SAT® · Reading and Writing: Boundaries — Within Sentences
When No Punctuation Is the Answer
Often the right choice in a boundaries question is no punctuation mark at all, because the words on either side of the blank belong together grammatically, no matter how long or awkward the sentence looks.
No punctuation wins whenever the blank sits inside a piece of grammar that is already whole. A verb needs its object sitting right next to it. A preposition needs its noun right next to it. A subject needs its verb to follow with nothing wedged between them. Commas, semicolons, colons, and dashes all mark a break of some kind, and if there is no real break in the grammar, every punctuated choice is wrong, even the one that looks natural when you read it aloud.
The fastest way to find this answer is to ignore the punctuation choices first and ask what role the words on each side of the blank play. Is one side a verb and the other its object? A preposition and its noun? A subject and its verb? If so, cross off every option that inserts a mark, since all of them would illegally split a single grammatical unit. This matters because the usual instinct is to punctuate wherever a sentence feels long or hard to say in one breath. Length and breath have nothing to do with grammar. A forty-word subject still takes zero punctuation before its verb if nothing else demands a break.
This connects directly to the rules for the other marks. A colon demands a complete clause before it; a dash or comma pair sets off something removable. No-punctuation is the default you return to once you confirm none of those conditions are met, so checking for it first, by testing what the blank actually joins, often clears the whole question in one step.
Key terms
- Boundary
- A point in a sentence where a punctuation mark either must, may, or must not appear based on grammar.
- Object of a verb
- The noun or phrase that directly receives the verb's action, which must sit next to its verb with no mark between.
- Phrase of manner
- A phrase that explains how an action happens, attached directly to the verb it describes.
- Independent clause
- A group of words with its own subject and verb that could stand alone as a complete sentence.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow do you eliminate three punctuated choices by checking what actually sits on either side of the blank?
- How it worksHow does a verb and its object, or a preposition and its noun, forbid any mark from coming between them?
- Common mistakeWhy doesn't a long sentence need a comma somewhere just because it is hard to read aloud in one breath?
- Worked exampleWalk me through why nothing belongs between 'Hummingbirds hover' and 'by beating their wings in a figure eight'.
- Ties togetherHow does the no-punctuation answer connect to the rule that a colon needs a full clause in front of it?
Check yourself
End of topic.