جواد عوض
10-07-2009, 04:20 PM
Term
Definition
active voice (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-voice.htm)
one of two voices (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#voice#voice) in English; a direct form of expression where the subject performs or "acts" the verb; see also passive voice (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#passivevoice#passivevoice)
eg: "Many people eat rice"
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adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives.htm)
a part of speech (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#partofspeech#partofspeech) that typically describes or "modifies" a noun
eg: "It was a big dog."
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adjective clause
a seldom used term for relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativeclause#relativeclause)
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adjunct
A 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.
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adverb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adverbs.htm)
a word that modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb
eg: quickly, really, very
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adverbial clause
a dependent clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#dependentclause#dependentclause) 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.
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affirmative
statement that expresses (or claims to express) a truth or "yes" meaning; opposite of negative (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#negative#negative)
eg: The sun is hot.
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affix
a language unit (morpheme (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#morpheme#morpheme)) that occurs before or after (or sometimes within) the root or stem of a word
eg: un- in unhappy (prefix (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#prefix#prefix)), -ness in happiness (suffix (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#suffix#suffix))
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agreement
(also known as "concord")
logical (in a grammatical sense) links between words based on tense (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#tense#tense), case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#case#case) or number (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#number#number)
eg: this phone, these phones
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antecedent
a 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."
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appositive
a noun phrase (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#nounphrase#nounphrase) that re-identifies or describes its neighbouring noun
eg: "Canada, a multicultural country, is recognized by its maple leaf flag."
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article (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-determiners-the-a-an.htm)
a determiner (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#determiner#determiner) that introduces a noun phrase (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#nounphrase#nounphrase) as definite (the) or indefinite (a/an)
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aspect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_sys-what.htm)
the feature of some verb forms that relates to duration or completion of time; verbs can have no aspect (simple), or can have continuous (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#continuous#continuous) or progressive aspect (expressing duration), or have perfect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#perfect#perfect) or perfective aspect (expressing completion)
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auxiliary verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-what_classification-helping.htm)
(also called "helping verb")
a verb used with the main verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#mainverb#mainverb) to help indicate something such as tense or voice
eg: I do not like you. She has finished. He can swim.
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bare infinitive
the 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 (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#infinitive#infinitive)
eg: "He should come", "I can swim"
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base form (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-verb-forms_main.htm)
the basic form of a verb before conjugation into tenses etc
eg: be, speak
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case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-case.htm)
form of a pronoun based on its relationship to other words in the sentence; case can be subjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#subjectivecase#subjectivecase), objective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#objectivecase#objectivecase) or possessive (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#possessivecase#possessivecase)
eg: "I love this dog", "This dog loves me", "This is my dog"
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causative verb
verbs that cause 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
a group of words containing a subject and its verb
eg: "It was late when he arrived"
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comparative,
comparative adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-comparative.htm)
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
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complement (http://www.englishclub.com/esl-forums/viewtopic.php?f=199&t=27246&p=207726%22)
part of a sentence that completes or adds meaning to the predicate (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#predicate#predicate)
eg: Mary did not say where she was going.
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compound noun
a 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
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compound sentence
a sentence with at least two independent clauses (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#independentclause#independentclause); usually joined by a conjunction
eg: "You can have something healthy but you can't have more junk food."
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concord
another term for agreement (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#agreement#agreement)
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conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-conditional.htm)
a structure in English where one action depends on another ("if-then" or "then-if" structure); most common are 1st (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#1stconditional#1stconditional), 2nd (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#2ndconditional#2ndconditional), and 3rd conditionals
eg: "If I win I will be happy", "I would be happy if I won"
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conjugate (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_sys-tenses-regular-verbs.htm)
to show the different forms of a verb according to voice (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#voice#voice), mood (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#mood#mood), tense (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#tense#tense), number (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#number#number) and person (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#person#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 walked, we walked, they walked
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conjunction (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/conjunctions.htm)
a word that joins or connects two parts of a sentence
eg: Ram likes tea and coffee. Anthony went swimming although it was raining.
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content word (http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/sentence-stress.htm)
a word that has meaning in a sentence, such as a verb or noun (as opposed to a structure word (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#structureword#structureword), 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"
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continuous (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_sys-tenses.htm)
(also called "progressive")
a verb form (specifically an aspect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#aspect#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."
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contraction (http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/contractions.htm)
the shortening of two (or more) words into one
eg: isn't (is not), we'd've (we would have)
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countable noun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns-un-countable_1.htm)
a thing that you can count, such as apple, pen, tree (see uncountable noun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#uncountable#uncountable))
eg: one apple, three pens, ten trees
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dangling participle
an 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.)
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declarative sentence
a sentence type typically used to make a statement (as opposed to a question or command)
eg: "Tara works hard", "It wasn't funny"
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defining relative clause
(also called "restrictive relative clause")
a type of relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativeclause#relativeclause) that contains information that is required for the understanding of the sentence; not set off with commas; see also non-defining clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#nondefiningrelativeclause#nondefiningrel ativeclause)
eg: "The boy who was wearing a blue shirt was the winner"
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demonstrative
a pronoun or determiner (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#determiner#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?"
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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 (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#independentclause#independentclause)
eg: "When the water came out of the tap..."
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determiner (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-determiners.htm)
a word such as an article (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#article#article) or a possessive adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#possessiveadjective#possessiveadjective) 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"
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direct speech
saying what someone said by using their exact words; see also indirect speech (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#indirectspeech#indirectspeech)
eg: "Lucy said: 'I am tired.'"
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direct object
the noun phrase in a sentence that directly receives the action of the verb; see also indirect object (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#indirectobject#indirectobject)
eg: "Joey bought the car", "I like it", "Can you see the man wearing a pink shirt and waving a gun in the air?"
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embedded question
a 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 decided whether they should come"
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finite verb
verb form that has a specific tense, number and person
eg: I work, he works, we learned, they ran
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first conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-conditional_2.htm)
an "if-then" conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#conditional#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"
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fragment
an 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? - Probably not"
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function
the 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.
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future continuous (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_future-continuous.htm)
(also called "future progressive")
a 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."
