Fun with Fragments Exploring Sentences and Sentence Fragments

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.

Sometimes part of the sentence may be missing. Three little girls in the front row What’s missing? Ran behind the blue couch What’s missing? 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), What happened (the verb), Or both (the subject and the verb), we have what is known as a sentence fragment.

A sentence fragment is only a piece of a sentence. It does not express a complete thought.

Let’s correct these sentence fragments!

Sat behind me in science class What’s missing?

Yes, we need a subject. The new girl sat behind me in science class.

The bag of groceries on the kitchen table 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 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 Created by Wanda Epting for the C·R·E·A·T·E for Mississippi Project. Copyright 2002. All rights reserved.