connect related independent clauses - which are full sentences - if there is no conjunction like "and" joining them. (On my trip I visited Tallahassee, Florida Atlanta, Georgia and Montgomery, Alabama.)
Sentence fragment quiz pdf series#
separate elements in a series if the elements already contain commas. You can have nonessential clauses as well, and just plain words too, which you also have to put commas around. So a phrase is a group of words that work together to achieve a greater meaning, a clause is a group of words with a subject and a verb, and a nonessential phrase is a phrase is separated from the rest of the sentence by commas because without it, the sentence is still specific and has a meaning that makes sense. Take the sentence: "The person cutting Usnavi's hair was even hairier than he was." Here, we don't put commas around "cutting Usnavi's hair" because it's essential information to understanding who the man is. For the most part, you can tell if a phrase is nonessential or not just from its meaning and how it relates to the meaning of the sentence. In the sentence: "Usnavi, a very hairy man, was fearsome to behold", knowing that Usnavi is hairy isn't essential to getting at the main meaning of the sentence, which is that he's fearsome.
The main way we signify that a phrase is nonessential is with the commas surrounding it. Now, nonessential phrases are phrases that can be removed from the sentence, like you said. The way I've learned it is that a phrase is just a group of words acting together to express one idea, like in "around the world" or "slurping greedily". A clause, even a dependent one, will always have a subject and a verb, while a phrase will never have both a subject and a verb in it. This is the key difference between them and phrases. Take "Roman numerals" and "are used" in the first clause, and "it" and "is" in the second clause. It's made up of an independent clause ("Roman numerals are still used in a few contexts") and a dependent clause ("because it is sometimes useful to have distinct numerals for distinct purposes").Ĭlauses are bits of words with a subject and a verb in them. Together we learned a lot.What you have between the commas in that sentence, "Roman numerals are still used in a few contexts because it is sometimes useful to have distinct numerals for distinct purposes" functions as an entire sentence by itself. Being a friend of mine like he was when we first joined the soccer team. The small, one-story houses are all the same size and style. Tilting the pot way too much caused the boiling water to spill. With my brother standing by my side, I reached for the pot handle. My old rowboat with its three-horsepower motor seemed like a high-speed job to me. Although it only attained a speed of about twelve miles an hour. Until one of Joe's oldest and best friends had a little too much to drink. Jim ordered two dozen red roses for his wife. As Christmas grows near, I find myself looking back into my childhood days at fun-filled times of snowball fights.
Not realizing at the time that we would never enter that door in her home again. She opened the door and let us into her home. To prove to himself and his parents that he is a man. In the seventh grade every young boy goes out for football. Although that is a value judgment and in circumstances not a true premise. The magazine has a reputation for a sophisticated, prestigious, and elite group of readers. Especially when you are on your first date, you feel that you should be in control. It can be really embarrassing to be so emotional. After this meal, they were ready for anything. A few of the less serious fellows would go into a bar for a steak dinner and a few glasses of beer. It was difficult to distinguish between them. Within each group, a wide range of features to choose from. Like other teachers in that department, he did not encourage students' questions. He talked for fifty minutes without taking his eyes off his notes. Such as the sun sending its brilliant rays to the earth and the leaves of various shades of red, yellow, and brown moving slowly in the wind. Could you tell these writers why the fragments are incomplete sentences? Act as their editor, marking a C if the sentences in the group are all complete and an F if any of the sentences in the group is a fragment. The sentences below appeared in papers written by students. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.
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