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future perfect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_future-perfect.htm)
a 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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future perfect continuous (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_future-perfect-continuous.htm)
a tense* used to show that something will be ongoing until a certain time in the future; formed with WILL HAVE BEEN + VERB-ing
eg: "We will have been living there for three months by the time the baby is born"
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future simple (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_future.htm)
a tense* used to describe something that hasn't happened yet such as a prediction or a sudden decision; formed with WILL + BASE VERB
eg: "He will be late", "I will answer the phone"
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gerund (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-gerunds.htm)
the noun form of a verb, formed with VERB-ing
eg: "Walking is great exercise"
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gradable adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-non-gradable.htm)
an adjective that can vary in intensity or grade when paired with a grading adverb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#gradingadverb#gradingadverb) ; see also non-gradable adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#nongradableadjective#nongradableadjectiv e)
eg: quite hot, very tall
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grading adverb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-non-gradable.htm)
an adverb that can modify the intensity or grade of a gradable adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#gradableadjective#gradableadjective)
eg: quite hot, very tall
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hanging participle
another term for dangling participle (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#dangling#dangling)
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helping verb
another term for auxiliary verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#auxiliaryverb#auxiliaryverb)
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imperative (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-verb-forms_main.htm)
form of verb used when giving a command; formed with BASE VERB only
eg: "Brush your teeth!"
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independent clause
(also called "main clause")
a group of words that expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence; see also dependent clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#dependentclause#dependentclause)
eg: "Tara is eating curry.", "Tara likes oranges and Joe likes apples."
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indirect object
a noun phrase representing the person or thing indirectly affected by the action of the verb; see also direct object (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#directobject#directobject)
eg: "She showed me her book collection", "Joey bought his wife a new car"
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indirect question
another term for embedded question (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#embeddedquestion#embeddedquestion)
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indirect speech
(also called "reported speech")
saying what someone said without using their exact words; see direct speech (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#directspeech#directspeech)
eg: "Lucy said that she was tired"
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infinitive (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-verb-forms_main.htm)
the base form of a verb preceded by "to";see also bare infinitive (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#bareinfinitive#bareinfinitive)
eg: "You need to study harder", "To be, or not to be: that is the question"
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inflection
a change in word form to indicate grammatical meaning
eg: dog, dogs (two inflections); take, takes, took, taking, taken (five inflections)
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interjection (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/interjections.htm)
a common word that expresses emotion but has no grammatical value; can often be used alone and is often followed by an exclamation mark
eg: "Hi!", "er", "Ouch!", "Dammit!"
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interrogative (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-questions.htm)
the (formal) sentence type (typically inverted) normally used when asking a question
eg: "Are you eating?", "What are you eating?"
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intransitive verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-what_classification-main.htm)
a verb that does not take a direct object (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#directobject#directobject); see also transitive verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#transitive#transitive)
e.g. "He is working hard", "Where do you live?"
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inversion
any reversal of the normal word order (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#wordorder#wordorder), especially placing the auxiliary verb before the subject; used in a variety of ways, as in question formation, conditional clauses and agreement or disagreement
eg: "Where are your keys?","Had we watched the weather report, we wouldn't have gone to the beach", "So did he", "Neither did she"
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irregular verb (http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/irregular-verbs.htm)
see irregular verbs list (http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/irregular-verbs-list.htm)
a verb that has a different ending for past tense and past participle forms than the regular "-ed"; see also regular verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#regularverb#regularverb)
eg: buy, bought, bought; do, did, done
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lexicon, lexis
all of the words and word forms in a language with meaning or function
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lexical verb
another term for main verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#mainverb#mainverb)
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linking verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-what_classification-main.htm)
verbs that connect the subject to more information (but do not indicate action), such as "be" or "seem"
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main clause
another term for independent clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#independentclause#independentclause)
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main verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-what_classification.htm)
(also called "lexical verb")
any verb in a sentence that is not an auxiliary verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#auxiliaryverb#auxiliaryverb); a main verb has meaning on its own
eg: "Does John like Mary?", "I will have arrived by 4pm"
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modal verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-modals.htm)
(also called "modal")
an auxiliary verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#auxiliaryverb#auxiliaryverb) such as can, could, must, should etc; paired with the bare infinitive of a verb
eg: "I should go for a jog"
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modifier
a word or phrase that modifies and limits the meaning of another word
eg: the house => the white house, the house over there, the house we sold last year
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mood (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_sys-what.htm)
the sentence type that indicates the speaker's view towards the degree of reality of what is being said, for example subjunctive, indicative, imperative
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morpheme
a unit of language with meaning; differs from "word" because some cannot stand alone
e.g. un-, predict and -able in unpredictable
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multi-word verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-phrasal-verbs.htm)
a verb that consists of a basic verb + another word or words (preposition and/or adverb)
eg: get up (phrasal verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#phrasalverb#phrasalverb)), believe in (prepositional verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#prepositionalverb#prepositionalverb)), get on with (phrasal-prepositional verb)
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negative
a form which changes a "yes" meaning to a "no" meaning; opposite of affirmative (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#affirmative#affirmative)
eg: "She will not come", "I have never seen her"
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nominative case
another term for subjective case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#subjectivecase#subjectivecase)
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non-defining relative clause
(also called "non-restrictive relative clause")
a relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativeclause#relativeclause) that adds information but is not completely necessary; set off from the sentence with a comma or commas; see defining relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#definingrelativeclause#definingrelativec lause)
eg: "The boy, who had a chocolate bar in his hand, was still hungry"
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non-gradable adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-non-gradable.htm)
an adjective that has a fixed quality or intensity and cannot be paired with a grading adverb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#gradingadverb#gradingadverb); see also gradable adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#gradableadjective#gradableadjective)
eg: freezing, boiling, dead
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non-restrictive relative clause
another term for non-defining relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#nondefiningrelativeclause#nondefiningrel ativeclause)
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noun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns.htm)
part of speech (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#partofspeech#partofspeech) that names a person, place, thing, quality, quantity or concept; see also proper noun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#propernoun#propernoun) and compound noun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#compoundnoun#compoundnoun)
eg: "The man is waiting", "I was born in London", "Is that your car?", "Do you like music?"
