Grammar Quiz: Can You Pass The Sentence Fragments Test?

What is the subject of this sentence? "The student." What is the student doing? He or she is "skipping off the bus." Because we are able to answer both of these questions, we know that this is a complete sentence.

What is the subject of this? "The teacher." What action is the teacher performing? She is "reading from a book." A subject and action are both present, therefore this is a complete sentence.

Who is the subject of this sentence? "I" am. What am I doing? I am "having some trouble." Because I am able to identify both he subject and action, I know it is a complete sentence.

Even though this is an extremely short sentence, it is completely and perfectly acceptable as it has a subject - "he" - and an action - "sat."

This is a sentence fragment because we are missing the subject. We are not told who is "running to catch the bus." A sentence needs to have both a subject and a verb to be complete

The subject of this sentence is "the fifth grade class." "On a field trip to a museum" is a prepositional phrase that adds further detail to the sentence. There is one thing missing, however: a verb. We are not told what action the class on the field trip is performing. Because we do not have a subject, this sentence is incomplete and therefore a fragment.

This is a Sentence and Fragment because it is missing the verb of the sentence. We are not told what "The birds on the wire" are doing, and therefore the thought is incomplete. If we said something like "The birds sat on the wire," we would be fine, as that contains a subject and a verb.

The given sentence is a fragment because it is incomplete and does not express a complete thought. It lacks a subject and does not have a verb. The words "Having a notebook, pencil and highlighter" do not form a complete sentence on their own. They are a dependent clause or a phrase. A complete sentence would require a subject and a verb to express a complete thought.

What is the subject of this sentence? "The girl who had just cut her hair." What is this girl doing? We don't know - there is no action included in this sentence. As a result, it is a sentence fragment that is missing a verb.

"On a dark and stormy night" is a prepositional phrase. Not only are we missing a subject in this example, we are missing an action as well.