The adjective "next-door", which is modifying "neighbour", is replacing the defining relative clause and, at the same time, making the sentence less wordy.