Bill Situ
English and ESL Instructor
Whenever we say that a sentence is not complete, what do we really mean? What makes a sentence incomplete? Have a look at the following examples:
Although she is of Chinese decent.
Which I was not aware of.
Because he has a learning disability.
The examples above are all clauses that have either a transition word or conjunction at the beginning. As such, they cannot stand alone as sentences. It may be common for us to use these when speaking, but in formal writing, these are not complete sentences. To make them complete, we need to add another clause either before or after them:
Although she is of Chinese decent, Victoria was born and raised in Canada.
Johnson had already switched schools, which I was not aware of.
Adam struggles in school because he has a learning disability.
Although she is of Chinese decent.
Which I was not aware of.
Because he has a learning disability.
The examples above are all clauses that have either a transition word or conjunction at the beginning. As such, they cannot stand alone as sentences. It may be common for us to use these when speaking, but in formal writing, these are not complete sentences. To make them complete, we need to add another clause either before or after them:
Although she is of Chinese decent, Victoria was born and raised in Canada.
Johnson had already switched schools, which I was not aware of.
Adam struggles in school because he has a learning disability.
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