ACT® · English: Punctuation Conventions
Deleting Commas That Break Basic Sense
A comma can never sit between a verb and its direct object, or between a subject and its verb, even in a long sentence. If you find one there, the fix is simply to delete it.
Some commas don't belong anywhere in the sentence. They show up because a sentence runs long and the writer feels like the reader needs a breath, but commas aren't breathing marks. They mark real grammatical joints: between two independent clauses, around an interrupter, in a list. A verb and its direct object are not two separate joints. They're one unit, a single beam, and a comma dropped into the middle of that beam breaks the sentence's spine even though every word is still in order.
Test this by reading the sentence as a question: what did the chef prepare? A five-course meal. That answer is the direct object, glued to the verb 'prepared.' Put a comma after 'prepared' and you've told the reader to pause right where no pause belongs, severing the verb from the very thing that completes its meaning. The same logic covers 'that' clauses acting as objects: in 'The historian argued that the treaty was doomed,' the whole clause 'that the treaty was doomed' is what was argued. A comma after 'argued' cuts the verb off from its object just as badly. The fix is always deletion, never a swap to another mark.
This topic is the flip side of the commas-that-connect-clauses and commas-that-set-off-interrupters rules sitting next to it in this unit. Those marks earn their place by doing a real job: joining, separating, or framing. A comma between a subject and its verb, or a verb and its object, does no job at all. Learning to delete it trains the same instinct you use everywhere else in punctuation: ask what grammatical joint the comma claims to mark, and if there isn't one, it goes.
Key terms
- direct object
- The noun or clause that receives the action of the verb and completes its meaning.
- that clause
- A clause beginning with 'that' that can serve as the object of a verb like argued or reported.
- subject
- The noun or noun phrase that performs the action of the verb in a clause.
- interrupter
- A word or phrase that adds extra information and can be removed without breaking the sentence, properly set off by commas.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow does a comma dropped between a verb and its direct object sever the spine of a sentence?
- Worked exampleFind and delete the comma that breaks 'The historian argued, that the treaty was doomed.'
- Common mistakeWhy isn't a comma justified simply because a sentence has run long enough to need a breath?
Check yourself
End of topic.