![]() ![]() I am the first to admit that I love fragments. “Ann cried under the oak tree” is a complete sentence. To leave it on its own creates a sentence fragment because 1) there is no verb or action, and 2) it doesn’t express a complete thought. For example, in the sentence above, “under the oak tree” is a prepositional phrase. Her tunic was stained.”Īnother common sentence fragment is the prepositional phrase left to stand alone. Take off the subordinator at the beginning and voila! You have a complete sentence: “The fairies taunted her. What do these fragments have in common? They start with subordinators. Or, a sentence can be very lengthy and contain several thoughts:Īfter the fairies taunted her all morning, and because her tunic was stained with huckleberry juice from the food fight, Ann cried under the oak tree until the sun dried the hill.Ī fragment is a dependent clause that is left to twist in the wind, lonely and without purpose or meaning: For a sentence to be complete, it must have three things:Ī subject (the actor in the sentence-a noun, proper noun, or pronoun)Ī complete thought (it makes sense on its own-it’s independent)Ī complete sentence can be as short as two words: So, because it’s useful to look at the right way first, let’s define a complete sentence. The Sentence Fragment DefinedĪ sentence fragment is, at its simplest, an incomplete sentence. When you know the rules, you can break them and strengthen your voice, style, and impact. In writing, there’s a place for everything, even poorly structured sentences. Fragments, comma splices, run-ons-oh, my!ĭid you see my sentence fragment up there? Did you notice it? Did it hurt your brain, or did it remind you of The Wizard of Oz? As an editor, I don’t mind weak sentences, but poorly structured sentences in rapid repetition will make me want to claw my eyes out. Send us feedback about these examples.One of the most irritating writing habits for an editor to correct is poor sentence structure. These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fragment.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Moises Velasquez-Manoff, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2023 Many of the animal’s native wetlands were fragmented and shrinking, and conservationists feared that global warming would finish the tortoise off. 2023 The audience is also fragmented thanks to the boom in streaming. ![]() Sarah Harrison, Foreign Affairs, 28 Sep. Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 29 June 2023 Deep divisions and distrust between officials in Mogadishu and regional leaders, as well as among clans and subclans, threaten to fragment the country. 2023 People can sometimes awake abruptly as a result, and sleep is fragmented. 2023 Influencers Face Unique Challenges And Business Crises The influencer market is highly fragmented by nature. 2023 The Rus’ state had become fragmented, beset by quarrelling among its princes. 2023 The seminal British band has long been on the front lines of preserving what’s left of the rock scene, fragmented by streaming and buoyed by dad-rock nostalgia culture. Verb The activity was more disorganized and fragmented across the brain and did not look like the more in-sync patterns the brain exhibits during normal memory formation. 2023 In a release, Simmons said the plastic pieces were likely fragments from safety glasses. Manohla Dargis, New York Times, 24 Dec. 2023 Using only images from this fragment, Stigter movingly reclaims a lost world, face by face, second by second. Jonathan Franzen, The New Yorker, 25 Dec. 2023 In places like Los Angeles, the fragments of remaining habitat are functionally islands, where species can and do disappear, and are mourned by the people who knew them. The Physics Arxiv Blog, Discover Magazine, 27 Nov. 2023 These are regions in which rock fragments have formed into almost perfect circles, usually in glacial regions where temperatures regularly drop below zero. Cameron Pugh, The Christian Science Monitor, 11 Dec. team published a different study in which live Hawaii coral fragments were cryopreserved and successfully thawed to survive for one day. Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Dec. 2024 The fragment was located at the base of a towering rock cliff, presumably having fallen from the rock above. 2024 These vaccines use a fragment of the virus's genetic material (RNA) to teach your cells to make a protein that triggers an immune response. Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 9 Jan. ![]() Noun The paper, which was based on an analysis of 24 vials of the mRNA vaccines, actually found that in all cases the fragments were well below the concentration limits set by the FDA. ![]()
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