All terms in this list:
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"
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