Glossary of English Grammar Terms

1、This glossary of English grammar terms relates to the English language. Some terms here may have additional or extended meanings when applied to other languages. For example, "case" in some languages applies to pronouns and nouns. In English, nouns do not have case and therefore no referen

2、ce to nouns is made in its definition here.TermDefinitionactive voiceone of two voices in English; a direct form of expression where the subject performs or "acts" the verb; see also passive voiceeg: "Many people eat rice"adjectivepart of speech that typically describes or "

3、modifies" a nouneg: "It was a big dog."adjective clauseseldom-used term for relative clauseadjunctword or phrase that adds information to a sentence and that can be removed from the sentence without making the sentence ungrammaticaleg: I met John at school. adverbword that modifies a

4、verb, an adjective or another adverbeg: quickly, really, very adverbial clausedependent clause that acts like an adverb and indicates such things as time, place or reasoneg: Although we are getting older, we grow more beautiful each day.affirmativestatement that expresses (or claims to express) a tr

5、uth or "yes" meaning; opposite of negativeeg: The sun is hot.affixlanguage unit (morpheme) that occurs before or after (or sometimes within) the root or stem of a wordeg: un- in unhappy (prefix), -ness in happiness (suffix)agreement(also known as "concord")logical (in a grammatic

6、al sense) links between words based on tense, case or numbereg: this phone, these phonesantecedentword, 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."appositi

7、venoun phrase that re-identifies or describes its neighbouring nouneg: "Canada, a multicultural country, is recognized by its maple leaf flag."articledeterminer that introduces a noun phrase as definite (the) or indefinite (a/an)aspectfeature of some verb forms that relates to duration or

8、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(also called "helping verb")verb used with the main verb to help indicate something such as t

9、ense or voiceeg: I do not like you. She has finished. He can swim.bare infinitiveunmarked form of the verb (no indication of tense, mood, person, or aspect) without the particle "to" typically used after modal auxiliary verbs; see also infinitiveeg: "He should come", "I can

10、swim" base formbasic form of a verb before conjugation into tenses etceg: be, speak caseform of a pronoun based on its relationship to other words in the sentence; case can be subjective, objective or possessiveeg: "I love this dog", "This dog loves me", "This is my dog

11、" causative verbverb that causes things to happen such as "make", "get" and "have" the subject does not perform the action but is indirectly responsible for iteg: "She made me go to school", "I had my nails painted"clausegroup of words containin

12、g a subject and its verbeg: "It was late when he arrived"comparative,comparative adjectiveform 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 comp

13、lementpart of a sentence that completes or adds meaning to the predicateeg: Mary did not say where she was pound nounnoun that is made up of more than one word; can be one word, or hyphenated, or separated by a spaceeg: toothbrush, mother-in-law, Christmas Daycompound sentencesentence with

14、at least two independent clauses; usually joined by a conjunctioneg: "You can have something healthy but you can't have more junk food."concordanother term for agreement conditionalstructure in English where one action depends on another ("if-then" or "then-if" stru

15、cture); most common are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd conditionalseg: "If I win I will be happy", "I would be happy if I won"conjugateto 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 langua

16、geseg: I walk, you walk, he/she/it walks, we walk, they walk; I walked, you walked, he/she/it walked, we walked, they walkedconjunctionword that joins or connects two parts of a sentenceeg: Ram likes tea and coffee. Anthony went swimming although it was raining.content wordword that has meaning in a

17、 sentence, such as a verb or noun (as opposed to a structure word, such as pronoun or auxiliary verb); content words are stressed in speecheg: "Could you BRING my GLASSES because I've LEFT them at HOME" continuous(also called "progressive")verb form (specifically an aspect) i

18、ndicating 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." contractionshortening of two (or more) words into oneeg: isn't (is not), we'd've (we woul

19、d have)countable nounthing 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 anothereg: "Running to the

20、 bus, the flowers were blooming." (In the example sentence it seems that the flowers were running.)declarative sentencesentence 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(

21、also called "restrictive relative clause") relative clause that contains information required for the understanding of the sentence; not set off with commas; see also non-defining clauseeg: "The boy who was wearing a blue shirt was the winner"demonstrative pronoundemonstrative ad

22、jective pronoun or determiner that indicates closeness to (this/these) or distance from (that/those) the speakereg: "This is a nice car", "Can you see those cars?"dependent clausepart of a sentence that contains a subject and a verb but does not form a complete thought and cannot

23、 stand on its own; see also independent clauseeg: "When the water came out of the tap."determinerword such as an article or a possessive adjective or other adjective that typically comes at the beginning of noun phraseseg: "It was an excellent film", "Do you like my new shir

