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Alphabetical list of the important grammatical terms
THIS section contains an alphabetical list of the important grammatical terms.
Each term has one or more brief definitions. Many terms contain cross-references
to the chapters where a discussion of the pertinent usage issues can be found.
absolute A construction that consists of a noun and a modifier and
construction modifies the rest of the sentence, rather than a single element
of the sentence. See Grammar, absolute constructions.
active voice A property of transitive verbs whereby the subject of the verb
is the agent of the action. The verb ate in Mike ate the
watermelon is in the active voice. See Grammar, verbs, voice
of.
adjective A word that modifies a noun. Adjectives are distinguished
chiefly by their suffixes, such as -able, -ous, and -er, or by
their position directly preceding a noun or noun phrase.
adverb A word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
affix A word element, such as a prefix or suffix, that can only occur
attached to a base form.
agreement Correspondence in gender, number, case, or person between
words. See Grammar, pronouns, agreement of and subject and
verb agreement.
antecedent The word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers.
appositive A noun or noun phrase that is placed next to another to help
explain it. The composer in The composer Beethoven lived in
Bonn is an appositive.
article A word that indicates that the word which follows it is a noun
and that specifies the noun’s application. The indefinite
articles are a and an. The definite article is the.
aspect A property of verbs that designates the relation of the action to
the passage of time, especially in reference to completion,
duration, or repetition.
attributive A word, such as an adjective or a noun, that is placed adjacent
to the noun it modifies, as city in the city streets.
auxiliary verb A verb, such as have, can, or will, that accompanies the main
verb in a clause and helps to make distinctions in mood, voice,
aspect, and tense. See Grammar, auxiliary and primary verbs.
base form The form of a word to which affixes or other base forms can be
added to make new words, as mystify in mystifying, build in
rebuild, and writing in skywriting.
case The form of noun, pronoun, or modifier that indicates its
grammatical relationship to other words in a clause or
sentence. In English only pronouns are differentiated by case.
English pronouns have three cases: Nominative or Subjective
(she), Objective (him), and Possessive (his). See Grammar,
pronouns, personal.
clause A group of words containing a subject and a predicate and
forming part of a compound or complex sentence.
collective noun A noun, such as flock or team that refers to a collection of
persons or things regarded as a unit. See Grammar, collective
nouns.
common noun A noun, such as book or dog, that can be preceded by the
definite article and that represents one or all of the members
of a class.
comparative The intermediate degree of comparison of adjectives, as
degree better, sweeter, or more wonderful, or adverbs, as more
softly. See Grammar, adjectives and adverbs, comparison of.
comparison The modification or inflection of an adjective or adverb to
indicate the positive, comparative, and superlative degrees.
See Grammar, adjectives and adverbs, comparison of.
complement A word or group of words used after a verb to complete a
predicate construction; for example, the phrase to eat ice
cream in We like to eat ice cream is the complement.
complex A sentence that consists of at least one independent clause and
sentence one dependent clause, such as When I grow up, I want to be a
doctor.
compound- A sentence consisting of at least two coordinate independent
complex clauses and one or more dependent clauses, as I wanted to go,
sentence but I decided not to when it started raining.
compound A sentence of two or more coordinate independent clauses,
sentence often joined by a conjunction, as The problem was difficult,
but I finally found the answer.
concord Agreement.
conditional Of, relating to, or containing a clause that expresses a
condition, that is, a circumstance that is necessary for
something else to happen. Conditional clauses usually begin
with if, unless, provided that, or a similar conjunction.
Conditional sentences are sentences that contain conditional
clauses: If it starts to rain, we will have to leave. We cannot go
to the beach unless he lends us his car.
conjunction A word, such as and, but, as, and because, that connects
words, phrases, or clauses.
construction A group of words arranged to form a meaningful phrase, clause,
or sentence.
coordinating A conjunction, such as and, but, or or, that connects
conjunction grammatical units that have the same function.
correlative Either of a pair of conjunctions, such as either … or or both …
conjunction and, that connect two parts of a sentence and are not used
adjacent to each other. The second of the pair is always a
coordinate conjunction.
count noun A noun that can be referred to as a single entity, can occur in
the plural, and can be used in a phrase with a or an. Chair and
experience are count nouns. Furniture and helium are not.
dangling A participle with no clear grammatical relationship to the
participle subject of the sentence. See Grammar, dangling modifiers and
definite article
degree
demonstrative
participles.
