Sentence Fragments
A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence. It does not contain even one independent clause.
Prepositional phrases
without a subject and a verb
1.In Hong Kong, during the summer and before the school
year. (wrong)
1.In Hong Kong, during the summer and before the school year, many parents enroll
their children for summer courses. (correct)
A verbal phrase without
a subject
2. Working far into the night in an effort to save his
little boat.(wrong)
2. He was working far into the night in an effort to save his little boat. (correct)
No complete verb
3. Some of the students working in a laboratory last summer.(wrong)
3. Some of the students were working in a laboratory last year. (correct)
4. Toys of all kinds thrown everywhere. (wrong)
4. Toys of all kinds were thrown everywhere. (correct)
A dependent clause
cannot stand by itself
5. Even though he had the better arguments and was by
far the more powerful speaker. (wrong)
5. Even though he had the better arguments and was by far the more powerful
speaker, he lost the case because he did not understand the jury. (correct)
The sentence fragment cannot stand by itself because of
the subordinating conjunction 'even though'. We need an independent clause to
follow up this dependent clause.
6. I need to find
a new job. Because I have been sacked. (wrong)
6. I need to find a new job because I have been sacked. (correct)