A fragment fails to qualify as a sentence because it lacks a subject or a predicate (or both) or it fails to express a complete thought. However, a sentence with the essentials can still miss the mark. If it lacks a crucial word or phrase, the sentence may be incomplete. When you make comparisons and use elliptical constructions, be certain that you complete the thought you want to express.

Comparisons

Does Roscoe prefer the company of a keyboard to the company of his friend? Or, of these two people, is Roscoe (and not Diane) the online addict? Adding a word would complete the comparison.

The unfinished comparison is a favorite of advertisers — “Our product is better!” — because it dodges the question “Better than what?” A sharp writer knows that any item must be compared with something else.

A sentence that compares should reassure readers on two counts: the items are similar enough to compare, and the terms of comparison are clear.

What is being compared? Truck engine and airplane? Or engine and engine? Because a truck engine is unlikely to outweigh a plane, we can guess the writer meant to compare engines. Readers, however, should not have to make the effort to complete a writer’s thought.

In this last example, parallel structure (Ford truck’s and Piper Cub’s) helps to make the comparison concise as well as clear.

A comparison using any shows how something relates to a group without belonging to the group.

Alaska is larger than any country in Central America.

A comparison using any other shows how one member of a group relates to other members of the same group.

Death Valley is drier than any other place in the United States.

Elliptical Constructions

Robert Frost begins his well-known poem “Fire and Ice” with these lines:

Some say the world will end in fire, / Some say in ice.

When Frost wrote that opening, he avoided needless repetition by implying certain words rather than stating them. The result is more concise and more effective than a complete version of the same sentence would be:

Some say the world will end in fire, some say the world will end in ice.

This common tactic produces an elliptical construction — one that leaves out (for conciseness) words that are unnecessary but clearly understood by readers. Elliptical constructions can be confusing, however, if a writer gives readers too little information to fill in those missing words.

An elliptical construction avoids repeating what a reader already knows, but it should omit only words that are stated elsewhere in the sentence, including prepositions. Otherwise, your reader may fill the gap incorrectly.

Readers are likely to fill in an extra from after goes. Write instead:

Compound predicates are prone to incomplete constructions, especially if the verbs are in different tenses. Be sure no necessary part is missing.

To contrast two things, use the comparative form of an adjective followed by than: better than, more than, fewer than. To show a similarity between two things, sandwich the simple form of an adjective between as and as: as good as, as many as, as few as. Often you can combine two than or two as comparisons into an elliptical construction.

The White House is smaller [than] and newer than Buckingham Palace.

Some elegant homes are as large [as] and as grand as the White House.

However, merging a than comparison with an as comparison won’t work.