A word that restricts or particularizes a noun. In English the
definite article is the. It identifies a noun that has already been
referred to (I found the book under the chair). It helps specify
a particular thing (I am reading about the development of the
polio vaccine). It also indicates a noun that stands as a typical
example of its class (The Golden Retriever is an ideal pet.
One of the forms used in the comparison of adjectives and
adverbs. For example, sweet is the positive degree, sweeter
the comparative degree, and sweetest the superlative degree
of the adjective sweet.
Specifying or singling out the person or thing referred to. The
demonstrative adjectives are this, these, that, and those.
A clause that cannot stand alone as a full sentence and
functions as a noun, adjective, or adverb within a sentence.
A nonrestrictive clause.
dependent
clause
descriptive
clause
determiner A word belonging to a group of noun modifiers (which include
articles, demonstrative adjectives, possessive adjectives and
words such as any, both, or whose) and occupying the first
position in a noun phrase or the second or third position after
another determiner.
dialect A variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation,
grammar, or vocabulary and shared by a group that is set off
from others geographically or socially. The term dialect is
sometimes used to refer to a variety of language that differs
from the standard literary language or speech pattern of the
culture in which it exists.
diminutive A word, name, or suffix that indicates smallness, youth,
familiarity, affection, or contempt. Booklet, lambkin, and
nymphet are diminutives. The suffixes -et, -let, and -kin are
diminutive suffixes.
direct object The noun, pronoun, or noun phrase referring to the person or
thing that receives the action of a transitive verb. In mail the
letter and call him, letter and him are the direct objects.
disjunctive Serving to establish a relationship of contrast or opposition. But
in sad but wiser is disjunctive.
double negative A construction that employs two negatives, especially to
express a single negation. See Grammar, double negative.
elliptical Characterized by the omission of a word or phrase that is
necessary for a complete grammatical construction but is not
necessary for understanding. In the sentence While cleaning
the desk, he found an old photograph, the clause while
cleaning the desk is elliptical in that it stands for while he was
cleaning the desk.
epicene A pronoun that has one form for both masculine and feminine
pronoun antecedents. See Gender, epicene pronouns.
finite Limited by person, number, tense, and mood. A finite verb can
serve as the predicate of a sentence or as the initial verb in a
verb phrase that is the predicate.
function word A word such as a preposition, conjunction, or article that has
little meaning on its own and chiefly indicates a grammatical
relationship.
future perfect The verb tense that expresses action completed by a specified
tense time in the future and that is formed by combining will have or
shall have with a past participle. See Grammar, verbs, tenses
of.
future tense The verb tense that expresses action that has not yet occurred
or a state that does not yet exist. See Grammar, verbs, tenses
of.
gender 1. A category used in the selection or agreement of nouns,
pronouns, and adjectives with modifiers, words being referred
to, or grammatical forms. Grammatical gender may be
arbitrary, or it may be based on characteristics such as sex or
the quality of being animate. In English grammatical gender
applies only to pronouns, which normally coincide with the
sexual identity of their antecedents. In other languages,
abstractions and inanimate objects may be grammatically
masculine or feminine. In German, for example, the word for
fork is feminine, the word for spoon is masculine, and the word
for knife is neuter. 2. Sexual identity.
gender-neutral Free of explicit or implicit reference to biological gender or
sexual identity, as the term police officer instead of
policeman. See Gender, epicene pronouns and he.
genitive case The case that expresses possession, measurement, or source.
