You are asking: >But can the non prime attribute be dependent on a super set of the candidate key ? I mean can the left side contain an extraneous attribute. If a set of attributes is a candidate key, then it determines all the other attributes, including non prime attributes. So, if you add attributes on the left side nothing changes with respect to the definition of 2NF, the only important thing is that a non prime attribute cannot depend on a *proper subset* of a candidate key. Then, you are asking: >Can't one non prime attribute just be dependent on another non prime attribute? As said above, if a non prime attribute depends from a non prime attribute it is *not* dependent from a candidate key, so the relation is not 2NF. Finally, note that the 2NF has not interest neither in practice nor in theory: it has only historical interest. In fact, a relation is said properly normalized if it is in Boyce-Codd Normal Form or in Third Normal Form (or in Fourth or greater normal forms). In fact in all the most important database books you can find algorithms to bring a relation in BCNF or 3NF, but not in 2NF.