Wednesday 15 February 2017

Sentence fragments

Polish speakers and writers of English often struggle with sentence fragments. Polish allows many fragments, equivalents of which are either extremely informal or simply non-existent in English. We can distinguish four major types of sentence fragments:

a. Structures without a verb: Irene likes gardening and cooking. *Her husband, fishing and wartime novels. He reads every day. *British, American and other books about the Great War and the Vietnam War.

b. Structures without a subject: Kate went to the station to see her friend off. *Waited and waited, and then it turned out the train had already left. *Tired and in a hurry, finally went home.

c. Structures with a transitive verb but without an object: I'm reading a Swedish crime novel. *I really want to know who killed. 

d. Subordinate clauses used as standalone sentences: It started to rain. *Before we left home. We went for a walk. *Although it was raining.

Correct the following sentences. You may need to join them together or add words so as to make them grammatical.

1. I really love winter. Snow sparkling on the ground, children making snowmen and frozen lakes.
2. Much as I like George. I can't stand his stupid jokes.
3. The baby started to cry again. As soon as I sat on the sofa.
4. Scotland has many beautiful castles. Wales, green hills and other landmarks.
5. Jane began to write her essay. Hadn't planned it in advance so had trouble organising her arguments. 
6. Paul likes gin and tonic. His girlfriend rum and coke.
7. When the meeting was over. We finally went home.
8. Have you seen this picture? Sheila painted for me.
9. The boy who is standing over there. He's my cousin.
10. London is difficult to drive in. Too many cars, pedestrians and buses.
11. Dubai is far too hot. Yesterday was forty-five degrees there.
12. Although I dislike Norwegian. I enjoy learning Danish.

KEY
1.What I really love about winter is snow... / I really love winter. I love snow... 2. Much as I like George, I... 3. ...to cry again as soon as... / As soon as I sat on the sofa, the baby... 4. ...castles, whereas/while Wales has... 5. She hadn't planned it in advance, so she had... 6. Paul likes gin and tonic, while/whereas his girlfriend likes... 7. ... over, we... 8. Sheila painted it for me. 9. ... there is my cousin. 10. drive in, because there are too many... there. / It has too many cars... 10. Yesterday it was... 11. ...Norwegian, I enjoy...

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