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noun clause
a clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#clause#clause) that takes the place of a noun and cannot stand on its own; often introduced with words such as "that, who or whoever"
eg: "What the president said was surprising"
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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; can be one word or many words; can be very simple or very complex
eg: "She is nice", "When is the meeting?", "The car over there beside the lampost is mine"
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number
a change of word form indicating one person or thing (singular (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#singular#singular)) or more than one person or thing (plural (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#plural#plural))
eg: one dog/three dogs, she/they
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object
the thing or person affected by the verb; see also direct object (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#directobject#directobject) and indirect object (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#indirectobject#indirectobject)
eg: "The boy kicked the ball", "We chose the house with the red door"
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objective case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-case.htm)
case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#case#case) form of a pronoun indicating an object (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#object#object)
eg: "John married her", "I gave it to him"
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part of speech (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/parts-of-speech.htm)
one of the classes into which words are divided according to their function in a sentence
eg: verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#verb#verb), noun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#noun#noun), adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#adjective#adjective)
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participle
a verb form that can be used as an adjective or a noun; see past participle (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#pastparticiple#pastparticiple), present participle (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#presentparticiple#presentparticiple)
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passive voice (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-voice_passive.htm)
one of two voices (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#voice#voice) in English; an indirect form of expression in which the subject receives the action; see also active voice (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#activevoice#activevoice)
eg: "Rice is eaten by many people"
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past tense (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_past.htm)
(also called "simple past")
a tense used to talk about an action, event or situation that occurred and was completed in the past
eg: "I lived in Paris for 10 years", "Yesterday we saw a snake"
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past continuous (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_past-continuous.htm)
a tense often used to describe an interrupted action in the past; formed with WAS/WERE + VERB-ing
eg: "I was reading when you called"
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past perfect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_past-perfect.htm)
a tense that refers to the past in the past; formed with HAD + VERB-ed
eg: "We had stopped the car"
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past perfect continuous (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_past-perfect-continuous.htm)
a tense that refers to action that happened in the past and continued to a certain point in the past; formed with HAD BEEN + VERB-ing
eg: "I had been waiting for three hours when he arrived"
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past participle
a verb form (V3 (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#v#v)) - usually made by adding "-ed" to the base verb - typically used in perfect and passive tenses, and sometimes as an adjective
eg: "I have finished", "It was seen by many people", "boiled eggs"
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perfect
a verb form (specifically an aspect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#aspect#aspect)); formed with HAVE/HAS + VERB-ed (present perfect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#presentperfect#presentperfect)) or HAD + VERB-ed (past perfect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#pastperfect#pastperfect))
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person
a grammatical 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 or everything else
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personal pronoun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-personal.htm)
a pronoun that indicates person (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#person#person)
eg: "He likes my dogs", "They like him"
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phrasal verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-phrasal-verbs_2.htm)
a multi-word verb formed with a verb + adverb
eg: break up, turn off NB: many people and books call all multi-word verbs "phrasal verbs"
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phrase
two or more words that have a single function and form part of a sentence; phrases can be noun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#nounphrase#nounphrase), adjective, adverb, verb or prepositional
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plural
of a noun or form indicating more than one person or thing; plural nouns are usually formed by adding "-s"; see also singular (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#singular#singular), number (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#number#number)
eg: bananas, spoons, trees
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position
the grammatically correct placement of a word form in a phrase or sentence in relation to other word forms
eg: "The correct position for an article is at the beginning of the noun phrase that it describes"
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positive
the basic state of an adjective or adverb when it shows quality but not comparative (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#comparative#comparative) or superlative (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#superlative#superlative)
eg: nice, kind, quickly
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possessive adjective
an adjective (also called "determiner") based on a pronoun: my, your, his, her, its, our, their
eg: "I lost my keys", "She likes your car"
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possessive case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-case.htm)
case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#case#case) form of a pronoun indicating ownership or possession
eg: "Mine are blue", "This car is hers"
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possessive pronoun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-possessive.htm)
a type of pronoun that indicates ownership or possession
eg: "Where is mine?", "These are yours"
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predicate
one of the two main parts (subject (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#subject#subject) and predicate) of a sentence (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#predicate#predicate); the predicate is the part that is not the subject
eg: "My brother is a doctor", "Who did you call?", "The woman wearing a blue dress helped me"
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prefix (http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/prefixes.htm)
an affix (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#affix#affix) that occurs before the root or stem of a word
eg: impossible, reload
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preposition (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/prepositions.htm)
part of speech (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#partofspeech#partofspeech) that typically comes before a noun phrase and shows some type of relationship between that noun phrase and another element (including relationships of time, location, purpose etc)
eg: "We sleep at night", "I live in London", "This is for digging"
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prepositional verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-phrasal-verbs_1.htm)
multi-word verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#multiwordverb#multiwordverb) that is formed with verb + preposition
eg: believe in, look after
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present participle
the -ing form of a verb (except when it is a gerund (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#gerund#gerund) or verbal noun)
eg: "We were eating", "The man shouting at the back is rude", "I saw Tara playing tennis"
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present simple (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_present.htm) (also called "simple present")
tense usually used to describe states and actions that are general, habitual or (with the verb "to be") true right now; formed with the basic verb (+ s for 3rd person singular)
eg: "Canada sounds beautiful", "She walks to school", "I am very happy"
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present continuous (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_present-continuous.htm) (also called "present progressive")
tense used to describe action that is in process now, or a plan for the future; formed with BE + VERB-ing
eg: "We are watching TV", "I am moving to Canada next month"
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present perfect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_present-perfect.htm)
tense that connects the past and the present, typically used to express experience, change or a continuing situation; formed with HAVE + VERB-ed
eg: "I have worked there", "John has broken his leg", "How long have you been in Canada?"
