Write , with . Conjugation relabels a transposition, so
where labels are read modulo . In particular the subgroup contains . These are the edge transpositions of a path through all letters; transpositions on a connected graph generate the symmetric group, so the two original generators generate .
For the general separation , conjugating produces every edge transposition modulo . The components of this graph are precisely the residue classes modulo : moving along an edge adds or subtracts , and the subgroup of generated by consists of multiples of . Hence, if , the graph is connected and the same graph argument gives the whole symmetric group.
For completeness, the graph argument can be proved without assuming a generating-set theorem. On a simple path , put . Then
This is a conjugate of the last edge transposition; connectivity therefore supplies every transposition, and part (a) supplies every permutation.
If , there are residue blocks of size , since . The cycle permutes these blocks, and swaps two letters in the same block. Both preserve this block system, so their generated subgroup does too. The full does not: a transposition exchanging one letter of two different blocks sends a block to a mixture of them. Thus the subgroup is proper. This proves
Thus a cycle and a transposition generate the symmetric group exactly at coprime separation. The obstruction is preservation of a partition, not failure of transitivity: the -cycle already acts transitively even when .