Complete Sentences

[whilewaiting]

Please tell me if this is a complete sentence or not:



We like to play in.

[Tdol]

It doesn't sound complete to me; it would be fine with indoors/inside, but with your wording, I'd need to know in what/where.

[BobK]

... or if there was a game called "In" the sentence would be complete (except for some punctuation).

b

[Harry Smith]

And what about this one? (on the phone)
- Is Father in?
- No, he is out.

[bright]

er...I have never seen a sentence like that.
but i think it maybe have the meanings "welcom sb. by playing music "


[not a teacher]

[whilewaiting]

My daughter is in 1st grade and had a worksheet where she had to circle the complete sentences. She did not circle the sentence and the teacher marked it wrong. I asked the teacher about it and she said that it is a complete sentence and that if my daughter had been paying attention she wouldn't have gotten it wrong. She said its complete because of the subject and verb. However, my daughter at this point is being taught that a complete sentence must complete a thought. She hasn't studied subjects and verbs yet. Needless to say my little one and I are both confused.

[Barb_D]

Ugh. It's a nuisance to have to teach things to the teacher.

The MINIMUM that is required is a subject and a verb, but having the subject and any verb at all doesn't make it complete.

A sentence can have a transitive verb but not an object, and not be complete. I hung. What did you hang?

You can have a verb that requires two objects but ony one in the "sentence" and not be complete: I set the keys. Where did you set the keys?

You can have a subject and a verb, and then a portion of an adverbial phrase that incudes only the preposition but not the required object of the preposition, and not be complete. I hung the picture over. The girl played in.

I can only agree that it's a complete sentence if colloquially, "in" is used for "indoors" or "inside." If the teacher is hanging her hat on the fact that there is a subject and a verb, and that alone makes it complete, it's time to talk to the principal.

[Naamplao]

I can only agree that it's a complete sentence if colloquially, "in" is used for "indoors" or "inside." If the teacher is hanging her hat on the fact that there is a subject and a verb, and that alone makes it complete, it's time to talk to the principal.

Agreed....this teacher certainly is at best using poor examples to support her "subject/verb" complete sentence notion. At worst...he/she needs some education on the subject before teaching it.

Whilewaiting's daughter is to be congratulated for not selecting this sentence as complete.