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present perfect continuous (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_present-perfect-continuous.htm)
tense used to describe an action that has recently stopped or an action continuing up to now; formed with HAVE + BEEN + VERB-ing
eg: "I'm tired because I've been running", "He has been living in Canada for two years"
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progressive
another term for continuous (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#continuous#continuous)
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pronoun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns.htm)
a word that replaces a noun or noun phrase; there are several types including personal pronouns, relative pronouns and indefinite pronouns
eg: you, he, him; who, which; somebody, anything
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proper noun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns-proper.htm)
a noun that is capitalized at all times and is the name of a person, place or thing
eg: Shakespeare, Tokyo, EnglishClub.com
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punctuation (http://www.englishclub.com/writing/punctuation.htm)
standard marks such as commas, periods and question marks within a sentence
eg: , . ? ! - ; :
----------------------------------------------------------------------
quantifier
a determiner (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#determiner#determiner) or pronoun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#pronoun#pronoun) that indicates quantity
eg: some, many, all
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question tag (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-questions-tag.htm)
final part of a tag question (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#tagquestion#tagquestion); mini-question at end of a tag question
eg: "Snow isn't black, is it?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
question word
another term for WH-word (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#whword#whword)
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reciprocal pronoun
pronoun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#pronoun#pronoun) that indicates that two or more subjects are acting mutually; there are two in English - each other, one another
eg: "John and Mary were shouting at each other", "The students accused one another of cheating"
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reduced relative clause
(also called "participial relative clause")
construction similar to a relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativeclause#relativeclause), but containing a participle (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#participle#participle) instead of a finite verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#finiteverb#finiteverb); this construction is possible only under certain circumstances
eg: "The woman sitting on the bench is my sister", "The people arrested by the police have been released"
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reflexive pronoun
type of pronoun ending in -self or -selves, used when the subject and object are the same, or when the subject needs emphasis
eg: "She drove herself", "I'll phone her myself"
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regular verb (http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/regular-verbs.htm)
see regular verbs list (http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/regular-verbs-list.htm)
verb that has "-ed" as the ending for past tense and past participle forms; see also irregular verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#irregularverb#irregularverb)
eg: work, worked, worked
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relative adverb
adverb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#adverb#adverb) that introduces a relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativeclause#relativeclause); there are four in English: where, when, wherever, whenever; see also relative pronoun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativepronoun#relativepronoun)
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relative clause
dependent clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#dependentclause#dependentclause) that usually starts with a relative pronoun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativepronoun#relativepronoun) such as who or which, or relative adverb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativeadverb#relativeadverb) such as where
eg: "The person who finishes first can leave early" (defining (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#definingrelativeclause#definingrelativec lause)), "Texas, where my brother lives, is big" (non-defining (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#nondefiningrelativeclause#nondefiningrel ativeclause))
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reported speech
another term for indirect speech (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#indirectspeech#indirectspeech)
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relative pronoun
pronoun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#pronoun#pronoun) that starts a relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativeclause#relativeclause); there are four in English: who, whom, whose, which; see also relative adverb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativeadverb#relativeadverb)
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restrictive relative clause
another term for defining relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#definingrelativeclause#definingrelativec lause)
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second conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-conditional_3.htm)
"if-then" conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#conditional#conditional) structure used to talk about an unlikely possibility in the future
eg: "If we won the lottery we would buy a car"
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sentence
the largest grammatical unit; a sentence must always include a subject (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#subject#subject) (except for imperatives (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#imperative#imperative)) and predicate (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#predicate#predicate); a written sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop/period (.), question mark (?) or exclamation mark (!); a sentence contains a complete thought such as a statement, question, request or command
eg: "Stop!", "Do you like coffee?", "I work."
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series
list of items in a sentence
eg: "The children ate popsicles, popcorn and chips"
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singular
of a noun or form indicating exactly one person or thing; singular nouns are usually the simplest form of the noun (as found in a dictionary); see also plural (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#plural#plural), number (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#number#number)
eg: banana, spoon, tree
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split infinitive
situation where a word or phrase comes between the particle "to" and the verb in an infinitive; considered poor construction by some
eg: "He promised to never lie again"
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Standard English (S.E.)
the "normal" spelling, pronunciation and grammar that is used by educated native speakers of English
----------------------------------------------------------------------
structure word
a word that has no real meaning in a sentence, such as a pronoun or auxiliary verb (as opposed to a content word (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#contentword#contentword), such as verb or noun); structure words are not normally stressed in speech
eg: "Could you BRING my GLASSES because I've LEFT them at HOME"
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subject
one of the two main parts (subject and predicate (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#predicate#predicate)) of a sentence (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#sentence#sentence); the subject is the part that is not the predicate; typically, the subject is the first noun phrase in a sentence (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#sentence#sentence) and is what the rest of the sentence "is about"
eg: "The rain water was dirty", "Mary is beautiful", "Who saw you?"
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subjective case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-case.htm)
also called "nominative"
case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#case#case) form of a pronoun indicating a subject (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#subject#subject)
eg: Did she tell you about her?
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subjunctive (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-subjunctive.htm)
fairly rare verb form typically used to talk about events that are not certain to happen, usually something that someone wants, hopes or imagines will happen; formed with BARE INFINITIVE (except past of "be")
eg: "The President requests that John attend the meeting"
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subordinate clause
another term for dependent clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#dependentclause#dependentclause)
suffix
an affix (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#affix#affix) that occurs after the root or stem of a word
eg: happiness, quickly
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superlative, superlative adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-superlative.htm)
an adjective or adverb that describes the extreme degree of something
eg: happiest, most quickly
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SVO
subject-verb-object; a common word order (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#wordorder#wordorder) where the subject is followed by the verb and then the object
eg: "The man crossed the street"
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syntax
sentence structure; the rules about sentence structure
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tag question (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-questions-tag.htm)
special construction with statement that ends in a mini-question; the whole sentence is a tag question; the mini-question is a question tag (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#questiontag#questiontag); usually used to obtain confirmation
eg: "The Earth is round, isn't it?", "You don't eat meat, do you?"
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tense (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_sys-what.htm)
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.
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third conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-conditional_4.htm)
"if-then" conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#conditional#conditional) structure used to talk about a possible event in the past that did not happen (and is therefore now impossible)
eg: "If we had won the lottery we would have bought a car"
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transitive verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-what_classification-main.htm)
action verb that has a direct object (receiver of the action); see also intransitive verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#intransitive#intransitive)
eg: "The kids always eat a snack while they watch TV"
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uncountable nouns (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns-un-countable_2.htm)
(also called "mass nouns" or "non-count")
a thing that you cannot count, such as substances or concepts; see also countable nouns (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#countablenoun#countablenoun)
eg: water, furniture, music
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usage
the way in which words and constructions are normally used in any particular language
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V1, V2, V3 (http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/irregular-verbs-list.htm)
referring to Verb 1, Verb 2, Verb 3 - being the base, past and past participle that students typically learn for irregular verbs
eg: speak, spoke, spoken
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verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs.htm)
word that describes the subject (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#subject#subject)'s action or state and that we can change or conjugate (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#conjugate#conjugate) based on tense (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#tense#tense) and person (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#person#person)
eg: (to) work, (to) love, (to) begin
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voice
form of a verb that shows the relation of the subject to the action; there are two voices in English: active (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#activevoice#activevoice), passive (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#passivevoice#passivevoice)
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WH-question
question using a WH-word and expecting an answer that is not "yes" or "no"; WH-questions are "open" questions; see also yes-no question (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#yesnoquestion#yesnoquestion)
eg: Where are you going?
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WH-word
(also called "question word")
word that asks a WH-question (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#whquestion#whquestion); there are 7 WH-words: who, what, where, when, which, why, how
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
word order
the order or sequence in which words occur within a sentence; basic word order for English is subject-verb-object or SVO (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#svo#svo)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
yes-no question (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-questions_types.htm)
question to which the answer is yes or no; yes-no questions are "closed" questions; see also WH-question (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#whquestion#whquestion)
eg: "Do you like coffee?"
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zero conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-conditional_5.htm)
"if-then" conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#conditional#conditional) structure used when the result of the condition is always true (based on fact)
eg: "If you dial O, the operator comes on"
Definition
active voice (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-voice.htm)
one of two voices (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#voice#voice) in English; a direct form of expression where the subject performs or "acts" the verb; see also passive voice (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#passivevoice#passivevoice)
eg: "Many people eat rice"
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adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives.htm)
a part of speech (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#partofspeech#partofspeech) that typically describes or "modifies" a noun
eg: "It was a big dog."
