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