english grammar terminology
The infinitive is the base form of the verb. A clause is a grammatical unit which typically contains a verb (or verb phrase), and which may be a complete sentence in itself or may form part of a sentence. More generally, the base form of a word is the main part to which other elements (such as prefixes and suffixes) may be added. In languages with grammatical gender, neuter nouns and related words often refer to inanimate objects but do not necessarily do so. In some inflected languages, the accusative case is used to indicate nouns and pronouns (as well as adjectives used to modify them) which function as the direct object of a verb. The simple future is usually formed by adding the auxiliary will or shall to the base form of a verb. The simplest form of a noun (the form that appears in a dictionary): a category of number denoting one person, thing, or instance. An infinitive such as to eat or to question may be used in a passive form: to be eaten or to be questioned. An independent clause (unlike a dependent clause) can stand alone as a sentence. A count noun is a noun which typically has both a singular form and a plural form, can be used with a numeral, and in the singular must be used with an article or other determiner. Car, strawberry, and laptop are all typically count nouns: you can say I have one car, We had strawberries for dessert, or She was working on her laptop (but you would not say I have car, We had strawberry for dessert, or She was working on laptop). Conditional sentences such as ‘If I had more money, I would buy it’ are made up of two clauses: one clause, which usually begins with if, expresses the condition (in this case, ‘If I had more money’) and the other clause expresses the consequence (in this case, ‘I would buy it’). boy in ‘come here, boy’, or friend in ‘speak, friend, and enter’) is also referred to as a vocative. Compare direct question. – Easy list of English Grammar Terms – Feel free to leave a comment if you find any errors or if you have any suggestions to make to improve this lesson. Homophone: A word that sounds like another word but has a different spelling and … A group of words made up of a subject and a predicate. If a word or phrase is adverbial, or is used adverbially, it is used as or like an adverb . [In unrevised OED entries, combination is often abbreviated as comb.]. In some languages, nouns, pronouns, and related words are classified into categories called genders, which are distinguished by particular inflections. In some varieties of English, collective nouns, which have a singular form but a collective meaning (for example audience, family, and team) may be used with either singular or plural agreement. Entries for verbs have the part-of-speech label v., for example DAYDREAM v., MUST v., OVERFATIGUE v., PUNCH v., ZOOM v. At RIGHT-DOWN adv., a distinction is made between sense 1 ‘Modifying a verb’ (with examples such as ‘I right down enjoyed it’) and sense 2 ‘Modifying an adjective’ (with examples such as ‘right-down, THROUGH- prefix contains a section described as ‘Compounded with verbs’. For example, the noun dress is the head of the noun phrase her long white dress; the adjective good is the head of the adjective phrase quite surprisingly good. For example: 1. There are two types of participle in English, past and present. A finite verb form is one that is marked for tense. A sentence that contains at least one independent clause and one dependent clause. considered collectively.’]. In linguistics and grammar - The relationship between a word and its dependents. A concrete noun denotes a physical object, place, person, or animal (as opposed to an abstract noun, which denotes something immaterial such as an idea, quality, state, or action). This is the way that the term tense is usually used in the OED. happily, often, there), adverb phrase (e.g. Number is a grammatical category used to classify word forms according to how many people or things they refer to. lookout). The singular form of a noun is usually the headword form in the OED (for example OFFICE n., SPORT n.). In modern English, the plural of a noun is usually formed by adding -s or -es to the singular (as in table → tables, box → boxes); sometimes there is a change in the final letter(s) (as in family → families, hoof → hooves); and some plural forms are irregular (child → children, mouse → mice, etc.) [In some unrevised OED entries possessive adjectives are referred to as possessive pronouns.]