--------------------------------------------------------------
adjective clause
a seldom used term for relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativeclause#relativeclause)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
adjunct
A 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 (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adverbs.htm)
a word that modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb
eg: quickly, really, very
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
adverbial clause
a dependent clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#dependentclause#dependentclause) 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 (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#negative#negative)
eg: The sun is hot.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
affix
a language unit (morpheme (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#morpheme#morpheme)) that occurs before or after (or sometimes within) the root or stem of a word
eg: un- in unhappy (prefix (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#prefix#prefix)), -ness in happiness (suffix (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#suffix#suffix))
---------------------------------------------------------------
agreement
(also known as "concord")
logical (in a grammatical sense) links between words based on tense (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#tense#tense), case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#case#case) or number (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#number#number)
eg: this phone, these phones
-----------------------------------------------------------------
antecedent
a 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
a noun phrase (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#nounphrase#nounphrase) that re-identifies or describes its neighbouring noun
eg: "Canada, a multicultural country, is recognized by its maple leaf flag."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
article (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-determiners-the-a-an.htm)
a determiner (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#determiner#determiner) that introduces a noun phrase (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#nounphrase#nounphrase) as definite (the) or indefinite (a/an)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
aspect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_sys-what.htm)
the feature of some verb forms that relates to duration or completion of time; verbs can have no aspect (simple), or can have continuous (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#continuous#continuous) or progressive aspect (expressing duration), or have perfect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#perfect#perfect) or perfective aspect (expressing completion)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
auxiliary verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-what_classification-helping.htm)
(also called "helping verb")
a verb used with the main verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#mainverb#mainverb) to help indicate something such as tense or voice
eg: I do not like you. She has finished. He can swim.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
bare infinitive
the 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 (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#infinitive#infinitive)
eg: "He should come", "I can swim"
---------------------------------------------------------------------
base form (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-verb-forms_main.htm)
the basic form of a verb before conjugation into tenses etc
eg: be, speak
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-case.htm)
form of a pronoun based on its relationship to other words in the sentence; case can be subjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#subjectivecase#subjectivecase), objective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#objectivecase#objectivecase) or possessive (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#possessivecase#possessivecase)
eg: "I love this dog", "This dog loves me", "This is my dog"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
causative verb
verbs that cause 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
a group of words containing a subject and its verb
eg: "It was late when he arrived"
---------------------------------------------------------------
comparative,
comparative adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-comparative.htm)
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 (http://www.englishclub.com/esl-forums/viewtopic.php?f=199&t=27246&p=207726%22)
part of a sentence that completes or adds meaning to the predicate (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#predicate#predicate)
eg: Mary did not say where she was going.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
compound noun
a 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
a sentence with at least two independent clauses (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#independentclause#independentclause); usually joined by a conjunction
eg: "You can have something healthy but you can't have more junk food."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
concord
another term for agreement (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#agreement#agreement)
------------------------------------------------------------------
conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-conditional.htm)
a structure in English where one action depends on another ("if-then" or "then-if" structure); most common are 1st (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#1stconditional#1stconditional), 2nd (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#2ndconditional#2ndconditional), and 3rd conditionals
eg: "If I win I will be happy", "I would be happy if I won"
------------------------------------------------------------------
conjugate (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_sys-tenses-regular-verbs.htm)
to show the different forms of a verb according to voice (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#voice#voice), mood (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#mood#mood), tense (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#tense#tense), number (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#number#number) and person (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#person#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 walked, we walked, they walked
------------------------------------------------------------------
conjunction (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/conjunctions.htm)
a 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 (http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/sentence-stress.htm)
a word that has meaning in a sentence, such as a verb or noun (as opposed to a structure word (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#structureword#structureword), 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 (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_sys-tenses.htm)
(also called "progressive")
a verb form (specifically an aspect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#aspect#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 (http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/contractions.htm)
the shortening of two (or more) words into one
eg: isn't (is not), we'd've (we would have)
----------------------------------------------------------------
countable noun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns-un-countable_1.htm)
a thing that you can count, such as apple, pen, tree (see uncountable noun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#uncountable#uncountable))
eg: one apple, three pens, ten trees
-------------------------------------------------------------------
dangling participle
an 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
a 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
(also called "restrictive relative clause")
a type of relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativeclause#relativeclause) that contains information that is required for the understanding of the sentence; not set off with commas; see also non-defining clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#nondefiningrelativeclause#nondefiningrel ativeclause)
eg: "The boy who was wearing a blue shirt was the winner"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
demonstrative
a pronoun or determiner (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#determiner#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?"
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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 (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#independentclause#independentclause)
eg: "When the water came out of the tap..."
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determiner (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-determiners.htm)
a word such as an article (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#article#article) or a possessive adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#possessiveadjective#possessiveadjective) 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"
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direct speech
saying what someone said by using their exact words; see also indirect speech (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#indirectspeech#indirectspeech)
eg: "Lucy said: 'I am tired.'"
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direct object
the noun phrase in a sentence that directly receives the action of the verb; see also indirect object (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#indirectobject#indirectobject)
eg: "Joey bought the car", "I like it", "Can you see the man wearing a pink shirt and waving a gun in the air?"
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embedded question
a 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 decided whether they should come"
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finite verb
verb form that has a specific tense, number and person
eg: I work, he works, we learned, they ran
----------------------------------------------------------------------
first conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-conditional_2.htm)
an "if-then" conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#conditional#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"
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fragment
an 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? - Probably not"
-----------------------------------------------------------
function
the 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.
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future continuous (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_future-continuous.htm)
(also called "future progressive")
a 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."
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future perfect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_future-perfect.htm)
a 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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future perfect continuous (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_future-perfect-continuous.htm)
a tense* used to show that something will be ongoing until a certain time in the future; formed with WILL HAVE BEEN + VERB-ing
eg: "We will have been living there for three months by the time the baby is born"
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future simple (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_future.htm)
a tense* used to describe something that hasn't happened yet such as a prediction or a sudden decision; formed with WILL + BASE VERB
eg: "He will be late", "I will answer the phone"
-----------------------------------------------------------------
gerund (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-gerunds.htm)
the noun form of a verb, formed with VERB-ing
eg: "Walking is great exercise"
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gradable adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-non-gradable.htm)
an adjective that can vary in intensity or grade when paired with a grading adverb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#gradingadverb#gradingadverb) ; see also non-gradable adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#nongradableadjective#nongradableadjectiv e)
eg: quite hot, very tall
------------------------------------------------------------------------
grading adverb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-non-gradable.htm)
an adverb that can modify the intensity or grade of a gradable adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#gradableadjective#gradableadjective)
eg: quite hot, very tall
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hanging participle
another term for dangling participle (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#dangling#dangling)
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helping verb
another term for auxiliary verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#auxiliaryverb#auxiliaryverb)
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imperative (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-verb-forms_main.htm)
form of verb used when giving a command; formed with BASE VERB only
eg: "Brush your teeth!"
