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. A
complete sentence has three components:
1. a subject (the actor in the sentence)
2. a predicate (the verb or action), and
3. a complete thought (it can stand alone and make senseits independent).
How do you find and fix your fragments? Remember the basics: subject, verb, and
complete thought. If you can recognize those things, youre halfway there. Then, scan
your sentences for subordinating conjunctions. If you find one, first identify the whole
chunk of the dependent clause (the subject and verb that go with the subordinator), and
then make sure theyre attached to an independent clause.
John took the bus. (Independent clause. So far, all is well!) Because his car was in the
shop. (Dependent clause all by itself. Uh oh! Fragment!)
John took the bus because his car was in the shop.
FINDING RUN-ONS

As you can see, fixing run-ons is pretty easy once you see thembut how do you find
out if a sentence is a run-on if you arent sure? Rei R. Noguchi, in his book Grammar and
the Teaching of Writing, recommends two methods for testing your sentences. Try
these two tests:
1. Turn your sentences into yes/no questions.
2. Turn your sentences into tag questions (sentences that end with a questioning
phrase at the very endlook at our examples below).
These are two things that nearly everyone can do easily if the sentence is not a run-on,
but they become next to impossible if it is.
Look at the following sentence:
My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus.
If you turn it into a question that someone could answer with a yes or no, it looks like
this:
Is my favorite Mediterranean spread hummus?
If you turn it into a tag question, it looks like this:
My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus, isnt it?
The first sentence is complete and not a run-on, because our test worked.
Now, look again at the original run-on sentence:
My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus it is very garlicky.
The yes/no question can only be made with each separate thought, not the sentence as
a whole:
Is my favorite Mediterranean spread hummus? Is it very garlicky?

But not:
Is my favorite Mediterranean spread hummus is it very garlicky?
The tag question can also only be made with each separate thought, rather than the
whole:
My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus, isnt it? Its very garlicky, isnt it?
But never:
My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus it is very garlicky, isnt it?
Unlike the complete sentence, the run-on sentence doesnt pass these tests. When you
try to turn the run-on sentence into a single question, you immediately see that the
sentence has more than one complete concept. Make sure you try both tests with each
of your problem sentences, because you may trick yourself by just putting a tag on the
last part and not noticing that it doesnt work on the first. Some people might not notice
that My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus it is very garlicky isnt it? is wrong,
but most people will spot the yes/no question problem right away.
Every once in a while, you or your instructor will see a really long sentence and think its
a run-on when it isnt. Really long sentences can be tiring but not necessarily wrong
just make sure that yours arent wrong by using the tests above.

Run-on sentences occur when two or more independent clauses are joined without using
a coordinating conjunction (i.e., for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) or correct punctuation (i.e.,
semicolons, dashes, or periods), [2][3] it can also simply be that the wordy phrases should be
separate sentences with subject and verb in agreement, if too many descriptive phrases cannot
be traced to the original subject, it should be edited into a clean sentence.
A run-on sentence can be as short as four words, for instance I drive she walks, in this case
there are two subjects paired with two intransitive verbs, however, with correct punctuation, a
writer can assemble multiple independent clauses in a single sentence; a properly constructed
sentence can be extended indefinitely.
While some sources view comma splices as a form of run-on sentence,[3] others limit the term to
independent clauses that are joined without punctuation. [2][4]
There are several ways to correct a run-on sentence.

Insert a semicolon or dash:

It is nearly half past five; we cannot reach town before dark.

It is nearly half past fivewe cannot reach town before dark.

Write the two clauses as two separate sentences (Note: this may disconnect

related independent clauses and cause some of the meaning to be lost):

It is nearly half past five. We cannot reach town before dark.

Insert a coordinating conjunction with a comma:

It is nearly half past five, so we cannot reach town before dark.

It is nearly half past five, and we cannot reach town before dark.
In British English, there would be no comma before the word and (i.e., It is nearly half
past five and we cannot reach town before dark.)

Make one clause dependent on the other:

Because it is nearly half past five, we cannot reach town before dark.

It is nearly half past five, which means we cannot reach town before dark.

Definition of a Sentence Fragment

Sentence fragments are groups of words that look like sentences, but aren't. To be a sentence,
groups of words need to have at least one independent clause. An independent clause is any
group of words that contain both a subject and a verb and can stand on its own. For example, 'I
like cheeseburgers' is an independent clause.
Sentence fragments never have independent clauses, but instead are dependent clauses or
phrases. Fragments can masquerade as real sentences because they begin with a capital letter
and end with a period. If you read them more closely, you'll see that fragments don't form a
complete thought. A sentence fragment is a little like having only half of the pieces to a puzzle.
Without all the pieces, you won't have the whole picture.

Where to Find Sentence Fragments

Sentence fragments usually appear before or after the independent clauses to which they
belong. For example:

When we got in the car. We rolled down the windows.

'When we got in the car' is a sentence fragment and a dependent clause. It clearly belongs to the
independent clause that follows it and should be rewritten like this:
When we got in the car, we rolled down the windows.
Or like this:
We rolled down the windows when we got in the car.

Subordinators
The sentence fragment 'When we got in the car' also has the subordinator 'when'. Some other
examples ofsubordinators are: 'after', 'although', 'before', 'if', 'since', 'until', 'when', 'where',
'while', and 'why'. Clauses with subordinators can be called either dependent clauses or
subordinating clauses, but when those clauses appear at the beginning of a sentence, they
should be followed by a comma.

Fragment Phrases
Phrases are groups of words that are missing a subject or verb, or both. Phrases can also
masquerade as sentences, like dependent clauses can. Here are some examples.
Here's an example missing subject and verb:
From morning until night.
This fragment can be made a complete sentence by changing it to:
I worked from morning until night.
Adding 'I' as the subject and 'worked' as the verb corrects this fragment and makes it an
independent clause and a complete thought.
Here's an example of a missing subject:
Start after the weekend.
This fragment can be made a complete sentence by changing it to:
Classes start after the weekend.

Adding the subject 'classes' corrects this fragment and makes it an independent clause and a
complete thought.
Finally, here's an example of a missing verb:
Some girls in the class.
This fragment can be changed to:
Some girls in the class study together.
Adding the verb 'study' corrects this fragment and makes it an independent clause and a
complete thought.