See Grammar, possessive constructions and pronouns, personal.
gerund A noun derived from a verb and retaining certain features of
verbs; in English gerunds end in -ing, as singing in We admired
the choir’s singing. See Grammar, gerund.
grammar 1. The system of inflections, word order, and word formation of
a language. 2. The system of rules that allows the speakers of
a language to create sentences. 3. A set of rules setting forth
the current standard of usage in a language. 4. Writing or
speech judged in relation to this set of rule.
head The word in a construction that has the same grammatical
function as the construction as a whole and that determines
relationships of agreement to other parts of the construction or
sentence. The word variety is the head of the phrase a wide
variety of gardening tools in the sentence You can buy a wide
variety of gardening tools at that store.
imperative The verbal mood that expresses a command or request. Stop in
Stop running and Give in Give me a break are in the imperative
mood. See Grammar, verbs, mood of.
imperfect tense The tense of a verb that shows, usually in the past, an action or
a condition as incomplete, continuous, or coincident with
indefinite
article
indefinite
pronoun
independent
clause
indicative
indirect object
infinitive
inflection
intensive
intransitive verb
irregular
linking verb
main clause
main verb
another action or condition.
An article that does not fix the identity of the noun it modifies.
In English the indefinite articles are a and an. They are
typically used when the noun has not been mentioned before
and so is unfamiliar: A waiter appeared and asked to take our
order.
A pronoun such as any or some that does not specify the
identity of its object.
A clause in a complex sentence that contains a subject and a
verb and can stand alone as a complete sentence.
The verbal mood used to make statements. See Grammar,
verbs, mood of.
An object indirectly affected by the action of the verb, as me
in Sing me a song and the turtle in He feeds the turtle lettuce.
A verb form that functions as a noun while retaining certain
verbal characteristics, such as modification by adverbs. It is
called the infinitive because the verb is not limited or “made
finite” to indicate person, number, tense, or mood. In English
the infinitive may be preceded by to, as in We want him to
work harder and To cooperate means to be willing to
compromise, or it may appear without to, as in We may leave
tomorrow and She had them read the letter. The infinitive
without to is called the bare infinitive.
1. A change in a word that expresses a grammatical
relationship, such as case, gender, number, person, tense, or
mood
2. A word form or element that is involved in this change. In
English most inflections are affixes, such as -s, which indicates
the plural of many nouns (dogs), or -ed, which indicates past
tense in many verbs (relaxed). Some English inflections involve
a change in the base form of the word to indicate past tense or
the past participle, as spoke and spoken from speak.
Tending to emphasize or intensify, as the adverb so in The
music was so beautiful or the pronoun yourself in How can you
ask me to help when you haven’t done anything yourself? See
Grammar, pronouns, reflexive and intensive and so.
A verb that does not require or cannot take a direct object, as
sleep or meditate. See Grammar, verbs, transitive and
intransitive.
Departing from the usual pattern of inflection, derivation, or
word formation, as the present forms of the verb be or the
plural noun children. See Grammar, verbs, principal parts of.
A verb, such as a form of be or seem, that identifies the
predicate of a sentence with the subject.
An independent clause.
A verb that expresses an action or a state. Main verbs can be
inflected to show tense, number, person, and mood. They are
mass noun
modifier
mood
nominative case
noncount noun
nonrestrictive
clause
noun
number
object
objective case
objective
complement
parallelism
participle
passive voice
distinguished from auxiliary verbs, which cannot be inflected.
Swim is the main verb in the sentence I could have swum a mile
today.
A noun, such as sand or honesty, that denotes a substance or
concept that cannot be divided into countable units. Mass
nouns are preceded in indefinite constructions by modifiers
such as some or much rather than a or one.
A word, phrase, or clause that limits or qualifies the sense of
another word or word group.
A property of verbs that indicates the speaker’s attitude toward
the factuality or likelihood of the action or condition
expressed. Mood determines whether a sentence is a
statement, a command, or a conditional or hypothetical
remark. English has three moods: indicative, imperative, and
subjunctive. See Grammar, verbs, mood of and subjunctive.
The case of a pronoun used as the subject of a finite verb (as I
in I wrote the letter) or as a predicate nominative (as we in It
is we who have made the mistake).
A mass noun.
A dependent clause that describes but does not identify or
restrict the meaning of the noun, phrase, or clause it modifies,
as the clause who live in a small house in The Smiths, who live
in a small house, have ten cats. Nonrestrictive clauses are
normally set off by commas. See Grammar, that.