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independent clause
(also called "main clause")
a group of words that expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence; see also dependent clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#dependentclause#dependentclause)
eg: "Tara is eating curry.", "Tara likes oranges and Joe likes apples."
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indirect object
a noun phrase representing the person or thing indirectly affected by the action of the verb; see also direct object (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#directobject#directobject)
eg: "She showed me her book collection", "Joey bought his wife a new car"
------------------------------------------------------------------
indirect question
another term for embedded question (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#embeddedquestion#embeddedquestion)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
indirect speech
(also called "reported speech")
saying what someone said without using their exact words; see direct speech (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#directspeech#directspeech)
eg: "Lucy said that she was tired"
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infinitive (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-verb-forms_main.htm)
the base form of a verb preceded by "to";see also bare infinitive (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#bareinfinitive#bareinfinitive)
eg: "You need to study harder", "To be, or not to be: that is the question"
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inflection
a change in word form to indicate grammatical meaning
eg: dog, dogs (two inflections); take, takes, took, taking, taken (five inflections)
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interjection (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/interjections.htm)
a common word that expresses emotion but has no grammatical value; can often be used alone and is often followed by an exclamation mark
eg: "Hi!", "er", "Ouch!", "Dammit!"
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interrogative (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-questions.htm)
the (formal) sentence type (typically inverted) normally used when asking a question
eg: "Are you eating?", "What are you eating?"
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intransitive verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-what_classification-main.htm)
a verb that does not take a direct object (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#directobject#directobject); see also transitive verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#transitive#transitive)
e.g. "He is working hard", "Where do you live?"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
inversion
any reversal of the normal word order (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#wordorder#wordorder), especially placing the auxiliary verb before the subject; used in a variety of ways, as in question formation, conditional clauses and agreement or disagreement
eg: "Where are your keys?","Had we watched the weather report, we wouldn't have gone to the beach", "So did he", "Neither did she"
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irregular verb (http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/irregular-verbs.htm)
see irregular verbs list (http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/irregular-verbs-list.htm)
a verb that has a different ending for past tense and past participle forms than the regular "-ed"; see also regular verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#regularverb#regularverb)
eg: buy, bought, bought; do, did, done
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lexicon, lexis
all of the words and word forms in a language with meaning or function
----------------------------------------------------------------------
lexical verb
another term for main verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#mainverb#mainverb)
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linking verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-what_classification-main.htm)
verbs that connect the subject to more information (but do not indicate action), such as "be" or "seem"
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main clause
another term for independent clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#independentclause#independentclause)
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main verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-what_classification.htm)
(also called "lexical verb")
any verb in a sentence that is not an auxiliary verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#auxiliaryverb#auxiliaryverb); a main verb has meaning on its own
eg: "Does John like Mary?", "I will have arrived by 4pm"
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modal verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-modals.htm)
(also called "modal")
an auxiliary verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#auxiliaryverb#auxiliaryverb) such as can, could, must, should etc; paired with the bare infinitive of a verb
eg: "I should go for a jog"
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modifier
a word or phrase that modifies and limits the meaning of another word
eg: the house => the white house, the house over there, the house we sold last year
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mood (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_sys-what.htm)
the sentence type that indicates the speaker's view towards the degree of reality of what is being said, for example subjunctive, indicative, imperative
------------------------------------------------------------------------
morpheme
a unit of language with meaning; differs from "word" because some cannot stand alone
e.g. un-, predict and -able in unpredictable
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multi-word verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-phrasal-verbs.htm)
a verb that consists of a basic verb + another word or words (preposition and/or adverb)
eg: get up (phrasal verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#phrasalverb#phrasalverb)), believe in (prepositional verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#prepositionalverb#prepositionalverb)), get on with (phrasal-prepositional verb)
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negative
a form which changes a "yes" meaning to a "no" meaning; opposite of affirmative (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#affirmative#affirmative)
eg: "She will not come", "I have never seen her"
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nominative case
another term for subjective case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#subjectivecase#subjectivecase)
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non-defining relative clause
(also called "non-restrictive relative clause")
a relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativeclause#relativeclause) that adds information but is not completely necessary; set off from the sentence with a comma or commas; see defining relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#definingrelativeclause#definingrelativec lause)
eg: "The boy, who had a chocolate bar in his hand, was still hungry"
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non-gradable adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-non-gradable.htm)
an adjective that has a fixed quality or intensity and cannot be paired with a grading adverb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#gradingadverb#gradingadverb); see also gradable adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#gradableadjective#gradableadjective)
eg: freezing, boiling, dead
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non-restrictive relative clause
another term for non-defining relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#nondefiningrelativeclause#nondefiningrel ativeclause)
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noun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns.htm)
part of speech (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#partofspeech#partofspeech) that names a person, place, thing, quality, quantity or concept; see also proper noun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#propernoun#propernoun) and compound noun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#compoundnoun#compoundnoun)
eg: "The man is waiting", "I was born in London", "Is that your car?", "Do you like music?"
