Fun with Fragments

Exploring

Sentences and Sentence Fragments

����A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought.��A sentence contains�a subject and a verb.��Dan attended the pep rally before the football game.

WRITE THIS DOWN

A complete sentence must have:

1. A subject
2. A verb
3. And it must be a complete thought!!

Sometimes part of the sentence may be missing.

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• Three little girls in the front row

What’s missing?

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• Ran behind the blue couch

What’s missing?

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• In the attic at the top of the stairs

What’s missing?

When a group of words�fails to tell us

• Who or what did something (the subject),

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• What happened (the verb),

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• Or both (the subject and the verb),

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we have what is known as

a sentence fragment.

• A sentence fragment is only a piece of a sentence.

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• It does not express a complete thought.

Let’s correct these sentence fragments!

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Sat behind me in science class

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What’s missing?

Yes, we need a subject.

The new girl sat behind me in science class.

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The bag of groceries on the kitchen table

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What’s missing?

Yes, we need a verb.

The bag of groceries on the kitchen table goes to Grandmother's house.

After the rain stopped

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What’s missing?

Yes, we need a subject and a verb.

After the rain stopped, the children ran outside to play.

Remember,

a sentence must tell you all you need to know to have a complete thought.

Watch out for sentence fragments!

The End