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- Glossary of English Grammar Terms
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active voice
one of two voices in English; a direct form of expression where the subject performs or "acts" the verb; see also passive voice
eg: "Many people eat rice"
adjective
part of speech that typically describes or "modifies" a noun
eg: "It was a big dog."
adjective clause
seldom-used term for relative clause
adjunct
word or phrase that adds information to a sentence and that can be removed from the sentence without making the sentence ungrammatical
eg: I met John at school.
adverb
word that modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb
eg: quickly, really, very
adverbial clause
dependent clause that acts like an adverb and indicates such things as time, place or reason
eg: Although we are getting older, we grow more beautiful each day.
affirmative
statement that expresses (or claims to express) a truth or "yes" meaning; opposite of negative
eg: The sun is hot.
affix
language unit (morpheme) that occurs before or after (or sometimes within) the root or stem of a word
eg: un- in unhappy (prefix), -ness in happiness (suffix)
concord
logical (in a grammatical sense) links between words based on tense, case or number
eg: this phone, these phones
antecedent
word, phrase or clause that is replaced by a pronoun (or other substitute) when mentioned subsequently (in the same sentence or later)
eg: "Emily is nice because she brings me flowers."
appositive
noun phrase that re-identifies or describes its neighbouring noun
eg: "Canada, a multicultural country, is recognized by its maple leaf flag."
article
determiner that introduces a noun phrase as definite (the) or indefinite (a/an)
aspect
feature of some verb forms that relates to duration or completion of time; verbs can have no aspect (simple), or can have continuous or progressive aspect (expressing duration), or have perfect or perfective aspect (expressing completion)
auxiliary verb
verb used with the main verb to help indicate something such as tense or voice
eg: I do not like you. She has finished. He can swim.
bare infinitive
unmarked form of the verb (no indication of tense, mood, person, or aspect) without the particle "to"; typically used after modal auxiliary verbs; see also infinitive
eg: "He should come", "I can swim"
base form
basic form of a verb before conjugation into tenses etc
eg: be, speak
case
form of a pronoun based on its relationship to other words in the sentence; case can be subjective, objective or possessive
eg: "I love this dog", "This dog loves me", "This is my dog"
causative verb
verb that causes things to happen such as "make", "get" and "have"; the subject does not perform the action but is indirectly responsible for it
eg: "She made me go to school", "I had my nails painted"
clause
group of words containing a subject and its verb
eg: "It was late when he arrived"
comparative adjective
form of an adjective or adverb made with "-er" or "more" that is used to show differences or similarities between two things (not three or more things)
eg: colder, more quickly
complement
part of a sentence that completes or adds meaning to the predicate
eg: Mary did not say where she was going.
compound noun
noun that is made up of more than one word; can be one word, or hyphenated, or separated by a space
eg: toothbrush, mother-in-law, Christmas Day
compound sentence
sentence with at least two independent clauses; usually joined by a conjunction
eg: "You can have something healthy but you can't have more junk food."
conditional
structure in English where one action depends on another ("if-then" or "then-if" structure); most common are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd conditionals
eg: "If I win I will be happy", "I would be happy if I won"
conjugate
to show the different forms of a verb according to voice, mood, tense, number and person; conjugation is quite simple in English compared to many other languages
eg: I walk, you walk, he/she/it walks, we walk, they walk; I walked, you walked, he/she/it wa
conjunction
word that joins or connects two parts of a sentence
eg: Ram likes tea and coffee. Anthony went swimming although it was raining.
content word
word that has meaning in a sentence, such as a verb or noun (as opposed to a structure word, such as pronoun or auxiliary verb); content words are stressed in speech
eg: "Could you BRING my GLASSES because I've LEFT them at HOME"
continuous or progressive
verb form (specifically an aspect) indicating actions that are in progress or continuing over a given time period (can be past, present or future); formed with "BE" + "VERB-ing"
eg: "They are watching TV."
contraction
shortening of two (or more) words into one
eg: isn't (is not), we'd've (we would have)
countable noun
thing that you can count, such as apple, pen, tree (see uncountable noun)
eg: one apple, three pens, ten trees
dangling participle
illogical structure that occurs in a sentence when a writer intends to modify one thing but the reader attaches it to another
eg: "Running to the bus, the flowers were blooming." (In the example sentence it seems that the flowers were running.)
declarative sentence
sentence type typically used to make a statement (as opposed to a question or command)
eg: "Tara works hard", "It wasn't funny"
defining relative clause
relative clause that contains information required for the understanding of the sentence; not set off with commas; see also non-defining clause
eg: "The boy who was wearing a blue shirt was the winner"
demonstrative pronoun/adjective
pronoun or determiner that indicates closeness to (this/these) or distance from (that/those) the speaker
eg: "This is a nice car", "Can you see those cars?"
dependent clause
part of a sentence that contains a subject and a verb but does not form a complete thought and cannot stand on its own; see also independent clause
eg: "When the water came out of the tap..."
determiner
word such as an article or a possessive adjective or other adjective that typically comes at the beginning of noun phrases
eg: "It was an excellent film", "Do you like my new shirt?", "Let's buy some eggs"
direct speech
saying what someone said by using their exact words; see also indirect speech
eg: "Lucy said: 'I am tired.'"
direct object
noun phrase in a sentence that directly receives the action of the verb; see also indirect object
eg: "Joey bought the car", "I like it", "Can you see the man wearing a pink shirt and waving a gun in the air?"
embedded question
question that is not in normal question form with a question mark; it occurs within another statement or question and generally follows statement structure
eg: "I don't know where he went," "Can you tell me where it is before you go?", "They haven't decid
finite verb
verb form that has a specific tense, number and person
eg: I work, he works, we learned, they ran
first conditional
"if-then" conditional structure used for future actions or events that are seen as realistic possibilities
eg: "If we win the lottery we will buy a car"
fragment
incomplete piece of a sentence used alone as a complete sentence; a fragment does not contain a complete thought; fragments are common in normal speech but unusual (inappropriate) in formal writing
eg: "When's her birthday? - In December", "Will they come
function
purpose or "job" of a word form or element in a sentence
eg: The function of a subject is to perform the action. One function of an adjective is to describe a noun. The function of a noun is to name things.
future continuous
tense* used to describe things that will happen in the future at a particular time; formed with WILL + BE + VERB-ing
eg: "I will be graduating in September."
future perfect
tense* used to express the past in the future; formed with WILL HAVE + VERB-ed
eg: "I will have graduated by then"