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noun clause
a clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#clause#clause) that takes the place of a noun and cannot stand on its own; often introduced with words such as "that, who or whoever"
eg: "What the president said was surprising"
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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; can be one word or many words; can be very simple or very complex
eg: "She is nice", "When is the meeting?", "The car over there beside the lampost is mine"
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number
a change of word form indicating one person or thing (singular (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#singular#singular)) or more than one person or thing (plural (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#plural#plural))
eg: one dog/three dogs, she/they
---------------------------------------------------------------------
object
the thing or person affected by the verb; see also direct object (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#directobject#directobject) and indirect object (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#indirectobject#indirectobject)
eg: "The boy kicked the ball", "We chose the house with the red door"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
objective case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-case.htm)
case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#case#case) form of a pronoun indicating an object (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#object#object)
eg: "John married her", "I gave it to him"
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part of speech (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/parts-of-speech.htm)
one of the classes into which words are divided according to their function in a sentence
eg: verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#verb#verb), noun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#noun#noun), adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#adjective#adjective)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
participle
a verb form that can be used as an adjective or a noun; see past participle (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#pastparticiple#pastparticiple), present participle (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#presentparticiple#presentparticiple)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
passive voice (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-voice_passive.htm)
one of two voices (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#voice#voice) in English; an indirect form of expression in which the subject receives the action; see also active voice (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#activevoice#activevoice)
eg: "Rice is eaten by many people"
-------------------------------------------------------------------
past tense (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_past.htm)
(also called "simple past")
a tense used to talk about an action, event or situation that occurred and was completed in the past
eg: "I lived in Paris for 10 years", "Yesterday we saw a snake"
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past continuous (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_past-continuous.htm)
a tense often used to describe an interrupted action in the past; formed with WAS/WERE + VERB-ing
eg: "I was reading when you called"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
past perfect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_past-perfect.htm)
a tense that refers to the past in the past; formed with HAD + VERB-ed
eg: "We had stopped the car"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
past perfect continuous (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_past-perfect-continuous.htm)
a tense that refers to action that happened in the past and continued to a certain point in the past; formed with HAD BEEN + VERB-ing
eg: "I had been waiting for three hours when he arrived"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
past participle
a verb form (V3 (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#v#v)) - usually made by adding "-ed" to the base verb - typically used in perfect and passive tenses, and sometimes as an adjective
eg: "I have finished", "It was seen by many people", "boiled eggs"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
perfect
a verb form (specifically an aspect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#aspect#aspect)); formed with HAVE/HAS + VERB-ed (present perfect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#presentperfect#presentperfect)) or HAD + VERB-ed (past perfect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#pastperfect#pastperfect))
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
person
a grammatical 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 or everything else
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
personal pronoun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-personal.htm)
a pronoun that indicates person (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#person#person)
eg: "He likes my dogs", "They like him"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
phrasal verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-phrasal-verbs_2.htm)
a multi-word verb formed with a verb + adverb
eg: break up, turn off NB: many people and books call all multi-word verbs "phrasal verbs"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
phrase
two or more words that have a single function and form part of a sentence; phrases can be noun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#nounphrase#nounphrase), adjective, adverb, verb or prepositional
------------------------------------------------------------------
plural
of a noun or form indicating more than one person or thing; plural nouns are usually formed by adding "-s"; see also singular (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#singular#singular), number (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#number#number)
eg: bananas, spoons, trees
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
position
the grammatically correct placement of a word form in a phrase or sentence in relation to other word forms
eg: "The correct position for an article is at the beginning of the noun phrase that it describes"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
positive
the basic state of an adjective or adverb when it shows quality but not comparative (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#comparative#comparative) or superlative (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#superlative#superlative)
eg: nice, kind, quickly
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
possessive adjective
an adjective (also called "determiner") based on a pronoun: my, your, his, her, its, our, their
eg: "I lost my keys", "She likes your car"
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possessive case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-case.htm)
case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#case#case) form of a pronoun indicating ownership or possession
eg: "Mine are blue", "This car is hers"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
possessive pronoun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-possessive.htm)
a type of pronoun that indicates ownership or possession
eg: "Where is mine?", "These are yours"
-------------------------------------------------------------
predicate
one of the two main parts (subject (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#subject#subject) and predicate) of a sentence (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#predicate#predicate); the predicate is the part that is not the subject
eg: "My brother is a doctor", "Who did you call?", "The woman wearing a blue dress helped me"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
prefix (http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/prefixes.htm)
an affix (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#affix#affix) that occurs before the root or stem of a word
eg: impossible, reload
-------------------------------------------------------------------
preposition (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/prepositions.htm)
part of speech (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#partofspeech#partofspeech) that typically comes before a noun phrase and shows some type of relationship between that noun phrase and another element (including relationships of time, location, purpose etc)
eg: "We sleep at night", "I live in London", "This is for digging"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
prepositional verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-phrasal-verbs_1.htm)
multi-word verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#multiwordverb#multiwordverb) that is formed with verb + preposition
eg: believe in, look after
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
present participle
the -ing form of a verb (except when it is a gerund (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#gerund#gerund) or verbal noun)
eg: "We were eating", "The man shouting at the back is rude", "I saw Tara playing tennis"
---------------------------------------------------------------------
present simple (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_present.htm) (also called "simple present")
tense usually used to describe states and actions that are general, habitual or (with the verb "to be") true right now; formed with the basic verb (+ s for 3rd person singular)
eg: "Canada sounds beautiful", "She walks to school", "I am very happy"
----------------------------------------------------------------
present continuous (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_present-continuous.htm) (also called "present progressive")
tense used to describe action that is in process now, or a plan for the future; formed with BE + VERB-ing
eg: "We are watching TV", "I am moving to Canada next month"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
present perfect (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_present-perfect.htm)
tense that connects the past and the present, typically used to express experience, change or a continuing situation; formed with HAVE + VERB-ed
eg: "I have worked there", "John has broken his leg", "How long have you been in Canada?"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
present perfect continuous (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_present-perfect-continuous.htm)
tense used to describe an action that has recently stopped or an action continuing up to now; formed with HAVE + BEEN + VERB-ing
eg: "I'm tired because I've been running", "He has been living in Canada for two years"
-------------------------------------------------------------------
progressive
another term for continuous (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#continuous#continuous)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
pronoun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns.htm)
a word that replaces a noun or noun phrase; there are several types including personal pronouns, relative pronouns and indefinite pronouns
eg: you, he, him; who, which; somebody, anything
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
proper noun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns-proper.htm)
a noun that is capitalized at all times and is the name of a person, place or thing
eg: Shakespeare, Tokyo, EnglishClub.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------
punctuation (http://www.englishclub.com/writing/punctuation.htm)
standard marks such as commas, periods and question marks within a sentence
eg: , . ? ! - ; :
----------------------------------------------------------------------
quantifier
a determiner (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#determiner#determiner) or pronoun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#pronoun#pronoun) that indicates quantity
eg: some, many, all
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
question tag (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-questions-tag.htm)
final part of a tag question (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#tagquestion#tagquestion); mini-question at end of a tag question
eg: "Snow isn't black, is it?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
question word
another term for WH-word (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#whword#whword)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
reciprocal pronoun
pronoun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#pronoun#pronoun) that indicates that two or more subjects are acting mutually; there are two in English - each other, one another
