Comma before a participial phrase
I have two cases.
a) He sent me a letter written in English.
b) I was given a cup made in China from my friend.
I personally think sentence (a) should be non-restrictive since there is only one letter in question and the writer is not trying to specify which. So if you were to write this sentence using a relative pronoun, it would look like this: "He sent me a letter, which was written in English." My question is whether to leave the comma when you leave out the relative pronoun and be-verb. I did read articles saying unless the participial phrase is modifying the subject, don't put a comma, but I'm not sure if it applies to the non-restrictive participial phrase also.
As for sentence (b), is it okay to put "made in China" at the end of a sentence, i.e. I was given a cup from my friend made in China? Here, I think there should be a comma in front of "made in China" because that phrase is not modifying the word immediately preceding it. So which is "passable" of the following?
- I was given a cup from my friend, made in China.
- I was given a cup from my friend made in China.
Thanks guys.
Solution 1:
the real problem with "I was given a cup made in China from my friend" is that it is in the passive voice. If I were editing a paper, I would recommend changing it to the active voice. My friend gave me a cup made in China; though my personal preference would be to include "which." So, "My friend gave me a cup which was made in China."