comma before past participle: food, made from the finest

T

Taliarose

Member
Seoul, Korea
Korean
Hi,

I was reading some stuff and there it was:

The restaurant has amazing food, made from the finest organic ingredients and locally grown produce.

And at the bottom it said that it's Make A from B form.
So I thought it may be the passive form and the original sentence would be something like :

The restaurant has amazing food that is made from ~.

And 'that is' is deleted because it's pronoun + be verb.
Am I right about it so far? and if I am, I think there should not be a comma in the sentence. Am I right about it as well, or am I just confused?

Please help me out!
 
    • The restaurant has amazing food, made from the finest organic ingredients and "locally grown produce."

    The comma indicates that a subordinate clause follows. It is perfectly correct. It is a way of saying. "The restaurant has amazing food and the food is amazing because it is made from the finest organic ingredients and locally grown produce".


    It would be grammaticaly, correct to say, "The restaurant has amazing food that is made from the finest organic ingredients etc". However, this says that the food is, "amazng", and that it is made from the finest organic ingredients but it doesn't make the point that it is amazing because it is made from the finest organic ingredients.
     
    Last edited:
    Thanks, Pardalote :)

    I never imagened that would cause a difference in the meaing.
    Anyways, in this case, you would still say that it is 'make A from B' form like this book is saying?
    Like A(amazing food), made from B(organic blah blah) and 'made' will be a participle?

    The restaurant has amazing food as it was made from the finest organic ingredients and locally grown produce.


    How does this sound?
    I am so sorry for those weird questions I think I'm paranoid about all the grammar stuff today :eek:
     
    You're right that the phrase 'made from . . .' is a passive headed by the past participle 'made', and could be replaced by a relative clause 'that is made from . . .' or 'which is made from . . .'. They are roughly equivalent. I would not like to say that the shorter one comes from the longer one; I don't think speakers start with the longer one then mentally delete two words.

    A comma here indicates that what follows is is not essential. The basic message of the sentence is:

    The restaurant has amazing food.

    Then they give you some more information about the food. This is what the comma is for: it separates the essential from the inessential. Without it, it might sound as if you were contrasting

    amazing food made from the finest organic ingredients

    with some other kind of food . . .

    The restaurant has amazing food made from the finest organic ingredients and disgusting food made from cheap supermarket leftovers.

    But don't take these as rules. They're not! Commas are often not that important to the meaning or grammar: they may indicate slight, subtle choices of emphasis. There is no major change in meaning by having a comma or not having a comma here.
     
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