hey everyone welcome to another english
grammar lesson
today we're going to be covering
sentences fragments and run-ons
so if you've watched our lessons on
subjects and predicates you'll already
know that a sentence must have both a
subject
and a predicate in order to be complete
but more than that
a sentence must also express a complete
thought
and what does a complete thought mean
well
it means that you have all of the
information you need to understand what
is happening
so again a complete sentence must have
both a subject
and a predicate and it must also express
a complete
thought if a sentence is missing any one
of those elements
it is called a fragment meaning a piece
of a sentence
not a complete thing so let's take a
look at some fragments
after i get home okay so you might say
well we have a subject in i and a
predicate in
git right so isn't that a sentence well
no it's not because there's not a
complete idea here
not a complete thought after i get home
what
after i get home i'll take a nap after i
get home i'll watch some tv
there's not enough information here as
it stands for me to really understand
what's going on
and because of that this is a fragment
how about this one in the morning when
you wake up
again you might be able to find me a
subject you
congratulations and you might also be
able to find a predicate
wake up awesome but there's no complete
thought
here you'll go for a walk in the morning
when you wake up
you'll eat breakfast in the morning when
you wake up i don't know
and that's the problem so again if
you're missing a subject or a predicate
or if the sentence does not express a
complete thought that you can fully
understand
then you have a fragment a run-on
sentence is created when we have the
opposite effect
a run-on occurs when we have multiple
sentences multiple complete thoughts
without the proper punctuation which is
usually a period
like this i like basketball amy likes
swimming
there are two separate sentences here i
like basketball
and amy likes swimming two complete
sentences
cannot and i repeat cannot be separated
by a comma
alone to make this work you would need
the word and
or the word but or a period or a
semicolon
a comma alone cannot separate two
complete sentences like this
okay so let's try some i want you to
read each example
and tell me if you think we have a
sentence fragment or run-on all right
bought it over summer break okay what do
you think here
well do i have a subject do i know who
or what i'm talking about
no actually i don't and since i don't
have a subject
which is an essential part of a sentence
i already know that this is not a
complete sentence
instead it is a fragment
next one carl smith is my favorite actor
ok so what do you think here remember
to be a complete sentence you must have
a subject
and a predicate and you must express a
complete thought
if you're missing one of those things
it's a fragment
and if you have too many of those things
without the right punctuation
you have a run-on so what is this
well do i have a subject yes carl smith
do i have a predicate yes is my favorite
actor
and does this whole thing make sense can
i fully understand what's going on
yes so it's a sentence a few more
so many books in my bedroom okay find
the subject
you could say books maybe all right
well find the predicate can't right
there isn't one
we don't know what the books are doing
there's no action or condition listed
with them like
the books are this or the books were
that
so since we're missing something in this
case a predicate we have a fragment
three more i try to read every day
it helps me relax all right find your
subject
you actually have two here i in the
first part
and it in the second part okay so find
your predicates
and again there are two try to read
every day and the first part
and helps me relax in the second part
alright so
what do you think sentence no
what did i just say about splitting
complete sentences with
only a comma can't do it you cannot
split
complete sentences with just a comma
you can split them with a comma and a
conjunction like and or but or yet
but you can't split them with a comma
alone
so here we have a run-on two more
she cried okay find the subject she
right easy enough and the predicate
cried also pretty easy okay
so it has the parts i need but does it
express a complete thought
she cried can you imagine that and you
might be thinking well it's really short
doesn't matter do you need any more
information to understand what's going
on
no you don't it's a short sentence but
it
is a sentence all right
last one i'm not mad i'm just
disappointed
okay find the subject got two
i in the first part and i in the second
part
predicate again two am in the first part
and am again in the second part alright
so it's a sentence then right
no yet again we have two complete
thoughts
separated by just a comma this does
not work you can combine two sentences
with a comma and a conjunction
you can do it with a semicolon you can
do it with a period
but you cannot do it with a comma alone
i'll keep saying that
until you remember it forever you cannot
split
two sentences with a comma alone so here
we have a run-on
cool well whether you came here for a
refresher or just now learning this
stuff for the first time
i hope this video helped be sure to
check out the free practice down in the
description
and we'll see you next time thanks