Sentence | missguerard

A complete sentence is not only a bunch of words with a capital letter at the beginning and a period or

question mark at the end. To be considered complete, a sentence has to have three components:

1. a subject (the actor in the sentence)

2. a predicate (the verb or action)

3. a complete thought (it can stand alone and make sense—it’s independent).

Some sentences can be very short, but still express a complete thought, like this:

She cries.

A fragment is an incomplete sentence. It is missing important information like a subject, a verb, or even both!

Hurt myself while playing baseball.

The woman with the black hair.

Because cats purr.

Run-on sentences are usually sentences put together without being connected properly.

The sky is gray, it will rain soon.

We went skiing we also went snowshoeing.

The sky is gray. It will rain soon.

Use a word to connect the two sentences (but, for, and, yet, so, or, for, however, although, when, etc). Pay attention to make sure that your sentence still makes sense and that it is not too long.

We went skiing but we also went snowshoeing.

The sky is gray; it will rain soon.

Commas (,) normally shows pauses in speech.

Make sure that you use commas after introductory clauses, phrases or words that come before the main part of the sentence.

Last week, we went to read outside.

Common starter words for introductory clauses that should be followed by a comma include:

after, although, as, because, if, since, when, while.

While I was eating, the cat scratched at the door.

Because her alarm clock was broken, she was late for class.

If you are ill, you ought to see a doctor.

Fierce Fifth Graders