24、t?", "Let's buy some eggs" direct speech saying what someone said by using their exact words; see also indirect speecheg: "Lucy said: 'I am tired.'" direct objectnoun phrase in a sentence that directly receives the action of the verb; see also indirect objecteg:

25、"Joey bought the car", "I like it", "Can you see the man wearing a pink shirt and waving a gun in the air?" embedded questionquestion that is not in normal question form with a question mark; it occurs within another statement or question and generally follows statement

26、 structureeg: "I don't know where he went," "Can you tell me where it is before you go?", "They haven't decided whether they should come" finite verb verb form that has a specific tense, number and personeg: I work, he works, we learned, they ran first condition

27、al"if-then" conditional structure used for future actions or events that are seen as realistic possibilitieseg: "If we win the lottery we will buy a car"fragmentincomplete piece of a sentence used alone as a complete sentence; a fragment does not contain a complete thought; fragm

28、ents are common in normal speech but unusual (inappropriate) in formal writingeg: "When's her birthday? - In December", "Will they come? - Probably not" functionpurpose or "job" of a word form or element in a sentenceeg: The function of a subject is to perform the a

29、ction. One function of an adjective is to describe a noun. The function of a noun is to name things.future continuous(also called "future progressive")tense* used to describe things that will happen in the future at a particular time; formed with WILL + BE + VERB-ingeg: "I will be gra

30、duating in September."future perfecttense* used to express the past in the future; formed with WILL HAVE + VERB-edeg: "I will have graduated by then"future perfect continuoustense* used to show that something will be ongoing until a certain time in the future; formed with WILL HAVE BE

31、EN + VERB-ingeg: "We will have been living there for three months by the time the baby is born"future simple tense* used to describe something that hasn't happened yet such as a prediction or a sudden decision; formed with WILL + BASE VERBeg: "He will be late", "I will a

32、nswer the phone"gerundnoun form of a verb, formed with VERB-ingeg: "Walking is great exercise"gradable adjectiveadjective that can vary in intensity or grade when paired with a grading adverb ; see also non-gradable adjectiveeg: quite hot, very tall grading adverbadverb that can modif

33、y the intensity or grade of a gradable adjectiveeg: quite hot, very tallhanging participle another term for dangling participle helping verb another term for auxiliary verb imperativeform of verb used when giving a command; formed with BASE VERB onlyeg: "Brush your teeth!"indefinite pronou

34、n pronoun does not refer to any specific person, thing or amount. It is vague and "not definite".eg: anything, each, many, somebodyindependent clause(also called "main clause")group of words that expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence; see also dependent c

35、lauseeg: "Tara is eating curry.", "Tara likes oranges and Joe likes apples." indirect objectnoun phrase representing the person or thing indirectly affected by the action of the verb; see also direct objecteg: "She showed me her book collection", "Joey bought his w

36、ife a new car"indirect questionanother term for embedded question indirect speech(also called "reported speech") saying what someone said without using their exact words; see direct speecheg: "Lucy said that she was tired"infinitivebase form of a verb preceded by "to&qu

37、ot;*; see also bare infinitiveeg: "You need to study harder", "To be, or not to be: that is the question" inflectionchange in word form to indicate grammatical meaningeg: dog, dogs (two inflections); take, takes, took, taking, taken (five inflections) interjectioncommon word that

38、 expresses emotion but has no grammatical value; can often be used alone and is often followed by an exclamation markeg: "Hi!", "er", "Ouch!", "Dammit!" interrogative(formal) sentence type (typically inverted) normally used when asking a questioneg: "Are

39、you eating?", "What are you eating?" interrogative pronoun pronoun that asks a question.eg: who, whom, whichintransitive verbverb that does not take a direct object; see also transitive verbe.g. "He is working hard", "Where do you live?" inversionany reversal of th

40、e normal word order, especially placing the auxiliary verb before the subject; used in a variety of ways, as in question formation, conditional clauses and agreement or disagreementeg: "Where are your keys?","Had we watched the weather report, we wouldn't have gone to the beach&qu

41、ot;, "So did he", "Neither did she"irregular verbsee irregular verbs list verb that has a different ending for past tense and past participle forms than the regular "-ed" see also regular verbeg: buy, bought, bought; do, did, done lexicon, lexis all of the words and wor

42、d forms in a language with meaning or functionlexical verbanother term for main verb linking verbverbs that connect the subject to more information (but do not indicate action), such as "be" or "seem"main clause another term for independent clause main verb(also called "lexi

43、cal verb") any verb in a sentence that is not an auxiliary verb; a main verb has meaning on its owneg: "Does John like Mary?", "I will have arrived by 4pm" modal verb(also called "modal")auxiliary verb such as can, could, must, should etc; paired with the bare infi

44、nitive of a verbeg: "I should go for a jog"modifierword or phrase that modifies and limits the meaning of another wordeg: the house => the white house, the house over there, the house we sold last year moodsentence type that indicates the speaker's view towards the degree of reality