. Grammatical agreement refers to the fact of two (or more) elements in a clause or sentence having the same grammatical person, number, gender, or case. Pronouns referring to more than one person or thing are plural (we, us, they, etc.) angrily (from angry), nicely (from nice), and strangely (from strange). Appositive compounds can also be adjectives, in which both the first and second elements are adjectives: for example, In the OED, compounds are treated as entries in their own right if they are particularly significant, for example because they have been in use for a long time, are widely used, or have several meanings. Contrast with an intransitive verb. All the men arrived late. Glossary of Grammatical Terms. is defined as ‘Used as subjective third person pronoun to include both genders: he or she.’, Uses at NOT adv. The main modal verbs in modern English are can/could, may/might, must, shall/should, will/would. has a section with the heading ‘Reflexive uses’, with quotations such as ‘We may as well amuse ourselves’, in which, US pron. was a dual pronoun meaning ‘we two’. blackbird), noun + adjective (e.g. There are two main types of object: direct object and indirect object. A verb, such as a form of be or seem, that joins the subject of a sentence to a complement. In order to help with this problem, we will provide an overview of the most common grammar terms in this lesson. (Compare with sentences that make a statement, express a command, or ask a question.). A verb tense (the second principal part of a verb) indicating the action that occurred in the past and which does not extend into the present. A noun, noun phrase, or series of nouns used to identify or rename another noun, noun phrase, or pronoun. A noun is the part of speech that is used to name a person, place, thing, quality, or action and can function as the subject or object of a verb, the object of a preposition, or an appositive. In some inflected languages, the vocative case is used to indicate a person or thing being addressed, invoked, etc. The subject of a sentence or clause is the part which: terminology, while including additional terms and definitions where they are important. [In unrevised OED entries, the term qualify is generally used instead of modify.]. For example, ‘My dog broke your vase’, ‘The authorities will prosecute trespassers’, ‘John speaks Spanish’, and ‘The wind howled’ are all active sentences. By contrast, in ‘His politics are fascistic’, politics is the subject of the plural verb form are: it has plural agreement. Contrast with count noun. There are two ways of changing this sentence into a passive. website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. For example, Entries for adjectives have the part-of-speech label, Entries for adverbs have the part-of-speech label, In English, adjectives can often be converted into nouns referring to groups of people, for example. ‘Tea terminology is a matter of concern to tea drinkers and also to cooks who are using tea as a flavouring.’ ‘Students were required to perform individual self study of medical terminology.’ ‘Consumers may well be confused by the technical terminology surrounding lighting.’ A verb form in which the subject receives the verb's action. An example in (b) is ‘I prophesy that I shall die to-night’, where the direct object is the clause. ), and interjection (int.). most polite). The following are examples with the label intransitive. A superlative adjective or adverb is one which expresses the highest degree of a quality or attribute denoted by an adjective or adverb. See also suffix, prefix, combining form. This covers uses such as ‘skive off work’ and ‘skive off school’, in which off work and off school are prepositional phrases. Grammar Terms Worksheet. Compounds may be formed in many ways: common types in English include noun + noun (e.g. Standard English. – agrees grammatically with the verb. your rights to object to your personal information being used for Old English, as an inflected language, possessed a genitive case, which is reflected in modern standard English in pronouns and determiners (e.g. A sentence adverb is an adverb which is more detached from the rest of the clause or sentence than other adverbs, and is typically used to express the attitude of the speaker or writer to the given statement, or to claim that the statement is being made in a particular way, for example sadly in ‘Sadly, the forests are now under threat’, as it conveys the opinion of the speaker or writer that the situation expressed in the forests are now under threat is sad. For example, in ‘David calls Rosie’, calls is a present tense form of the verb call, and expresses an action that is taking place in the present. Appositive compounds are often nouns, in which both the first and second elements are nouns. After we had lunch, we went back to work. A conjunction is a word used to connect other words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. the two elements are in apposition). An interrogative is a word, clause, or sentence used to ask or express a question. See also subjective and objective. are often used to indicate that a word is construed with – that is, combined grammatically with – another word or phrase. A word or a group of words that introduces a noun. [In unrevised OED entries this term is not used, but nouns of this type are sometimes described as ‘with a and plural’.]