The first sentence makes sense-the subject Sally lost her phone. While dependent clauses do have a subject-predicate combination, they don’t express a complete thought, and because it’s not a complete thought, a dependent clause leaves an unanswered question. That’s why on its own, a dependent clause is a sentence fragment. Recognizing ClausesĮvery sentence needs a subject-predicate combination (a clause), but, to be a full sentence, it needs at least one independent clause. We do this by being able to recognize dependent clauses and fix misplaced periods that break off words from their main clause. Therefore, the way to avoid fragments is to simply make sure we write in full sentences and express complete thoughts. Now you know that a sentence fragment happens when we don’t write in complete sentences, or we break sentences up when we don’t need to. It’s a dependent clause, and needs the first part of the sentence to make sense-we just need a comma, not a period, to connect them! Complete!Īgain, the second part of the sentence doesn’t have a subject or a predicate. There had a lot of types of apples, such as Macintosh and Granny Smith.Since the fragment doesn’t have a subject or a predicate, it can’t be a full sentence.Īnd here’s what happens when you use a period instead of a comma: When a period is used instead of a colon, you’re only left with a fragment that has a list of things. I will probably make 3 pies: caramel Apple, Apple Walnut, and Apple Berry.Caramel Apple, Apple Walnut, and Apple Berry. The store has three types of apples: Macintosh and Granny Smith.Here’s what happens when you use a period instead of a colon: I went apple picking with my friends Jane and Sally. Removing the period fixes that! Here’s another: So, in this example, the period is not necessary-it breaks the sentence up into an independent clause and a fragment. “Later on tonight” is a fragment because it doesn’t have a subject or a predicate (it is not an independent clause).
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