It is not joining anything and is not a complete thought. When a word group written as a sentence consists only of a word group beginning with a conjunction, it is not a sentence even though it may have a subject and a verb.

Conjunction FragmentsĬonjunctions are words that join parts of a sentence. To walk to school in the snow is an unpleasant prospect. She has always wanted to become a famous actor.Īnother option is to simply add the needed verb as in the following example: These can be also fixed by joining it to another complete sentence such as the following: These fragments, like –ing fragments, lack a verb because infinitive forms are not true verbs. Infinitive fragments start with the word to. Our only philosophy professor is famous in her field. To fix an appositive fragment, it is necessary to introduce a specific subject and verb to complete the thought such as the following.Īnother way to fix an appositive fragment is to use the phrase as a subject and add a verb and complete thought such as the following: When not part of a sentence, these types of word groups as called appositive fragments. They are just a group of words. They lack a complete thought. Introduction to Speech I, the class in room 302, makes a lot of noise. Here is an example of a sentence with an appositive. They are incidental and not necessary to the main meaning of the sentence and, therefore, are separated by commas from the rest of the sentence. They are used in sentences to further describe a noun, usually the subject of the sentence. Appositive FragmentsĪppositives are groups of words that name something. Smoking cigarettes in excess can lead to severe health problems.Ī sentence must have a subject and grammatical verb and complete a thought. Swimming in the ocean, they saw a school of colorful fish. These can be fixed by either joining it to another complete sentence. An -ing word needs a helper to be a verb: is swimming. Words that end in -ing without a helping verb are nouns, not verbs. Identifying and Fixing Fragments -ing Fragments The word group does not have to be a logical or sane thought. Here is an another example of a sentence. This word group is a sentence because it has a subject and a predicate, and it completes a thought. What is a complete sentence?Ī sentence is a group of words that has a subject (the doer of an action), a predicate (verb), and completes a thought. To help identify fragments, they are grouped into four categories: -ing fragments, appositive fragments, infinitive fragments, and conjunction fragments. A fragment is a group of words that is less than a sentence.

Fragments examples