Glossary of English Grammar
Terms
Active Voice
In the active voice, the subject of the verb does the
action (eg They killed the President). See also
Passive Voice.
Adjective
A word like big, red, easy,
French etc. An adjective describes a noun or pronoun.
Adverb
A word like slowly, quietly, well, often etc. An adverb
modifies a verb.
Article
The "indefinite" articles are a and an.
The "definite article" is the.
Auxiliary Verb
A verb that is used with a main verb. Be,
do and have are auxiliary verbs. Can,
may, must etc are modal auxiliary verbs.
Clause
A group of words containing a subject and its verb (for
example: It was late when he arrived).
Conjunction
A word used to connect words, phrases and clauses (for
example: and, but, if).
Infinitive
The basic form of a verb as in to work or work.
Interjection
An exclamation inserted into an utterance without grammatical
connection (for example: oh!, ah!,
ouch!, well!).
Modal Verb
An auxiliary verb like can, may, must
etc that modifies the main verb and expresses possibility,
probability etc. It is also called "modal auxiliary
verb".
Noun
A word like table, dog, teacher,
America etc. A noun is the name of an object,
concept, person or place. A "concrete noun" is something
you can see or touch like a person or car.
An "abstract noun" is something that you cannot see
or touch like a decision or happiness.
A "countable noun" is something that you can count (for
example: bottle, song, dollar).
An "uncountable noun" is something that you cannot count
(for example: water, music, money).
Object
In the active voice, a noun or its equivalent that receives
the action of the verb. In the passive voice, a noun
or its equivalent that does the action of the verb. Participle
The -ing and -ed forms of verbs. The
-ing form is called the "present participle".
The -ed form is called the "past participle"
(for irregular verbs, this is column 3).
Part Of Speech
One of the eight classes of word in English - noun,
verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction
and interjection.
Passive Voice
In the passive voice, the subject receives the action
of the verb (eg The President was killed). See
also Active Voice.
Phrase
A group of words not containing a subject and its verb
(eg on the table, the girl in a red dress).
Predicate
Each sentence contains (or implies) two parts: a subject
and a predicate. The predicate is what is said about
the subject.
Preposition
A word like at, to, in, over
etc. Prepositions usually come before a noun and give
information about things like time, place and direction.
Pronoun
A word like I, me, you, he,
him, it etc. A pronoun replaces a noun.
Sentence
A group of words that express a thought. A sentence
conveys a statement, question, exclamation or command.
A sentence contains or implies a subject and a predicate.
In simple terms, a sentence must contain a verb and
(usually) a subject. A sentence starts with a capital
letter and ends with a full stop (.), question mark
(?) or exclamation mark (!).
Subject
Every sentence contains (or implies) two parts: a subject
and a predicate. The subject is the main noun (or equivalent)
in a sentence about which something is said.
Tense
The form of a verb that shows us when the action or
state happens (past, present or future). Note that the
name of a tense is not always a guide to when the action
happens. The "present continuous tense", for example,
can be used to talk about the present or the future.
Verb
A word like (to) work, (to) love, (to)
begin. A verb describes an action or state.
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