Why is a comma needed in the sentence: "The dark, stormy night set the mood for the story"?

Question

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10 points
A. The adjectives "dark" and "stormy" describe different nouns.
B. The adjectives are coordinate and equally modify the noun "night."
C. The adjectives are cumulative and modify each other.
D. The comma is optional for all adjectives.

Answer 1

The correct answer is B. The adjectives are coordinate and equally modify the noun "night."

In this sentence, "dark" and "stormy" are both adjectives that independently describe the noun "night." When two or more adjectives are coordinate, meaning they can be joined by 'and' without changing the meaning, they are separated by commas. Since you could say "The dark and stormy night," the comma is needed to indicate this relationship.