We don’t know what the girl is doing, so this sentence requires additional information to make sense. This sentence fragment contains a subject (“a girl”), but it lacks a verb. Some sentence fragments are missing a verb.įor example, consider the sentence fragment, “A girl with a yellow backpack.” Let’s look at each of these three possible issues in more detail. To fix a sentence fragment, you need to identify which element is causing the issue. There are three things that can cause a sentence fragment-a missing subject, a missing verb, or an incomplete thought. For example, “Ate a cheeseburger.” and “The hungry dog.” are both sentence fragments. When one element of an independent clause (the subject, verb, or complete thought) is missing, you have a sentence fragment. It has a subject (“the hungry dog”), a verb (“ate”), and it expresses a complete thought. This is a complete sentence, also known as an independent clause, because it fulfills all three sentence requirements. ![]() Complete thought: the sentence makes sense without any extra information.įor example, consider the sentence, “The hungry dog ate a cheeseburger.”.It tells us what the subject is being or doing. Verb: the verb is the action or state of being performed by the subject of the sentence.Essentially, the subject tells us who or what is performing the verb in the sentence. Subject: the subject is the noun or pronoun that is doing something in a sentence.Read on to learn more about sentence fragments and find out how to fix them.Ī sentence fragment is another term for an incomplete sentence.Ī sentence is a group of words that includes a subject, a verb, and expresses a complete thought. They may be accepted practice in certain publications, but they are not acceptable on the ACT.Sentence fragments are one of the most common grammar mistakes you should look out for in your writing.Ī sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence that is missing an important element. When you read anything–a novel, newspaper, magazine, web article, etc–always keep an eye out for fragments. We practice this way, however, so you become familiar with many different sentence structures. Remove the “who” and it becomes a sentence: My friend walks with me to school every day.įinding multiple ways to fix a fragment may seem superfluous since there will only be one right answer on the test. On a side note, beware of the words “that,” “which,” and “who.” The sentence “My friend who walks with me to school every day” is a fragment. I inserted the subject at the beginning of the sentence and removed “that” so the verb “combines” corresponded to my subject. I set off the phrase “an entertaining and complex novel” with commas, rendering it a nonessential phrase. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, an entertaining and complex novel, combines the great storytelling of nineteenth century romanticism with the philosophical density of modernism, subverting the suffocating propriety of its age with startling realism.įix 3 is a bit more effective than Fix 2. The ACT will prey on this misconception and use long, complicated sentences as fragments. You’ll soon learn that “fragment” does not mean that the sentence is too short to be a sentence. How is that a sentence, you ask? It’s only two tiny words! The sentence does, however, have a subject (I) and a verb which corresponds to the subject (run). ![]() To demonstrate how essential the subject and the verb are, here is a very simple sentence that is grammatically correct. (Please notice that the sentence I just wrote, “A subject and a verb,” is a fragment and would be totally wrong on the ACT). What are the necessary components of a sentence, you ask? A subject and a verb. ![]() Sentence fragments are sentences that lack one or more of the necessary components of a sentence. ![]() One common error that effectively tests this fundamental understanding is the sentence fragment. As a result, the ACT requires a more fundamental understanding of how sentences work. The ACT English, on the other hand, features a wider variety of errors that aren’t so formulaic. The SAT’s single-question format is conducive to formulaic errors that, while tricky, can be narrowed down to a handful of inconspicuous grammar mistakes. The ACT English portion is unlike the SAT Writing in that it requires a more holistic understanding of English grammar.
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