The marketing team analyzed consumer behavior across three demographic ______ revealed unexpected trends in purchasing patterns among younger consumer...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

• The marketing team analyzed consumer behavior
• across three demographic groups [?] revealed unexpected trends
• in purchasing patterns
• among younger consumers.

• Where [?] represents what we need to decide:
  • A: . That (period + capital T)
  • B: : that (colon)
  • C: ; that (semicolon)
  • D: that (no punctuation)

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

The marketing team analyzed consumer behavior

• across three demographic groups

So the marketing team did an analysis of consumer behavior, and they looked at this behavior across three different demographic groups.

Now we reach the blank. Let's look at our choices:

• They're asking us whether to use punctuation (period, colon, or semicolon) or no punctuation before the word "that revealed"

To see what works here, let's read the rest of the sentence and understand what it's saying!

The sentence continues: "...that revealed unexpected trends in purchasing patterns among younger consumers."

Now let's understand what this is telling us:

• "that revealed unexpected trends"
  • This is telling us something about what came before
  • It's describing the consumer behavior (or demographic groups) - specifically telling us what this behavior/analysis revealed

• "in purchasing patterns among younger consumers"
  • This gives us more detail about the trends - they were specifically about how younger consumers make purchases

So the complete picture is:

• The marketing team analyzed consumer behavior across three demographic groups,
• and this consumer behavior revealed unexpected trends about younger consumers' purchasing patterns.

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The phrase "that revealed unexpected trends..." is a modifier - it's giving us essential information about the consumer behavior/groups

• Specifically, it's a restrictive modifier - meaning it's not just adding extra details, but telling us which specific consumer behavior we're talking about:
  • Not just ANY consumer behavior
  • But the consumer behavior THAT revealed unexpected trends

• Restrictive modifiers that start with "that" need to connect directly to what they're modifying - they flow right into the sentence without any punctuation breaking that connection

So we need no punctuation - the correct answer is D: groups that revealed

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Connecting Restrictive Modifiers (No Punctuation Needed)

When you have a clause that provides essential, defining information about a noun - telling you which specific one you're talking about - this is called a restrictive modifier (or restrictive relative clause in grammar terms). These modifiers typically start with "that" and connect directly to the noun WITHOUT any punctuation:

Pattern: Noun + that + verb (no punctuation)

Example 1:

• Wrong: "The students, that studied hard, passed the exam"
• Wrong: "The students; that studied hard passed the exam"
• Correct: "The students that studied hard passed the exam"
• The "that studied hard" part tells us which specific students passed

Example 2:

• Wrong: "She ordered the dish: that looked most appealing"
• Correct: "She ordered the dish that looked most appealing"
• The "that looked most appealing" part tells us which dish she ordered

In our question:

• Correct: "consumer behavior across three demographic groups that revealed unexpected trends"
• The "that revealed unexpected trends" part is essential information that defines which consumer behavior we're discussing
• No punctuation is needed because this modifier flows directly from the noun it describes

Key principle: If the modifier is essential to identifying what you're talking about (not just adding bonus information), it connects directly without punctuation.