Question

A parenthetical statement must be set off using commas because it always

A. appears after the conjunction in a compound sentence.
B. is an independent clause and can make sense on its own.
C. can be removed from the sentence without hurting the meaning.
D. comes at the beginning of a sentence and should be separated from the main clause.

Answer 1

A parenthetical statement must be set off using commas because it always (C) can be removed from the sentence without hurting the meaning.

Because of this, the parenthetical element is often also referred to as 'added information'.

Answer 2

The correct answer is C. can be removed from the sentence without hurting the meaning.

A parenthetical statement is often found either in parentheses or is separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. This is added information, which is not crucial to the meaning of the entire sentence. If it gets omitted, nothing is really changed.

For example: My friend, who is very beautiful, is standing there.

The phrase who is very beautiful is a parenthetical statement.