Sentence Fragment - How to Identify and Avoid It?

Forming simple sentences is one of the first steps a student or a language learner takes when learning a new language. You are also bound to make mistakes in the initial stages. Using faulty sentence structure and missing out words or even sentence fragments are some of the most common sentence errors most language learners are likely to encounter in their language learning process. In this article, you will learn what sentence fragments are and how to avoid them.

Table of Contents

• What Is a Sentence Fragment? – Meaning and Definition
• Commonly Found Sentence Fragments
• How to Avoid Sentence Fragments? – Points to Remember
• Examples of Sentence Fragments
• Check Your Understanding of Sentence Fragments
• Frequently Asked Questions on Sentence Fragments

What Is a Sentence Fragment? – Meaning and Definition

A sentence fragment, in simple words, is a sentence that is not complete as it does not have either a subject or a verb, and in other cases – a complete thought. It can be a word, a phrase or a clause that does not possess a proper grammatical structure. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a sentence fragment is defined as “a word, phrase, or clause that usually has in speech the intonation of a sentence but lacks the grammatical structure usually found in the sentences of formal and especially written composition”, according to the Collins Dictionary, a sentence fragment is “a phrase or clause written as a sentence but lacking an element, as a subject or verb, that would enable it to function as an independent sentence in normative written English”.

Commonly Found Sentence Fragments

Understanding the kind of sentence fragments that are usually seen in various pieces of writing will make your learning process a lot quicker and easier. So, here are the commonly found sentence fragments for your reference.

• Missing parts of speech – sentences with missing nouns, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, adjectives, pronouns, adverbs, etc.
• Missing components of the sentence – sentences with missing subjects, verbs, complements, objects or adjuncts.
• Wrong usage of connectors – sentences where connectors or linking words are used in the wrong context.
• Leftover/Hanging phrases – sentences with a phrase and no clause.
• Abandoned clauses – sentences with hanging dependent clauses.

How to Avoid Sentence Fragments? – Points to Remember

Like every other skill, mastering all four of the language learning skills takes a lot of time and practice. It can be easy or difficult based on the attitude of each individual language learner. Even so, the process can be quite simplified by remembering a few things as you learn to form simple English sentences and start using them on a daily basis. Go through the following points to learn what they are.

• The first thing that you have to keep in mind is that a sentence should have a subject and a verb, the only exception being imperative sentences (does not require a subject).
• Understanding what sentence fragments are and being able to recognise them is your next step.
• Sentences beginning with conjunctions, or those common usages like ‘see you soon’ and ‘looking forward to meeting you’ to end letters, emails and spoken conversations are accepted. They are not normally considered as sentence fragments.
• As far as the punctuation of a sentence is concerned, all it needs is to have a capital letter at the beginning and a full stop at the end of it. Sentence fragments can be seen to appear like a carefully punctuated perfect sentence, but it would have something missing.
• Another occurrence of sentence fragments is commonly seen when framing compound-complex sentences and longwinding sentences. In such cases, the best thing to do would be to break them into shorter and simpler sentences.
• For sentences including examples or lists, it would be optimum to put them in bulleted points so that it has a better structure and no sentence fragments.
• Have a keen eye for details. This would help you identify the missing words, phrases or clauses in a sentence so you can rectify it.
• Be it a simple sentence, a compound sentence or a complex sentence, bear in mind that it should always have an independent clause which completes the thought or idea expressed in the sentence even when it is separated from the rest of the sentence.
• Also remember that the English language has sentences with just a subject and a verb and no complement, object or adjunct. All that you should take care of is to see that it is a complete thought. For example, “I have eaten.”
• Proofreading is one way to locate sentence fragments. Sometimes, you might feel really confident with your content but it is better you make multiple revisions and necessary edits so that your content is grammatically and semantically accurate.

It is common to have sentence fragments in stories and plays that include dialogues. Dialogues might not always be complete sentences – it might just be a word, a phrase or a dependent clause. It proves effective in these forms of writing as it lets you understand the informal or formal relationship between the characters and also the ease with which they converse among themselves. It is left to the author’s discretion when it comes to stories or any narrative form of writing. This is, however, an exception. In formal contexts such as writing for professional and academic purposes, it is advisable not to make use of any sentence fragments; instead be extra careful not to miss out even a word.

Examples of Sentence Fragments

Now, let us look at some examples of what sentence fragments are so that you will be able to easily understand and avoid them in the future.

Example 1:

Imagine you are writing a short paragraph about your family and you have sentence fragments in it, how do you locate it and correct it? Take a look at the following example.

I belong to a family of eight – my father, mother and brother, my uncle, aunt, their two children and I. As we are a joint family. I enjoy and cherish being a part of my family.

Do you think there is a sentence fragment (a missing word, phrase or clause) in the above example? If you do, try and locate it.

Found it? Want a little help? Don’t you think the second sentence ‘As we are a joint family.’ has something missing? Is it a complete sentence? No, it is just a phrase (a sentence fragment) which requires a clause to complete it.

Take a look at the following paragraph to see what was missing and how it completes the ideas stated.

I belong to a family of eight – my father, mother and brother, my uncle, aunt, their two children and I. As we are a joint family, we get to share all our happy and sad moments together. I enjoy and cherish being a part of my family.

Example 2:

Now, let us go through the following sentences and try identifying the missing word/phrase/clause in them.

• As soon as I saw her.
• There has been a lot of now.
• Devi ate a.
• Haritha was the girl moved to South Africa.
• Do you prefer coffee tea?

Were you able to identify what is missing in the above sentences? Let us see what was missing in them.

• As soon as I saw her, I hugged her. (missing clause)
• There has been a lot of improvement now. (missing noun)
• Devi ate a bowl of ice cream. (missing object)
• Haritha was the girl who moved to South Africa. (missing connector)
• Do you prefer coffee or tea? (missing conjunction)

Have you understood how to identify and rectify sentence fragments? How about trying a practice exercise to check how far you have understood? Here is an exercise for you.

Check Your Understanding of Sentence Fragments

Read through the following sentences and identify if they are complete sentences or sentence fragments. Also mention what is missing.

1. Milan and Mithra.

2. It was raining.

3. There are exactly twenty boxes.

4. At the end of the programme.

5. Drinks 8 litres of water everyday.

6. Nandini likes spending time with.

7. The hospital is overflowing with patients.

8. I don’t like any beverage.

9. When my parents were living in New Delhi.

10. There was a dusty suitcase the bed.

Check your answers here.

1. Milan and Mithra. – Sentence fragment – missing predicate

2. It was raining. – Complete sentence

3. There are exactly twenty boxes. – Complete sentence

4. At the end of the programme. – Sentence fragment – hanging phrase

5. Drinks 8 litres of water everyday. – Sentence fragment – missing subject

6. Nandini likes spending time with. – Sentence fragment – missing object

7. The hospital is overflowing with patients.- Complete sentence

8. I don’t like any beverage. – Complete sentence

9. When my parents were living in New Delhi. – Sentence fragment – missing clause

10. There was a dusty suitcase the bed. – Sentence fragment – missing preposition