Sentence Fragments

Summary
Harold and Brian explain how to identify types of sentence fragments as they play Dungeons & Dragons.

Transcript
(Harold and Brian are in the attic, playing Dungeons & Dragons)

Brian: Okay, you attack the wizard with your sword of infinite sharpness, but he puts on his invisible cloak and disappears.

Harold: Whoa, he sure is smart.

(Brian rolls the dice)

Brian: And as you're looking around in confusion, he reappears and smites you with his mace.

Harold: Hey, that's not fair! This game is too stupid for me to play. I just keep getting hit by the enemies. I'm gonna leave.

(As Harold gets up, Brian tries to get him to keep playing)

Brian: Oh, come on, don't leave! This is fun! Isn't it?

Harold: Well, I'm not gonna play with you unless you promise that you'll play fair.

Caption: Today's Lesson: Sentence Fragments

Narrator: Today, Harold and Brian are going to show you how you should identify sentence fragments.

Brian: "Sentence fragment" is just a fancy term for an incomplete sentence. Every complete sentence has a subject and a predicate.

(Scene changes to an illustration of a knight fighting a dragon)

Brian: For example, "Harold fought the dragon." The subject is who or what the sentence is about. And the predicate tells you what the subject is doing. The most common type of fragment is a sentence without one of those key elements.

(Scene changes to an illustration of a sorceress casting a spell)

Brian: For example, "Zoe the sorceress" is a fragment.

Harold: Right. It's all subject and no predicate. There's no verb to tell us what Zoe the sorceress is doing. However, "Zoe the sorceress cast her spell." is a complete sentence. We fixed the fragment by adding the predicate, "cast her spell."

Brian: There's another kind of fragment that's a little trickier.

Harold: Um, are you sure?

Brian: Well, I promise there will be more cool fantasy art.

Harold: Oh...okay.

Brian: Some sentences express more than one thought. Check out this sentence: "When Zoe the sorceress cast her spell, Harold turned into a newt." The part of the sentence before the comma is a dependent clause.

Harold: A clause is a piece of a sentence that includes a subject and a verb. Sometimes, a clause can stand alone as a complete sentence. That's called an independent clause. In the sentence mentioned earlier, "Harold turned into a newt" is an independent clause - it can form a sentence by itself. But a dependent clause doesn't form a complete thought. But a dependent clause doesn't form a complete thought. If we say "When Zoe the sorceress cast her spell", we don't know what happened when Zoe cast her spell. You can even hear the difference - it just sounds like there should be something after it. The meaning depends on the rest of the sentence. To form a complete sentence, a dependent clause has to be linked with an independent clause, like "Harold turned into a newt." So when you see a dependent clause by itself, that's another type of sentence fragment.

Brian: A dependent clause often starts with a word that connects it to the rest of the sentence. In this case, the word is "when". Harold turned into a newt. When did he turn into a newt? When Zoe the sorceress cast her spell. "When" is a subordinating conjunction. Other examples of subordinating conjunctions include "after", "because", "before", "if", "since", "though", and "while".

Harold: Dependent clauses can go after independent clauses, too. In fact, mixing up the order of clauses will make your writing or speech more interesting. For example, "Kayla was happy because she got a new sword." And, "After Harold became a newt, Kayla fought the orcs alone."

Brian: Do you seem to get it now, Harold?

Harold: I sure do!

Brian: Now, roll the dice again - you're up against an entire army of bugbears.

Harold: Okay.

(Harold rolls the dice, grabs some of the game pieces, and smashes them to bits)

Brian: Uh, I guess that means you win.