A complete sentence has a subject and a verb and makes sense on its own: “The bell rang.”
A fragment is part of a sentence pretending to be a whole one. “Because it was cold.” and “The old lighthouse on the hill.” are fragments: one has no main clause, the other has no verb.
Fix a fragment by joining it to a main clause (“We wore hats because it was cold.”) or by adding the missing subject or verb (“The old lighthouse stood on the hill.”).
Worked example
Fix the fragment: “When the rain stopped.”
- It begins with when, so it needs a main clause.
- Add what happened: we went outside.
Answer:When the rain stopped, we went outside.
Key words
- fragment
- an incomplete sentence
- main clause
- a clause that makes sense on its own
- subject
- who or what the sentence is about
Practise this
New questions every time.
Common Core-referenced: L.4.1f