Tell a complete sentence from a fragment

What it looks like when your child can do it

• — Hearing "Ran to the car," your child says something is missing, because nobody knows who ran.
• — Your child hears "Because it was raining" and asks "Because it was raining, what?" They can tell the thought is not finished.
• — Your child repairs a fragment by adding the missing part: "The dog ran to the car."

How to teach it at the kitchen table

1. 01

   Name the two parts

   A complete sentence needs a who or what, called the subject, and a word that tells what it does or is, called the verb. "Mom laughed" is complete. Mom is the who, and laughed is what she did.

2. 02

   Listen for a finished thought

   Some word groups have both parts and still hang in the air. "When the bus came" has a subject and a verb, but it leaves you waiting. A complete sentence lets the listener nod and say, "Okay, I know what happened."

3. 03

   Ask the three questions

   Who or what is this about? What do they do, or what are they? Does it sound finished? If any answer is missing, it is a fragment, which means a piece of a sentence.

4. 04

   Fix fragments out loud

   Say a fragment and let your child repair it. "The big red truck" can become "The big red truck honked." "After lunch" can become "After lunch we went outside." Repairing shows they know what was missing.

5. 05

   Cover a word and reread

   The book asks your child to cover a word and decide whether the rest still stands. Practice with "Wow, the pie smells good." Cover wow and the comma, and "The pie smells good" is still whole.

Try it together

1. Try 1

   Say: "Barked all night." Ask whether it is a complete sentence.

   Listen for  No. We know what happened, barking, but not who barked. Your child might fix it as "The dog next door barked all night."

2. Try 2

   Say: "My brother and his friend." Ask whether it is complete.

   Listen for  No. It names who, but nothing happens. It needs a verb, as in "My brother and his friend built a fort."

3. Try 3

   Say: "If it snows tomorrow." Ask whether it is complete.

   Listen for  No. It has a subject, it, and a verb, snows, but the thought is not finished. Listen for your child to say something like "If it snows tomorrow, then what?"

4. Try 4

   Say: "Grandpa fixed the fence." Ask whether it is complete.

   Listen for  Yes. Grandpa is the who, fixed is what he did, and the thought is finished. Mix in complete ones so your child does not assume every example is broken.

5. Try 5

   Say: "The cat slept, and the dog barked." Ask whether the words on each side of and could each stand alone as a sentence.

   Listen for  Yes, both could: "The cat slept" and "The dog barked." Seeing two whole sentences on either side of a joining word is the judgment the book's lesson on joining words builds on.

Watch for

• — Orders like "Close the door" are complete sentences even though nobody is named. The hidden who is you, the person being told.

If it is not there yet

• — Play "who did what" at dinner. You say a who, like "the baby," and your child adds what the baby did. Then switch.
• — Stay with fragments that are missing a who or missing a verb before adding ones that start with because or when, which are harder to hear.

A few days of this is normal, and it is time well spent. The lesson will still be there, and it will go faster.

Where this skill comes up

• The Parts of Speech, Told by the Greek Myths · Lesson 22

  Conjunctions and Compound Sentences

  Needs it because A compound sentence is two complete ones joined, which a child cannot build without recognizing one.

• The Parts of Speech, Told by the Greek Myths · Lesson 23

  Interjections

  Needs it because the test is whether what remains after removal is still whole, which requires that judgment.

• The Parts of Speech, Told by the Greek Myths · Lesson 24

  The Four Types of Sentences

  Needs it because only a complete sentence has a purpose to classify; a fragment has none.