Anacoluthon Examples

Anacoluthon is the term for when a writer interrupts the expected grammatical flow of a sentence. Typically, anacoluthon, when used deliberately in writing, signals spoken language or the internal, self-reflective language of the characters. Anacoluthon can be deliberate, or amateur writers may not realize they are not using grammatically correct structures.

I can't believe Christmas is-I just haven't finished my shopping yet!

I agree that children should-Wait! Did you just see that car run the red light?

Marie, will you help me pour the-careful not to spill.

Examples of Anacoluthon from Literature

From Hamlet by Shakespeare:

To die, to sleep--

No more--and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to?

?To die, to sleep--

To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub?

From King Lear by Shakespeare:

I will have such revenges on you both,

That all the world shall-I will do such things,

What they are, yet I know not