Complete and Fragment Sentence

Complete Sentence

A complete sentence is a group of words that begins with a capital letter and ends with a period or question mark or exclamation mark at the end. A complete sentence has the following components:

·         Subject

·         Verb

·         A complete thought

Some sentences can be very short but expresses a complete thought.

For example: Birds fly.

This sentence has a subject (Birds) and a verb (fly), and it expresses a complete thought.

Fragment sentence

Like complete sentence, a fragment sentence is also a group of words that begins with a capital letter and ends with or question mark or exclamation mark at the end.

A fragment sentence is incomplete because they lack either

- a subject

For example: Playing in the ground.

Here ‘who’ or ‘what’ performed the action is not clear i.e. subject in this sentence is missing.

-a verb

For example: My son.

Here verb i.e. action performed, is performing or to be performed by the subject is missing. My son did what?

-both subject and verb

For example: On the cupboard.

Here ‘who’ or ‘whom’ i.e. subject is missing and action i.e. verb of the sentence is also missing.

- don’t express a complete thought

For example: If you want to go to the trip.

This above sentence has a subject (You) and verb (go) but does not give complete idea. What he should do, if he wants to go to the trip is missing.