eg: "John and Mary were shouting at each other", "The students accused one another of cheating"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
reduced relative clause
(also called "participial relative clause")
construction similar to a relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativeclause#relativeclause), but containing a participle (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#participle#participle) instead of a finite verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#finiteverb#finiteverb); this construction is possible only under certain circumstances
eg: "The woman sitting on the bench is my sister", "The people arrested by the police have been released"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
reflexive pronoun
type of pronoun ending in -self or -selves, used when the subject and object are the same, or when the subject needs emphasis
eg: "She drove herself", "I'll phone her myself"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
regular verb (http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/regular-verbs.htm)
see regular verbs list (http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/regular-verbs-list.htm)
verb that has "-ed" as the ending for past tense and past participle forms; see also irregular verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#irregularverb#irregularverb)
eg: work, worked, worked
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
relative adverb
adverb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#adverb#adverb) that introduces a relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativeclause#relativeclause); there are four in English: where, when, wherever, whenever; see also relative pronoun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativepronoun#relativepronoun)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
relative clause
dependent clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#dependentclause#dependentclause) that usually starts with a relative pronoun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativepronoun#relativepronoun) such as who or which, or relative adverb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativeadverb#relativeadverb) such as where
eg: "The person who finishes first can leave early" (defining (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#definingrelativeclause#definingrelativec lause)), "Texas, where my brother lives, is big" (non-defining (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#nondefiningrelativeclause#nondefiningrel ativeclause))
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
reported speech
another term for indirect speech (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#indirectspeech#indirectspeech)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
relative pronoun
pronoun (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#pronoun#pronoun) that starts a relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativeclause#relativeclause); there are four in English: who, whom, whose, which; see also relative adverb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#relativeadverb#relativeadverb)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
restrictive relative clause
another term for defining relative clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#definingrelativeclause#definingrelativec lause)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
second conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-conditional_3.htm)
"if-then" conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#conditional#conditional) structure used to talk about an unlikely possibility in the future
eg: "If we won the lottery we would buy a car"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
sentence
the largest grammatical unit; a sentence must always include a subject (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#subject#subject) (except for imperatives (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#imperative#imperative)) and predicate (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#predicate#predicate); a written sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop/period (.), question mark (?) or exclamation mark (!); a sentence contains a complete thought such as a statement, question, request or command
eg: "Stop!", "Do you like coffee?", "I work."
-------------------------------------------------------------
series
list of items in a sentence
eg: "The children ate popsicles, popcorn and chips"
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singular
of a noun or form indicating exactly one person or thing; singular nouns are usually the simplest form of the noun (as found in a dictionary); see also plural (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#plural#plural), number (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#number#number)
eg: banana, spoon, tree
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split infinitive
situation where a word or phrase comes between the particle "to" and the verb in an infinitive; considered poor construction by some
eg: "He promised to never lie again"
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Standard English (S.E.)
the "normal" spelling, pronunciation and grammar that is used by educated native speakers of English
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structure word
a word that has no real meaning in a sentence, such as a pronoun or auxiliary verb (as opposed to a content word (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#contentword#contentword), such as verb or noun); structure words are not normally stressed in speech
eg: "Could you BRING my GLASSES because I've LEFT them at HOME"
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subject
one of the two main parts (subject and predicate (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#predicate#predicate)) of a sentence (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#sentence#sentence); the subject is the part that is not the predicate; typically, the subject is the first noun phrase in a sentence (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#sentence#sentence) and is what the rest of the sentence "is about"
eg: "The rain water was dirty", "Mary is beautiful", "Who saw you?"
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subjective case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-case.htm)
also called "nominative"
case (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#case#case) form of a pronoun indicating a subject (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#subject#subject)
eg: Did she tell you about her?
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subjunctive (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-subjunctive.htm)
fairly rare verb form typically used to talk about events that are not certain to happen, usually something that someone wants, hopes or imagines will happen; formed with BARE INFINITIVE (except past of "be")
eg: "The President requests that John attend the meeting"
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subordinate clause
another term for dependent clause (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#dependentclause#dependentclause)
suffix
an affix (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#affix#affix) that occurs after the root or stem of a word
eg: happiness, quickly
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superlative, superlative adjective (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-superlative.htm)
an adjective or adverb that describes the extreme degree of something
eg: happiest, most quickly
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SVO
subject-verb-object; a common word order (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#wordorder#wordorder) where the subject is followed by the verb and then the object
eg: "The man crossed the street"
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syntax
sentence structure; the rules about sentence structure
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tag question (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-questions-tag.htm)
special construction with statement that ends in a mini-question; the whole sentence is a tag question; the mini-question is a question tag (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#questiontag#questiontag); usually used to obtain confirmation
eg: "The Earth is round, isn't it?", "You don't eat meat, do you?"
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tense (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_sys-what.htm)
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.
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third conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-conditional_4.htm)
"if-then" conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#conditional#conditional) structure used to talk about a possible event in the past that did not happen (and is therefore now impossible)
eg: "If we had won the lottery we would have bought a car"
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transitive verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-what_classification-main.htm)
action verb that has a direct object (receiver of the action); see also intransitive verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#intransitive#intransitive)
eg: "The kids always eat a snack while they watch TV"
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uncountable nouns (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns-un-countable_2.htm)
(also called "mass nouns" or "non-count")
a thing that you cannot count, such as substances or concepts; see also countable nouns (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#countablenoun#countablenoun)
eg: water, furniture, music
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usage
the way in which words and constructions are normally used in any particular language
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V1, V2, V3 (http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/irregular-verbs-list.htm)
referring to Verb 1, Verb 2, Verb 3 - being the base, past and past participle that students typically learn for irregular verbs
eg: speak, spoke, spoken
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verb (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs.htm)
word that describes the subject (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#subject#subject)'s action or state and that we can change or conjugate (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#conjugate#conjugate) based on tense (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#tense#tense) and person (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#person#person)
eg: (to) work, (to) love, (to) begin
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voice
form of a verb that shows the relation of the subject to the action; there are two voices in English: active (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#activevoice#activevoice), passive (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#passivevoice#passivevoice)
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WH-question
question using a WH-word and expecting an answer that is not "yes" or "no"; WH-questions are "open" questions; see also yes-no question (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#yesnoquestion#yesnoquestion)
eg: Where are you going?
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WH-word
(also called "question word")
word that asks a WH-question (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#whquestion#whquestion); there are 7 WH-words: who, what, where, when, which, why, how
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word order
the order or sequence in which words occur within a sentence; basic word order for English is subject-verb-object or SVO (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#svo#svo)
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yes-no question (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-questions_types.htm)
question to which the answer is yes or no; yes-no questions are "closed" questions; see also WH-question (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#whquestion#whquestion)
eg: "Do you like coffee?"
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zero conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-conditional_5.htm)
"if-then" conditional (http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/terms.htm#conditional#conditional) structure used when the result of the condition is always true (based on fact)
eg: "If you dial O, the operator comes on"