Read the sentence a student wrote.

Question

As he listened to the haunting notes of the song the author realized he had found the inspiration for his next suspense novel.

The teacher reviewing this sentence would point out that since this is a

complex sentence, there should be a comma after “song.”
compound sentence, there should be a comma after “realized.”
complex sentence, there should be a comma after “inspiration.”
compound sentence, there should be a comma after “found.”

Answer 1

The teacher reviewing the sentence would point out that since this is a complex sentence, there should be a comma after “song.”

In a complex sentence, when an introductory dependent clause is followed by an independent clause, a comma is typically used to separate the two. Here, "As he listened to the haunting notes of the song" is a dependent clause, and a comma should be placed after "song" to clarify the separation from the main independent clause that follows.