What is an example of a complete sentence

Recognize a complete sentence when you find one.

A complete sentence has three characteristics:

• First, it begins with a capital letter.
• In addition, it includes an end mark—either a period (  .  ), question mark (  ?  ), or exclamation point (  !  ).
• Most importantly, the complete sentence has at least one main clause. Each main clause contains a subject and a verb. Together, this pair expresses a complete thought.

Read these examples:

The banana rotting at the bottom of Jimmy's book bag has soaked his biology notes with ooze.

Did you notice the cricket swimming in your cup of tea?

I cannot believe that you tried one of those disgusting chocolate-broccoli muffins!

Once a main clause exists in the sentence, you can attach other sentence elements to communicate additional information.

Consider the additions to the main clause below:

A bumblebee flew into Peter's open mouth.

Buzzing around the picnic table, a bumblebee flew into Peter's open mouth.

A bumblebee flew into Peter's open mouth, stinging the poor boy's tongue, which swelled up as big and as blue as an eggplant.

Because it smelled the watermelon-flavored bubble gum, a bumblebee flew into Peter's open mouth.

A bumblebee flew into Peter's open mouth and tickled the poor boy's tonsils.

Taking a wrong turn, a bumblebee flew into Peter's open mouth, but it buzzed back out before Peter had a chance to swallow.

Avoid an accidental fragment.

Sometimes you begin a group of words with a capital letter, then conclude with an end mark, but forget to insert the essential main clause anywhere in the mix. When this happens, you have written a fragment, a major error in writing.

Read the examples that follow:

Because hungry sharks flashed on the surface of the waves.

No main clause = fragment.

Spilling the hot spaghetti sauce all over his new shoes.

No main clause = fragment.

To buy nice jewelry for his greedy girlfriend Gloria.

No main clause = fragment.

For example, a mailbox stuffed with bills, two dozen messages on the answering machine, an angry cat, and a dead lawn.

No main clause = fragment.

And peeked into the room, risking the wrath of Professor Mauzy, who has no patience for students walking into class late.

No main clause = fragment.

Now read the revisions below. Notice that adding a main clause completes the thought:

Because hungry sharks flashed on the surface of the waves, Mike and Sarah decided to return their surfboards to the car.

Leonardo grabbed the pot handle with his bare hands, spilling the hot spaghetti sauce all over his new shoes.

Danny sold half of his comic book collection to buy nice jewelry for his greedy girlfriend Gloria.

For example, April found a mailbox stuffed with bills, two dozen messages on the answering machine, an angry cat, and a dead lawn.

Sherry turned the doorknob and peeked into the room, risking the wrath of Professor Mauzy, who has no patience for students walking into class late.

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Read the following sentences:

1. A doctor is talking to a person. 
2. The nurse is taking a patient on a wheel chair.  
3. Three people are waiting to meet the doctor.  

The sentences follow a particular pattern, which we will discuss later on in the session, based on which we make grammatically sound sentences that make sense to the reader. 

Let us learn complete sentences with an example. 

Read the sentences: 

• We cooked.  

• We cooked pasta.   

Sentence 1 

• We cooked.  

It simply gives us a glimpse of the action that is being done. It doesn’t tell us what the subject was cooking. This sentence, as it lacks an object, can be called a sentence fragment. 

In Sentence 2 

• We cooked pasta.   

It has a subject which is a pronoun, followed by an action verb, which itself is later on followed by an object upon which the verb cooked is done.  

Here, unlike the previous sentence, we have the sentence conveying a complete thought to the reader and we understand fully what is actually happening. Therefore, we can call sentence 2 a complete sentence. 

A complete sentence is a collection of words that expresses a complete idea. 

A complete sentence must contain at least three elements: a subject, a verb, and an object.  

Typically, the subject is a noun or a pronoun. And, if there is a subject, there must be a verb because all verbs require a subject.  

In a sentence, the object is the thing on which action is being done by the subject.  

If a sentence lacks a subject, or a verb, or an object, it is considered a sentence fragment. 

Examples of complete sentences: 

• I wrote a poem. 
• My mother is a teacher. 
• My father bought a new car. 
• Jerry is upset because he flunked the exam. 

Examples of sentence fragments: 

• I slept. 
• She wrote. 
• We sang. 

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