>> Hi, everybody.
And welcome to the writing centers video --
short video on how to write a complete sentence.
Hopefully, by the end of this video, you'll know a couple
of new things about what goes
into writing a complete sentences.
So, to start off, a complete sentence needs two things.
One, it must contain a verb and a subject.
If you're not entirely sure what that means, don't worry about it
because we'll talk about it.
And a complete sentence must express a complete thought.
So, if you're wondering what a verb is, a verb is a word
that shows action or a state of being.
So, a word that shows action might be like walk or go.
Verbs can also be actions that aren't easy to see.
Something like think or love.
And state of being is essentially any form
of the verb to be.
So, things like is, are, was, were.
Those are verbs as well.
And so, it's usually easy to start with finding
out if a sentence has a verb and then moving
to does it have a subject.
So, what is a subject?
A subject is who or what is doing the action
or being something in a sentence.
So, when you have a verb
like walk you might say they walk or they walked.
A verb like go you might say Gustavo goes.
Or think, you might say I think.
Those are your subjects in yellow.
Love or loves.
The boy with the brown hair loves.
So, if you're trying to figure out what the subject
of a sentence is you wouldn't
and if you thought maybe brown is the subject
or hair is the subject you wouldn't say hair loves
or brown loves, you would say the boy loves.
So, you can kind of work backwards from the verb.
Is. My school is.
Or were, those math problems were.
So, if you have a subject and a verb in a sense,
that's one thing that qualifies it as a sentence.
But it also must express a complete thought.
So, let's look at an example.
If we start with the first rule, does it have a subject
and a verb, they walk toward the apartment building.
Well, there is walked, right.
There is an action.
And you can say who walked toward the apartment building.
They. So, this has a complete -- this has a subject and a verb.
And then you ask yourself can it stand alone?
Does it express a complete idea?
They walk toward the apartment building.
It make sense.
It's complete.
So, this is a complete sentence.
Another one like this one, were.
That was one of our verbs.
And you can say those problems, those math problems were crazy.
That's complete because it has a subject, a verb,
and it's a complete idea.
The boy with the brown hair loves his mom.
There's our verb.
And again, it's the boy who loves his mom.
So, it has a subject and a verb.
And all the ideas are there for it to be complete,
so it's a complete sentence.
But often times, more often, when we talk,
we might say things in a way that aren't complete and so
when we write they come out as incomplete sentences.
So, if you have something like when they walk on a busy street,
well, first, there is a verb and there is a subject.
But this word when kind of messes up this sentence.
It makes it incomplete.
It makes it depend on something else.
So, if you say when they walk on a busy street,
you need more information for it to make sense.
So, if you add something to it, it will.
When they walk on a busy street, they always watch for cars.
So, you have to add another subject
and verb for it to make sense.
Let's look at another example.
Even though my school's pretty small.
So, if we go back first, check for a verb.
Is. And then we ask ourselves what's pretty small.
School. But again, this even though is throwing things off.
Even though my school's pretty small.
We need more information for that to make sense.
We might say even though my school's pretty small,
I like it.
Another example.
And this is probably the most common way
that we write incomplete sentences in writing.
Thinking about things.
Let's say you are sitting in a room by yourself
and somebody walks in and they say what are you doing.
And you say thinking about things.
In a conversation, that's a complete sentence, right,
because they know who's thinking.
We have a verb.
But when you look at this closely and you test
for that first rule, who is thinking about things,
you've got to add some information
for it to make sense.
You need a subject.
That's why that was an incomplete sentence.
And of course, you'd have to like change this T to a small t.
Or another example of this.
If somebody says are you going to that party this weekend.
And you say if Gustavo goes.
If you look at this and you test it the first way,
you have a verb, goes.
That's the action.
And who goes.
Gustavo. But again, this word if is throwing it off.
And what really need in that conversation is
that if Gustavo go, I'll go.
But in writing, this if makes it an incomplete sentence.
So that's an example of something that needs
to express a complete thought but it's not.
All of these actually are.
At first, they weren't fully expressing a complete thought
but now they are.
So, again, a complete sentence, two things.
You start with look for a verb and a subject
because a complete sentence must contain a verb and a subject.
And it has to express a complete thought.
And if you want more practice with any of this like with verbs
and subjects, with how to read your own writing to see
if your sentences are complete, come by the writing center
in LR144 and we would love to talk about it
with you in person one on one.