47a Identifying fragments

47aIdentifying fragments

A group of words must meet the following three criteria to form a complete sentence. If it does not meet all three, it is considered a fragment.

  1. A sentence must have a subject. (37b)
  2. A sentence must have a verb, not just a verbal. A verbal (such as the participle singing) needs a helping verb in order to function as a sentence’s verb.
    VERBAL She singing.
    VERB She is singing.
  3. Unless it is a question, a sentence must have at least one clause that does not begin with a subordinating conjunction such as because, if, that, or when. See 36g for a list of common subordinating conjunctions.