. A verb form that functions in a sentence as a noun or a modifier rather than as a verb. Old English possessed three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Here is a list of all the basic grammar terms you should know before starting to learn english. An adverbial frequently takes the form of an adverb (e.g. A direct question is a question which is quoted as actually spoken (that is, in direct speech), rather than being reported. A clause introduced by a relative pronoun is called a relative clause. English Grammar for Language Students (Stapled Booklet): Basic Grammatical Terminology Defined and Alphabetically Arranged [Braun, Frank X.] The category of prepositions is one of the parts of speech. Nordquist, Richard. The grammatical connection of two or more ideas to give them equal emphasis and importance. she is very clever), or a circumstance such as place, direction, or time (e.g. See also main clause, non-finite, relative clause, that-clause. The largest independent unit of grammar: it begins with a capital letter and ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation point. Characterised by short, regular verses with a rhyme scheme. come here; they arrived yesterday). A morpheme is a unit of language that cannot be analysed into smaller units. Since passive uses are a regular feature of English, they are mentioned in the OED only if especially common or noteworthy. Common nouns can be subcategorized as count nouns and mass nouns. Some … The predicate of a sentence or clause is the part which is not the subject: it typically contains a verb and any objects, complements, and adverbials. In English, there are only two tenses expressed by inflection: the present tense (for example, changes in ‘Everything changes’) and the past tense (for example, changed in ‘Everything changed’). By Joke Kalisvaart When talking about grammar, it is useful to know at least some of the terminology. Superlative. For example, ‘The children were eating’ is a finite clause. Contrast with a proper noun. A simple word consists of a single unit or element. Some languages also have a dual category which distinguishes two people or things as opposed to one or to more than two. Contrast with active voice. One of the examples in which it is used as a proper name is: ‘I want to behold, OURSELVES pron. or possess.]. very, extremely, utterly) or adjectives (e.g. A possessive adjective is a word related to a possessive pronoun and used before a noun to indicate possession. Often the meaning of a phrasal verb is not obvious from the meanings of the component words, as in the following examples (in which the underlined groups of words are phrasal verbs): I’ll take it up with the relevant authorities. adverb clause A subordinate clause used as an adverb within a sentence. Adjective: elliptical or elliptic. When a third person singular verb (such as thinks or owes) is used without a grammatical subject, it is described as impersonal. Section B defines important terms for use in analyzing grammar … An object is a noun, noun phrase, pronoun, or clause which forms the complement of a transitive verb and typically refers to something or someone that is affected by the action denoted by that verb. In English, adverbs of direction are frequently used with verbs to form phrasal verbs , for example run away, fall down, take off, heat up. Also known as a helping verb. ABIDING adj. A word, phrase, or clause that functions as an adjective or adverb to limit or qualify the meaning of another word or word group (called the head). A verb tense that expresses action in the present time, indicates habitual actions or expresses general truths. A pair or group of words that are habitually juxtaposed is a collocation, or fixed collocation. Indicative mood: the mood of a verb when its clause states a fact or opinion or asks a question—e.g., Grammar is easy. With many compounds there is variation among these options. blackbird, handmade), some as separate words (e.g. A mass noun is a noun which does not have a plural form, and cannot be used with a numeral. A modal verb is sometimes referred to as a modal auxiliary verb or a modal auxiliary. See also pronoun and possessive adjective. The main function of a prefix is to change the meaning of the word it attaches to. In English in earlier periods (as in many other languages), verbs were also marked for person. in ‘Jane became a dentist’), remain (e.g. In the OED, the term optative is often used in conjunction with subjunctive. A clause introduced by a relative pronoun (which, that, who, whom, or whose) or a relative adverb (where, when, or why). in ‘everything seems in order’), taste (e.g. In unrevised OED entries, the abbreviations const. taken, eaten); and others have irregular forms (e.g. tax-free, mother-in-law). The personal pronouns in modern standard English are I, me, we, us (first person, referring to the speaker(s) or writer(s)); you ( second person, referring to the addressee(s)); and he, him, she, her, it, they, them ( third person, referring to a third party). In the OED, transitivity labels are applied to senses of verbs and phrasal verbs. Not all grammar rules are meant to be followed. A grammatical classification which in English applies primarily to the third-person singular personal pronouns: he, she, him, her, his, hers. A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun which refers back to the subject of the verb. In this case, there is no change in part of speech. A noun phrase functions in a sentence exactly like a noun. Starrs’s pith and vigor belie his 60ish age’) and ‘succinctness, conciseness’ (as in ‘He writes with pith and humour’). For example, ‘Come here!’ is an imperative clause, and the verb come is in the imperative. Home How to use the OED Glossary of grammatical terms. ), and possessive adjectives (my, your, etc.). in ‘it seems she is late’ or ‘it is raining’). In this phrase there is usually a prepositional