What is a group of words with a subject and verb that does not express a complete thought is called?

By Marina Pantcheva

A clause is a group of words that includes two obligatory elements:

• a subject – expresses who or what does something. To find the subject, ask who or what performs the activity.
• a predicate – the word expressing the activity. The predicate changes its form depending on the subject (I play but he plays) and depending on the tense (he plays often but he played yesterday). The predicate is always a verb; hence, the easiest way to find the predicate of the clause is to find the verb whose form changes depending on the subject and the tense.

(1)    Mary is writing a letter. [Mary is the subject, writes is the predicate]
(2)    The new theory captures the data successfully. [the new theory is the subject, captures is the predicate]

There are two types of clauses:

• independent clause – it expresses a complete thought and can stand alone.

(3) John was hired by an IT company.
(4) The majority of politicians do not accept global warming as a real threat.

• dependent clause – it does not express a complete thought but just a part of it. Dependent clauses cannot stand alone.

(5) shortly after he graduated in Computer Science [an incomplete thought]
(6) although scientists have found strong indications of a global temperature rise [an incomplete thought]

Dependent clauses are commonly introduced by special markers (called subordinate conjunctions), such as, if, whether, because, although, since, when, while, unless, even though, whenever (follow this link for a fuller list).

A sentence consists of one or more clauses. A sentence that is made up of a single clause is a simple sentence. The single clause has to be an independent clause in order for the sentence to be complete. The examples in (1)-(4) are all simple sentences consisting of just one independent clause.

A sentence can also contain more than one clause. Such a sentence is called a compound sentence. Compound sentences can consist of two or more independent clauses (connected by and, but, or, nor)

(7) John was hired by an IT company, but Mary did not find a job.
(8) We have to finish the project first, and then we can take a holiday.

A compound sentence can also combine independent clauses with dependent clauses.

(9) Shortly after John graduated in Computer Science, he was hired by an IT company.
(10) The majority of politicians do not accept global warming as a real threat, although scientists have found strong indications of a global temperature rise.

A compound sentence has to contain at least one independent clause to be complete.

Sometimes, complex phrases can be used instead of a dependent clause to encode the same information. This creates a longer simple sentence with just one subject and one verb.

(11) Shortly after his graduation in Computer Science, John was hired by an IT company.
(12) The majority of politicians do not accept global warming as a real threat despite the strong indications of a global temperature rise.

The groups of words “shortly after his graduation in Computer Science” and “despite the strong indications of a global temperature rise” are not clauses because they have no subject (the words John and scientists are missing) and no predicate (graduation is not a verb but a noun derived from a verb).

Elements of Sentence Construction

Subjects and Predicates

Parts of speech have specific tasks to perform when they are put together in a sentence.

A noun or pronoun functions as the sentence subject when it is paired with a verb functioning as the sentence predicate.

Every sentence has a subject and predicate.

A subject can be a noun or pronoun that is partnered with an action verb.

        Example:

Sometimes a verb will express being or existence instead of action.

        Example:

Sometimes we use sentences in which a subject is not actually stated, but is, nevertheless, understood in the meaning.

        Example:

                A sentence like this gives an order or a request to someone.

Because we use such statements when we are talking directly to someone, we omit the word you.  It is understood in the sentence.  Therefore, in statements like this one, we say the subject is  

                                                    you (understood).

This kind of sentence is an imperativesentence.

A predicate is a verb that expresses the subject's action or state of being.

            Example:

Sometimes the predicate will be composed of two or three verbs that fit together - the main verb preceded by one or more auxiliary (helping) verbs.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  To be a predicate, a verb that ends in -ing must ALWAYS have a helping verb with it.  An -ing verb WITHOUT a helping verb cannot be a predicate in a sentence.

A subject and predicate may not always appear together or in the normal order, as the following examples show:

Phrases

A phrase is a group of related words that 

                1. does not express a complete thought

                2.  does not have a subject and predicate pair

One type of phrase is a prepositional phrase.

                  Examples:                         

Another kind of phrase is a verbal phrase. 

                Examples:  

Even though these phrases contain nouns (pronouns) and/or verb forms, none of the nouns/pronouns/verbs are subjects or predicates.  None of them work as a partnership.

Also, these phrases do NOT express complete thoughts.

Clauses

Words and phrases can be put together to make clauses.

A clause is a group of related words that contain a subject and predicate.

Note the difference between phrases and clauses in the following examples:

Only one of the clauses is a sentence.

Clause #1 gives a thought or an idea that is COMPLETE, that can stand by itself, independent of other words.

However, clause #2 gives an INCOMPLETE thought or idea, one that cannot stand by itself, one that needs some more words to make it whole.  The word after changes the meaning, making the thought incomplete.  After reading this clause, we are left hanging.  

These two clauses illustrate the two kinds of clauses:

            independent clauses and dependent clauses

An independent clause is a group of words that contains a subject, a predicate, and a complete thought.

A dependent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a predicate, but does NOT express a complete thought.

Compounding Sentence Elements  

Words, phrases, and clauses may be joined to one another inside a sentence with a conjunction.

The coordinating conjunctions

WORDS

PHRASES
   

DEPENDENT CLAUSES
  

When entire independent clauses (simple sentences) are joined this way, they become compound sentences.

Avoiding Fragments

A complete sentence needs only two elements:

        a subject - predicate unit    AND    a complete thought

In other words, a simple sentence is actually the SAME thing as an independent clause.

Dependent clauses or phrases are called fragments because they are missing one or more parts needed to make a sentence.  

Therefore, they are only pieces or fragments of complete sentences. 

Look at these examples:

Avoiding Comma Splices and Fused Sentences

Sometimes two independent clauses (simple sentences) can be joined to form another kind of sentence: the compound sentence.

Two major errors can occur when constructing compound sentences.

Error #1: The Comma Splice

Writers make this error when they try to separate the two independent clauses in a compound sentence with a comma alone.

A comma is not a strong enough punctuation mark to separate the two independent clauses by itself; thus, using it causes the clauses to be spliced together.

Example of a comma splice:

This sentence can be repaired in three ways:

    1.  by adding an appropriate coordinating conjunction   

    2.  by changing the comma to a semicolon

    3.  by changing the punctuation and adding an appropriate conjunctive adverb

Error #2: The Fused Sentence

Writers make this error by joining two independent clauses into a compound sentence without using any punctuation between them.

No punctuation between the two independent clauses causes them to "fuse" into an INCORRECT compound sentence.

Example of a fused sentence:

This sentence is also repaired in three ways:

    1.  by adding a comma and an appropriate coordinating conjunction

    2.  by placing a semicolon between the two clauses

    3.  by adding the needed punctuation and an appropriate conjunctive adverb

Another way to repair a comma splice or fused sentence is to make each independent clauseinto a simple sentence.

What is a group of words with a subject and verb that does not express a complete thought?

What is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb but does not form a complete sentence?

What is a group of words having a subject and a verb called?

What do we call a group of words with a subject and a verb that Cannot stand alone and begins with a subordinating conjunction?