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The sentence "When I first moved to a new city, I felt like a fish out of water, but I quickly adapted to my new surroundings." is grammatically correct. However, the sentence "When I first moved to a new city, I felt like a fish out of water, but I quickly adapted to my new surroundings, and I was very happy." is grammatically incorrect. Which change to the second sentence would make it grammatically correct?

SAT · English · previous-year question

  1. A.Change "and" to a semicolon.
  2. B.Remove "and" from the sentence.correct
  3. C.Change "and" to a comma.
  4. D.Change "and" to a period.

Answer

B. Remove "and" from the sentence.

Explanation

The second sentence is a comma splice. A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses are joined together with only a comma. To correct a comma splice, you can either use a semicolon, a period, or a coordinating conjunction. In this case, the best solution is to remove the word "and" entirely because the second clause (but I quickly adapted to my new surroundings) can stand alone as a complete sentence, making it unnecessary to include the coordinating conjunction, "and."

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