object of without (for example butter in ‘She could do without butter’), but this sense covers uses in which the prepositional object is omitted (as in ‘She learned to do without’). as are corresponding possessive adjectives and some determiners (my, his/her/its, this, etc.). This collection provides a quick review of the basic terminology used in the study of traditional English grammar. Such a word, phrase, or clause is said to be used parenthetically. A conditional clause may be introduced by the subordinating conjunction if or another conjunction, such as unless or in the case of. Nordquist, Richard. For example, in she sang a beautiful song and I dreamed a dream, the nouns song and dream are cognate objects, as they are related to the verbs sing and dream. T Tense of Verbs. In languages with grammatical gender, feminine nouns and related words often refer to females but do not necessarily do so. For example, in ‘The bag is under the table’, the table is the prepositional object of under; in ‘Listen to me’, me is the prepositional object of to. For example, the fact that a noun is in the nominative case indicates that it is the subject of the verb. The form of an adjective that suggests the most or the least of something. In modern English, the main type of agreement takes place between the subject and the verb of a clause. A sentence is traditionally (and inadequately) defined as a word or group of words that expresses a complete idea and that includes a subject and a verb. Also known as a subordinate clause. English grammar terms. "100 Key Terms Used in the Study of Grammar." The indicative is the most commonly used grammatical mood, used to express factual statements and beliefs (as opposed to commands, wishes, conditions, etc.). In an active sentence or clause , the grammatical subject typically refers to the person or thing which carries out or causes the action expressed by the verb. Grammar: the set of rules one needs to know in order to competently form sentences in a language. A sentence or statement which contains a conditional clause may be described as a conditional sentence or statement. For example, the underlined words in the following are adjectives: the old man; a delicious piece of cake; nuclear weapons; she is sensible. The subjective (or nominative) forms of English pronouns are I, you, he, she, it, we, they, who and whoever. Simple words are usually contrasted with compounds or prefixed words. Some of the more fixed, or otherwise noteworthy, instances of similative expressions are recorded in the OED: for example, at BAD, adj., the definition for bad halfpenny reads ‘used in similative expressions to refer to the unwelcome return of someone or something’, and is illustrated by quotations such as ‘returned, like the bad half-penny’ and ‘As a bad ha’penny is returned to its owner, so have I returned to you.’. – often denotes the person or thing that performs the action expressed by the verb; In English, passives are usually made by combining a form of the verb be with a past participle, for example was broken, be prosecuted, is made, are changed. Contrast with subordination. By contrast, have is a main verb in ‘They have a lovely house’, where it has lexical meaning (‘own, possess’) and is not used to support another verb. However, this case system largely disappeared during the Middle English period, and the functions served by cases in Old English are mostly performed by other means in Modern English. Verbs which don't have an object are called intransitive. In English, adverbs (especially adverbs of manner) are often formed from adjectives with the addition of the suffix -ly, e.g. A type of adverbial clause that states a hypothesis or condition, real or imagined. Unrevised entries also use verbal noun (abbreviated vbl. [In unrevised OED entries, comparative is sometimes abbreviated as compar.]. A sound or a combination of sounds, or its representation in writing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning and may consist of a single morpheme or a combination of morphemes. A declarative sentence or clause typically makes a statement, and has basic word order, with the subject followed by the verb. A sentence that contains at least two independent clauses. For example, awesome, best, both, happy, our, this, three, whose and yellow are adjectives. walked, denied); others end in -en (e.g. The only survivals of the case system are the inflected forms of pronouns (e.g. The time of a verb's action or state of being, such as past, present, and future. Similar to (but not synonymous with) the more traditional term part of speech. The head of a grammatical phrase is the principal and typically obligatory part of that phrase. A noun that can be preceded by the definite article and that represents one or all of the members of a class. For example, in school trip, school modifies trip; in just next to him, just modifies next to; in city of dreaming spires, of dreaming spires modifies city. Also known as genitive case. In English, the direct object usually comes after the verb. A combining form is an element used in combination with another element (either at the beginning or the end) to form a new word. smile, fall, come, go. Old English had four full cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative, as well as traces of instrumental and locative cases. A related term is cataphoric, which describes words or phrases which refer forward. In earlier periods of English, the perfect was often formed of the auxiliary verb be (rather than have) plus a past participle, for example ‘He is arrived’ (meaning ‘He has arrived’). Happier is the related comparative adjective and happiest is the related superlative adjective. For example, where and when can be used as relative adverbs, in sentences such as ‘This is the house where I grew up’. Pronouns referring to one person or thing are singular (I, me, he, it, etc.) The objective pronouns reflect a merger of the dative and accusative forms. [In unrevised OED entries, relative is sometimes abbreviated as rel.]