Comma Separating Verb And Its Object

A verb should not be separated from its object (the thing or person which is receiving the verb). To figure out what the object of the sentence is, ask yourself this: what is the subject doing? Let’s look at the sentence, Mary likes chocolate. The verb is likes, so we would ask, What does Mary like? She likes chocolate, so the object of the verb is chocolate. Now that we can identify the verb and the object in the sentence, we know not to put a comma between them.

Mary said, she likes chocolate.

This comma separates Mary from the thing she said.

The teacher claimed, she was too busy to help her students outside of class.

The verb is claimed and its object is she was too busy to help her students; the comma between them shouldn’t be there.

After finding her classes’ grades were slipping, the teacher decided to stay, for an extra hour after school each day.