Recognizing fragments | Syntax | Khan Academy Video Lecture | Complete Course on English Grammar: Upgrade your Speaking & Listening - Personal Skills

hello grammarians David here along with
my cousin Beth who also happens to be a
teacher say hello to the people Beth hi
people so today we are going to talk
about sentence fragments and Beth you
cover these in classes that you teach
could you tell me please what is a
sentence fragment great a sentence
fragment
is when a student write to sentence and
they think it's a sentence but it's one
that tells maybe what happens but
doesn't include who or it might include
who but doesn't tell what happens
so sentence fragments don't tell the
whole story the way I would put it is
that a fragment is a piece of a sentence
that cannot stand on its own but
nevertheless incorrectly ends with a
period so the whole story for instance
would be a fragment this is a fragment
it could be a sentence but it's missing
something
Beth what is it missing what is the
whole story missing well we've got a
subject but we don't have what we would
call a predicate in other words so we're
giving a subject but we're not telling
what happens to that subject right so
the whole story began 10 years ago and
now we've got our subject here the whole
story and now we've given it a predicate
similarly if we just had this predicate
and we just said it began 10 years ago
well that's not enough to be a sentence
either that's also a fragment because
now we've got a predicate but no subject
right we're telling about something but
we don't know what so in order to be a
sentence you need to have both a subject
and predicate so you need to have a
thing like a noun or a pronoun and then
you have to have something happen to
that noun or pronoun or something
performed by that noun or pronoun right
so like the pancakes period is not it's
not a sentence but the pancakes were
delicious
is so you've gotta part that names
that's your subject and then you've got
the part that finishes the thought
that's your predicate let's look at
another example all right what about
because of the snowstorm is that a
sentence Beth nope why not well you
don't what tell what happened because of
that snowstorm so this is what we'd call
not even a I mean it's not even a
dependent clause right if this thing
doesn't have doesn't really have a
subject or a verb it's it's really just
a prepositional phrase so because of the
snowstorm something can happen but we
don't know what that is so because of
the snowstorm we stayed home from school
so we've got this this sentence here
this independent clause right we stayed
home from school and that's a subject
and a predicate and if it were just
stayed home from school period that
wouldn't be a sentence and if it were
just we period that also wouldn't be a
sentence and if it were just because of
the snowstorm period that wouldn't be a
sentence it doesn't have enough support
to stand on its own but all together
because of the snowstorm comma we stayed
home from school period that is a
sentence so in order to make sure that
you're building sentences you have to
make sure that what you've got is a
subject and a predicate you've got to
have a subject and a verb put them
together slap on a period you've got a
sentence you've got some good sentences
there David you can learn anything Dave
it out and Beth out