Which change fixes the sentence: Bottled water is popular in the United States, but, Americans still use far less bottled water than tap water?

• A. Remove the comma after "but".
• B. Remove the comma after "States".
• C. Replace the comma after "States" with a semicolon.
• D. Remove the comma after "water".

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is how to join two independent clauses with a coordinating conjunction. When you connect two complete sentences with a word like but, you should place a comma before the conjunction, not after it.

In this sentence, there are two independent clauses: “Bottled water is popular in the United States” and “Americans still use far less bottled water than tap water.” The comma should come before but to show the connection between the two thoughts. The version with a comma after but has an extra, misplaced pause that disrupts the flow. Removing that comma after but fixes the sentence, giving: Bottled water is popular in the United States, but Americans still use far less bottled water than tap water.

The other options don’t correct the punctuation in the required way: they either leave the unwanted comma after but or otherwise misplace punctuation, so the normal, standard connection remains broken.