. Compare count noun. Other types of words may also introduce relative clauses. A parasynthetic compound is one created by two or more processes of word formation operating together. )’ as ‘with gerund or verbal noun as object’. See BE v. 16b. ‘It’s very nice of you to say so’ and ‘Thus saying, they withdrew a little way’). A grammar is a description of the rules of the structure of a language; the way words combine, the order they come in, the way they change according to their relationship to other words, how they build up into units like a sentence etc.. A point to note: The word Grammar is often misspelt as Grammer.Try not to confuse the spelling of the word "Grammar" for "Grammer" as "Grammer" is incorrect. An infinitive can introduce an infinitive clause, as in ‘to understand her meaning’, which can likewise function as a subject, object, complement, etc. A process of word formation in which items are added to the base form of a word to express grammatical meanings. That-clauses often function as direct objects of verbs (e.g. For example, the phrases. The main words which can function as nominal relatives in English are what, whatever, when, whenever, where, wherever, which, whichever, who, whom, whoever, and whomever. A fully cross-referenced English glossary of linguistic and grammatical terms. In earlier periods of English (as in many other languages) there were two distinct sets of second person pronoun and possessive adjective forms: thee (and related thou, thy, thine, and thyself) used to address a single person; and you and its related forms used to address a group of people, or to address a single person respectfully or formally. In English, future time is indicated not by means of inflections but by other constructions such as the use of the auxiliary verb will in sentences like ‘The train will leave at 9 o’clock.’. In ‘Anika is calm’, is is a present tense form of the verb be and expresses a current state. SAY v.1 22, ‘Of a sum of money: to stand as a bet or wager (that the specified outcome is the case)’, is described as ‘Usually in the present tense’. Examples in English include Richard, Belgium, the United States (of America), (Mount) Everest, Oxfam, Romeo and Juliet, The Daily Telegraph, and July. Fortunately, no one was injured. A contemporary linguistic term for the present participle and gerund: any verb form that ends in -ing. A parenthetical word, phrase, or clause is inserted into a sentence as an explanation or afterthought, and is usually marked off by brackets, commas, or dashes. After we had lunch, we went back to work. A determiner is a word which precedes a noun and limits the application of that noun, for example the in ‘the park’, some in ‘some cheese’ and both in ‘both boys’. A related term is anaphoric, which describes words or phrases which refer back. The objective pronouns reflect a merger of the accusative and dative forms. in. The first is the usual type of passive in which the direct object becomes the subject: ‘New books were given to the children [by the teacher].’ The second type is the indirect passive, in which the indirect object becomes the subject: ‘The children were given new books [by the teacher].’, [In some unrevised OED entries, indirect passive is used to mean prepositional passive.]. In English, the base form of a verb is used as the imperative, and imperative clauses typically lack a grammatical subject. For a more detailed examination of the word forms and sentence structures introduced here, click on any of the terms to visit a glossary page, where you'll find numerous examples and expanded discussions. For example, Entries for interjections have the part-of-speech label, ‘The whole situation is so terrifying that I, form a complete sentence in itself, e.g. By contrast, sadly is not a sentence adverb in ‘She smiled sadly’, where it modifies smiled and means ‘in a sad way’. The anticipated clause is typically an infinitive (as in ‘It is nice to meet you’) or a that-clause (as in ‘It is nice that you could come’). They are also used alone in non-finite clauses (e.g. Pleonasm is sometimes regarded as a fault of style, but it may also be used for emphasis or clarity, as in ‘Look with your eyes, not with your hands.’. Ellipsis occurs when a word or group of words is omitted from a sentence or utterance but is understood from the context. For example, ‘Your vase was broken by my dog’ is a passive sentence: your vase is the grammatical subject, and the vase has undergone the breaking.