#Fragments meaning grammar how to#

They waited for the bus all morning in the rain last Tuesday. But independent clauses (i.e., complete sentences) can be expanded to contain a lot more information, like this:

We can understand the idea completely with just those two words, so again, it’s independent-an independent clause. This sentence has a subject (They) and a verb (waited), and it expresses a complete thought. Some sentences can be very short, with only two or three words expressing a complete thought, like this: a complete thought (it can stand alone and make sense-it’s independent).A complete sentence has three components: What is a complete sentence? A complete sentence is not merely a group of words with a capital letter at the beginning and a period or question mark at the end.

#Fragments meaning grammar how to#

The basicsīefore we get to the problems and how to fix them, let’s take a minute to review some information that is so basic you’ve probably forgotten it. It will help you locate and correct sentence fragments and run-ons. If instructors have ever returned your papers with “frag,” “S.F.,” “R.O.,” or “run-on” written in the margin, you may find this handout useful. Fragments and Run-ons What this handout is about