Common errors in making a sentence are fragments and run-ons. A complete sentence is defined as group of words that forms a complete thought. It should have both a subject and a verb. An example is
My dad bought a new bicycle.
The subject is “dad” and the verb is “bought”.
A sentence fragment is when a group of words that does not express a complete thought. It is usually missing a subject, a verb or a helping verb. For example:
A big yellow truck.
It is missing a verb. Thus, this is a sentence fragment.
A run-on sentence, also known as a run-together sentence, is made up of two independent clauses that are joined without end punctuation or with just a comma. There are two ways to fix a run-on sentence.
- Separate it into two sentences.
- Rewrite it as a compound sentence by using a comma and a coordinating conjunction such as and, but, or, or so.
For example:
The movie was long I fell asleep.
This can be fixed as either
- The movie was long. I fell asleep.
- The movie was long, so I fell asleep.