45、 of what is being said, for example subjunctive, indicative, imperativemorphemeunit of language with meaning; differs from "word" because some cannot stand alonee.g. un-, predict and -able in unpredictable multi-word verb verb that consists of a basic verb + another word or words (preposit

46、ion and/or adverb)eg: get up (phrasal verb), believe in (prepositional verb), get on with (phrasal-prepositional verb) negativeform which changes a "yes" meaning to a "no" meaning; opposite of affirmativeeg: "She will not come", "I have never seen her" nominat

47、ive caseanother term for subjective case non-defining relative clause(also called "non-restrictive relative clause") relative clause that adds information but is not completely necessary; set off from the sentence with a comma or commas; see defining relative clauseeg: "The boy, who h

48、ad a chocolate bar in his hand, was still hungry"non-gradable adjectiveadjective that has a fixed quality or intensity and cannot be paired with a grading adverb; see also gradable adjectiveeg: freezing, boiling, deadnon-restrictive relative clauseanother term for non-defining relative clause n

49、ounpart of speech that names a person, place, thing, quality, quantity or concept; see also proper noun and compound nouneg: "The man is waiting", "I was born in London", "Is that your car?", "Do you like music?" noun clauseclause that takes the place of a nou

50、n and cannot stand on its own; often introduced with words such as "that, who or whoever"eg: "What the president said was surprising"noun phrase (NP) any word or group of words based on a noun or pronoun that can function in a sentence as a subject, object or prepositional object

51、; can be one word or many words; can be very simple or very complexeg: "She is nice", "When is the meeting?", "The car over there beside the lampost is mine" numberchange of word form indicating one person or thing (singular) or more than one person or thing (plural)eg:

52、 one dog/three dogs, she/they objectthing or person affected by the verb; see also direct object and indirect objecteg: "The boy kicked the ball", "We chose the house with the red door"objective casecase form of a pronoun indicating an objecteg: "John married her", &quo

53、t;I gave it to him" part of speechone of the classes into which words are divided according to their function in a sentenceeg: verb, noun, adjectiveparticipleverb form that can be used as an adjective or a noun; see past participle, present participlepassive voiceone of two voices in English; a

54、n indirect form of expression in which the subject receives the action; see also active voiceeg: "Rice is eaten by many people"past tense(also called "simple past")tense used to talk about an action, event or situation that occurred and was completed in the pasteg: "I lived

55、in Paris for 10 years", "Yesterday we saw a snake"past continuoustense often used to describe an interrupted action in the past; formed with WAS/WERE + VERB-ingeg: "I was reading when you called"past perfecttense that refers to the past in the past; formed with HAD + VERB-ed

56、eg: "We had stopped the car"past perfect continuoustense that refers to action that happened in the past and continued to a certain point in the past; formed with HAD BEEN + VERB-ingeg: "I had been waiting for three hours when he arrived"past participleverb form (V3) - usually ma

57、de by adding "-ed" to the base verb - typically used in perfect and passive tenses, and sometimes as an adjectiveeg: "I have finished", "It was seen by many people", "boiled eggs"perfectverb form (specifically an aspect); formed with HAVE/HAS + VERB-ed (presen

58、t perfect) or HAD + VERB-ed (past perfect) persongrammatical category that identifies people in a conversation; there are three persons: 1st person (pronouns I/me, we/us) is the speaker(s), 2nd person (pronoun you) is the listener(s), 3rd person (pronouns he/him, she/her, it, they/them) is everybody

59、 or everything elsepersonal pronounpronoun that indicates personeg: "He likes my dogs", "They like him" phrasal verbmulti-word verb formed with a verb + adverbeg: break up, turn off (see phrasal verbs list)NB: many people and books call all multi-word verbs "phrasal verbs&qu

60、ot; (see multi-word verbs)phrasetwo or more words that have a single function and form part of a sentence; phrases can be noun, adjective, adverb, verb or prepositionalpluralof a noun or form indicating more than one person or thing; plural nouns are usually formed by adding "-s" see also

61、singular, numbereg: bananas, spoons, treespositiongrammatically correct placement of a word form in a phrase or sentence in relation to other word formseg: "The correct position for an article is at the beginning of the noun phrase that it describes"positivebasic state of an adjective or a

62、dverb when it shows quality but not comparative or superlativeeg: nice, kind, quicklypossessive adjective adjective (also called "determiner") based on a pronoun: my, your, his, her, its, our, theireg: "I lost my keys", "She likes your car" possessive case case form of a pronoun indicating ownership or possessioneg: "Mine are blue", "This car is hers" possessive pronoun pronoun that indicates ownership or possessioneg: "Where is mine?", "These are your