That’s also how sentence fragments can trick you (the opposite of being clear). What is guaranteed there? We assume that it’s either you’ll love your haircut or that you’ll get your money back, but it’s not clear. You’ll love your new haircut or your money back. It also saves space to get rid of all those pesky subjects and verbs.
![what does fragment sentence mean what does fragment sentence mean](https://image1.slideserve.com/2769571/fragments-l.jpg)
However, there are a few cases where fragments may be acceptable.īecause advertising tries to sound friendly and approachable, ads often use fragments to mimic conversation. As a result, we’ve gotten used to hearing fragments during conversations and may think it’s OK to use them in our writing.īut fragments are never acceptable in formal writing if you’re writing a school paper, a cover letter, a business document, or the like, avoid fragments. We use a lot of fragments in our everyday speech because humans are naturally lazy and speech occurs in context. All sentences should make sense on their own and should make even more sense when read in context with the sentences before and after that. Was I talking about puppies who can’t stand without help? Maybe.įragments should be avoided because they depend on the sentences around them to make sense. If you read that fragment, “Because they can’t stand on their own,” without context, you wouldn’t know what it meant. Take a closer look: that “sentence” is really a dependent clause it relies on the question asked just before it to make sense. A fragment is a chunk of thought, an orphan that can’t make it on its own. In a fragment, at least one of these elements is missing, and so the fragment can’t stand on its own as a complete thought.
![what does fragment sentence mean what does fragment sentence mean](https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Is-Your-Sentence-a-Fragment-1.png)
![what does fragment sentence mean what does fragment sentence mean](https://globalowls.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/find-sentence-fragment-in-grammarly.png)
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