{"id":157,"date":"2013-12-16T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T17:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=157"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:47:31","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:47:31","slug":"toefl-grammar-mistake-sentence-fragments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-grammar-mistake-sentence-fragments\/","title":{"rendered":"TOEFL Grammar Mistake: Sentence Fragments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, I wrote about <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-grammar-mistake-run-on-sentences\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">how to avoid run-on sentences<\/a>, or sentences that contain several incorrectly-joined parts. If you have the opposite problem, you\u2019re dealing with sentence fragments.<\/p>\n<p>A sentence fragment is missing one of the necessary parts (<a title=\"How To Make a Sentence\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/how-to-make-a-sentence\/\">How to Make a Sentence<\/a>) of a sentence. These are all fragments (I put the asterisk * next to them as a sign that they are NOT correct English):<\/p>\n<p>*A fish.<\/p>\n<p>*My friend and I on the beach last summer, where we swam with dolphins and ate lots of shrimp.<\/p>\n<p>*Drinking coffee.<\/p>\n<p>*With some string.<\/p>\n<p>*Not today.<\/p>\n<p>As a quick practice activity, leave me a comment in which you turn each of these fragments into a sentence. What was each missing\/what did you have to add to complete it?<\/p>\n<p>The tricky thing is that while run-ons are always clearly wrong, we do use a lot of fragments in our everyday speech\u2014especially when asking questions. Unfortunately, you need to be able to turn this on in informal contexts and then turn it off when you need to. Every sentence you write on the TOEFL should be complete, or you risk losing points or, even worse, confusing your reader.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>How do you avoid writing fragments?<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s not difficult to rid your writing of fragments; just be sure that every sentence has at least one subject and at least one verb. Theoretically, that\u2019s all you need to do. In practice, however, it\u2019s not always that simple.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Common traps<\/h2>\n<p>As you know, certain verbs have certain traveling buddies. These include things like direct objects, indirect objects, and prepositional phrases. Take, for example, the verb \u201cto tell.\u201d You can\u2019t have a sentence that just says \u201cWe told.\u201d It doesn\u2019t make sense; this particular word requires an indirect object\u2014the person that you tell.<\/p>\n<p>We told your <b>mother<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>We told <b>them<\/b> about the project.<\/p>\n<p>The second way that people accidentally write fragments is by trying to use subordinate clauses as complete sentences.<\/p>\n<p>Some conjunctions, however, should never start a sentence. These are the <b>subordinating conjunctions<\/b>, or the conjunctions that go before the less important information in a sentence. If this idea is unfamiliar to you, check back in a few days to learn more. \u00a0Until then, keep to the more conservative rule of never starting a sentence with a conjunction. This will prevent you from breaking a widely-accepted rule as well as appease even the strictest grammarian.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, I wrote about how to avoid run-on sentences, or sentences that contain several incorrectly-joined parts. If you have the opposite problem, you\u2019re dealing with sentence fragments. A sentence fragment is missing one of the necessary parts (How to Make a Sentence) of a sentence. These are all fragments (I put the asterisk * next [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13603],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13632],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TOEFL Grammar Mistake: Sentence Fragments - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-grammar-mistake-sentence-fragments\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TOEFL Grammar Mistake: Sentence Fragments\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recently, I wrote about how to avoid run-on sentences, or sentences that contain several incorrectly-joined parts. If you have the opposite problem, you\u2019re dealing with sentence fragments. A sentence fragment is missing one of the necessary parts (How to Make a Sentence) of a sentence. These are all fragments (I put the asterisk * next [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-grammar-mistake-sentence-fragments\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/MagooshTOEFL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-16T17:00:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-10T21:47:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2016\/09\/Facebook-SEO-Default.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kate Hardin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@MagooshTOEFL\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@MagooshTOEFL\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kate Hardin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-grammar-mistake-sentence-fragments\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-grammar-mistake-sentence-fragments\/\",\"name\":\"TOEFL Grammar Mistake: Sentence Fragments - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-12-16T17:00:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#\/schema\/person\/83c4cb93b4b527f8404029efa19cf318\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-grammar-mistake-sentence-fragments\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-grammar-mistake-sentence-fragments\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-grammar-mistake-sentence-fragments\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"TOEFL Grammar Mistake: Sentence Fragments\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/\",\"name\":\"Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test\",\"description\":\"Online TOEFL Preparation\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#\/schema\/person\/83c4cb93b4b527f8404029efa19cf318\",\"name\":\"Kate Hardin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/f695eb57ce131bb657ee5d3203ed66f9\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b8502df78e82e1b38fd3b3ef66174425ec804827b7270a78ea571396a998ee25?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b8502df78e82e1b38fd3b3ef66174425ec804827b7270a78ea571396a998ee25?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kate Hardin\"},\"description\":\"Kate has 6 years of experience in teaching foreign language. 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