Meaning & use
a sentence fragment
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Meaning
nouncountabletechnical
A group of words written like a sentence but missing a subject, a verb, or a complete thought.
Grammar: Countable: use 'a sentence fragment' for one, 'sentence fragments' for several.
Patterns
- a sentence fragment
- fix a sentence fragment
- a fragment of a sentence
'Ran to the store' is a sentence fragment because it has no subject.
Her teacher marked the essay down for too many sentence fragments.
You can fix a sentence fragment by adding the missing subject or verb.
Word forms
| plural | sentence fragments |
|---|
Common combinations
- fix a sentence fragment
- The tutor showed me how to fix a sentence fragment by joining it to the sentence before.
- a complete sentence
- Check that every line is a complete sentence, not a fragment.
- write in fragments
- Some novelists write in fragments on purpose, but in an essay it looks like a mistake.
- an incomplete sentence
- The editor circled every incomplete sentence in red.
- a run-on sentence
- His draft had both run-on sentences and fragments.
Synonyms and how they differ
- incomplete sentence
- A looser everyday term; 'sentence fragment' is the technical label teachers and grammars use.
Opposites
Word family
- fragment noun
- A small broken piece of something.
- fragmentary adjective
- Made up of small disconnected pieces.
Commonly confused: a sentence fragment or run-on sentence?
a sentence fragment vs run-on sentence
A run-on has too many clauses joined without correct punctuation, while a fragment is too little to be a sentence at all.
Practice
Which of these is a sentence fragment?
Choose one answer.
'Because the room was cold' has a subject and verb but the word 'because' leaves the thought unfinished, so it cannot stand alone. The others are all complete sentences.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “a sentence fragment”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.