What you learned
A fragment is a piece of a sentence. It is missing the naming part, the telling part, or both.
To fix one, find out which part is gone and add it.
Four things that do not fix a fragment
| What people try | Why it fails |
|---|---|
| Adding a period. | A mark cannot supply a missing part. “Sat on the fence.” is still a fragment. |
| Adding a capital letter. | Same reason. The group of words is still a piece. |
| Adding describing words. | “The sticky wet paint” tells you more about the paint and still never tells what it does. |
| Making it longer. | “The big brown dog with the red collar” is seven words and still a fragment. |
The whole check in two questions
Who or what is this about? What happens?
Two answers means a sentence. One missing answer means a fragment, and it tells you exactly what to add.
Quick warm-up before the check
Say sentence or fragment.
- “The phone rang all morning.”
- “Under the kitchen table.”
- “My red bike with the bent wheel.”
- “Leo laughed.”
Answers
- Sentence.
- Fragment.
- Fragment.
- Sentence.
Now take the final check below.
Where to go next
- Telling Sentences and Periods: statements and how to punctuate them
- Asking Sentences and Question Marks: questions and their end mark
- Nouns: People, Places, Animals, and Things: the naming words themselves
- What Is a Verb? Action Words: the word at the heart of the telling part