Sentence Fragments: Shattering Your Syntax

Is it ever grammatically acceptable to leave a sentence incomplete? Sometimes.

To be complete, a sentence needs a subject and a predicate. You can think of them as the protagonist and the drama¹ or as the topic and its state of being. The subject is (or includes) a noun and the predicate is (or includes) a verb. Even very short sentences always have both.

• Gregor awoke.
• The sky is green.
• I do.
• It was.

These sentences may be uninformative, but they are complete. In fact, even one word can be a complete sentence.

• Proceed.
• Duck!

In commands like these (called the imperative mood in grammar circles), the subject you goes without saying.

Of course, an exclamation (or interjection) is considered a complete sentence even when it doesn’t follow the subject-predicate format.

• Yikes!
• Hey!

But interjections are a part of speech unto themselves.

In the rec room, the chanting to summon the demon was coming to a close.

Sentence Fragments

A fragment is a sentence that’s missing either a subject or a predicate. Just as a very short sentence can still be complete, a long sentence can still be a fragment.

• The blind, white grubs inside the silk-lined bassinet, tucked under a yellow woollen blanket. X

This tells us all about the subject, grubs, but doesn’t tell us what they’re doing.

• The blind, white grubs lay inside the silk-lined bassinet, tucked under a yellow woollen blanket. ✓
• The blind, white grubs inside the silk-lined bassinet were tucked under a yellow woollen blanket. ✓

• Heaving and pulsing in their sleep, their tiny legs whispering restlessly. X

Here we have a wealth of verbs, but we don’t know who or what is undertaking the action.

• They heaved and pulsed in their sleep, their tiny legs whispering restlessly. ✓

• In the rec room, the chanting to summon the demon coming to a close. X

Don’t be confused by the verb coming; it’s not a predicate. As part of the participial phrase “coming to a close,” it’s acting as an adjective, describing the subject, not driving the sentence.

• In the rec room, the chanting to summon the demon was coming to a close. ✓
• In the rec room, the chanting to summon the demon came to a close. ✓

Dependent Clauses

The presence of both a subject and a predicate doesn’t guarantee your sentence is complete. A clause can have its own subject and predicate, even though it’s part of a larger sentence.

• We finished that bottle of chianti when the cats came over for dinner.

The clause “when the cats came over for dinner” has both a subject and a predicate, but by itself it’s still a fragment.

• When the cats came over for dinner. X
• The cats came over for dinner. ✓

The word when sets up expectations the sentence doesn’t fulfill, leaving the reader hanging. When is a subordinating conjunction, which makes this a dependent clause; a dependent clause, as its name suggests, can’t stand on its own. To put it another way, clauses that begin with words like although, because, if, since, that, until, unless, and while will always be fragments by themselves.

• When the cats came over for dinner, we opened a bottle of wine. ✓

When the cats came over for dinner, we opened a bottle of wine.

When Is It Okay to Use Sentence Fragments?

Although sentence fragments are a big no-no in English class, you probably see them all the time—in fiction, in advertising, in blogs. (Possibly even in this blog.) You wouldn’t want incomplete sentences in your cover letter or college essay, but in the right context they can add punch to your prose. For example, an author might use them to heighten tension during a dramatic scene, or you might use them for humour or as part of a casual, friendly style. And they can make dialogue sound more realistic, as few of us talk in complete sentences all the time.

• Suki scanned the inky waves. There! Rising from the depths. A tentacle.
• Would I babysit the larvae? Not for a million bucks.
• Worst. Blog. Ever. 
• “I feel weird,” said Gregor. “Kind of buggy.”

As is often the case, you can get away with breaking the rules provided you understand them. A sentence fragment can be either a sign of sloppiness or an effective writing tool. How will you know which it is? Context.




1. Constance Hale, Sin and Syntax

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Transitive and Intransitive Birds

More than once while editing I’ve come across a construction like this:

• An eldritch green light emitted from under the door to the teachers’ lounge. X

The problem here is the treatment of the verb emitted. Either the sentence needs a different verb or it needs to have its syntax rearranged.

• An eldritch green light emanated from under the door to the teachers’ lounge. ✓
• The teachers’ lounge emitted an eldritch green light from under the door. ✓

Emit is a transitive verb, and therefore needs an object, while emanate can be intransitive, and needs none.

A transitive bird (in this case, a cassowary) prepares to transmit a message to its object.

Transitive Birds

Transitive has the same root as transit, meaning “movement” or “the conveying of something from one place to another” (as in mass transit). It may help to think of transitive verbs as carrying an impetus they have to deliver to another word.

When a verb is transitive, it must have an object; it always does its verb-ing in relation to something else. Because emit is transitive, you can’t say “the light emits.” Emits what? You have to say “[something] emits light.”

These transitive verbs make no sense without the objects that follow them:

• I tricked the giant.
• I donned a natty green suit.
• I questioned the witness closely.
• I brushed the sasquatch’s coat.

Intransitive Birds

Intransitive verbs don’t require an object. With nothing to pass on, they are complete by themselves.

• I stumbled.
• I ruminated.
• I cheated.

Identification in the Wild

The same verb can be transitive or intransitive, depending on how it’s used.

• Natalya often walked by the Volga. (Intransitive)
• Natalya often walked her snow leopard by the Volga. (Transitive)

• Dark Dashwood the Desperate was willing to beg, borrow, and steal. (Intransitive)
• Dark Dashwood the Desperate begged a smoke, borrowed a horse, and stole a herd of cattle. (Transitive)

• The Dowager did not suffer fools gladly. (Transitive)
• No one knew how he suffered! thought Niccolò. (Intransitive)

Dark Dashwood the Desperate was willing to beg, borrow, and steal.

A verb’s transitive and intransitive forms may even have different meanings.

• Submit your poems to Annabel Lee on black-edged paper sprinkled with tears.
• “Submit!” cried the dominatrix, cracking her whip. 

So pay attention to that little note in dictionary definitions, the one after verb, that says transitive or intransitive. It may keep you from using entirely the wrong word someday.