![]() ![]() And as a rule, sentence fragments are frowned upon in formal or expository writing. But they are not sentences in a strict grammatical sense. They would generally be regarded as sentences simply because they begin with a capital letter and end with a suitable punctuation mark. For example, we might answer a question like “Where did you go?” with “To the store,” or “Why can’t I stay out till midnight?” with “Because I say so,” or “What are you doing?” with “Trying to fix this toaster,” instead of “I went to the store,” “You can't stay out that late because I say so,” or “I am trying to fix this toaster.” In written dialogue sentence fragments are perfectly acceptable. In the case of commands, the subject need not be written because “you” is understood: Go home! means You go home! And exclamations clearly express excitement, alarm, anger, or the like with no need for either a subject or a verb: Wow! Gadzooks! Ouch! In everyday speech we routinely use phrases or clauses that would not make a complete sentence-so-called sentence fragments -because the conversation or the circumstances make the meaning clear. Even though it has a subject and a verb, it needs to be connected to something in order to complete the assertion: After he kicked the ball, he fell down or He fell down after he kicked the ball. After he kicked the ball is not a sentence instead it is a dependent clause ( see subordinate clause ). In general, assertions and questions-the overwhelming majority of sentences-require a subject and a verb, put together in a way that can stand alone, resulting in what is called an independent clause ( see main clause ): He kicked the ball is a sentence. ![]() It communicates a complete thought-an assertion, question, command, or exclamation. A sentence is the largest grammatical unit in language. ![]()
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