A word that is used to name a person, place, thing, quality, or
action and can function as the subject or object of a verb, as
the object of a preposition, or as an appositive.
The indication of whether a word is singular or plural. Number
in English nouns is usually indicated by inflection, that is, by
the presence or absence of the suffix -s or -es.
A noun or word acting like a noun that receives or is affected
by the action of a verb or that follows and is governed by a
preposition.
The case of a pronoun used as the object of a verb or
preposition. The pronoun him is in the objective case.
A noun, pronoun, or adjective serving as complement to a verb
and qualifying its direct object, as governor in They elected
him governor.
The use of identical or equivalent syntactic structures in
corresponding clauses or phrases. See Style, parallelism.
A form of the verb that can serve as an adjective or is used
with an auxiliary verb to indicate tense, aspect, or voice. In
English the present participle ends in -ing, and the past
participle ends in -ed or is an altered base form, as ridden from
ride or spoken from speak. See Grammar, participles and verbs,
principal parts of.
A property of verbs whereby the subject receives the action or
effect of the verb. In the sentence The house was built in a
month, the verb build is in the passive voice. See Grammar,
verbs, voice of.
past participle A verb form indicating past or completed action or time that is
used as an adjective and is used with auxiliary verbs to form
the passive voice or the perfect and pluperfect tenses. In
English the past participle is formed by the addition of the
suffix -ed or by altering the base form of the verb, as spoken
from speak. See Grammar, participles and verbs, principal parts
of.
past perfect The pluperfect tense.
tense
past tense The verb tense used to express an action or a condition prior to
the time it is expressed.
perfect tense A verb tense expressing action completed prior to a fixed point
of reference in time. English has two perfect tenses: the
present perfect and the past perfect, or pluperfect. See
Grammar, verbs, tenses of.
person Any of the pronoun forms or verb inflections that distinguish
the speaker (first person), the individual addressed (second
person), and the individual or thing spoken about (third
person). See Grammar, pronouns, agreement of; pronouns,
personal; and pronouns, reflexive and intensive.
personal A pronoun designating the person speaking (I, me, we, us), the
pronoun person spoken to (you), or the person or thing spoken of (he,
she, it, they, him, her, them). See Grammar, pronouns,
personal.
phrase Two or more words occurring in sequence that form a
grammatical unit that is less than a complete sentence.
pluperfect tense A verb tense used to express action completed before a stated
or implied past time. In English the pluperfect tense is formed
with the past participle of a verb and the auxiliary verb had, as
had learned in He had learned to skate before his fourth
birthday. See Grammar, verbs, tenses of.
plural 1. A grammatical form that designates more than one of the
things specified. In English most plurals are formed by adding -s
or -es to nouns. Some words, like sheep and deer, can have
plural meaning but have no plural form: The deer are in the
field again. A few words form their plurals by the addition of en: children; oxen. 2. A verb form that expresses the action of
a plural subject.
positive degree The simple, uncompared degree of an adjective or adverb. See
Grammar, adjectives, comparison of and adverbs, comparison
of.
possessive A form of a noun or pronoun that indicates possession. In
English the possessive of singular nouns is usually formed by the
addition of an apostrophe and s. See Word Formation,
possessives and Grammar, possessive constructions and
pronouns, personal.
possessive case The case of a pronoun that indicates possession. The pronoun
my is in the possessive case. Pronouns in the possessive case
are often considered adjectives. See Grammar, pronouns,
personal.
predicate One of the two main parts of a sentence containing the verb,
objects, or phrases governed by the verb, as opened the door in
Jane opened the door or is very sleepy in The child is very
sleepy.
predicate An adjective that follows a linking verb and modifies the
adjective subject, as hot in The sun is hot.
predicate A noun or pronoun that follows a linking verb and refers to the
nominative same person or thing as the subject, as firefighter in Jim was a
firefighter.
prefix An affix put before a word to alter its meaning. The element
dis- in disbelieve is a prefix.
preposition A word, such as in or to, or a group of words, such as in regard
to, that is placed before a noun or pronoun and indicates a
grammatical relation to a verb, adjective, or another noun or
pronoun.
prepositional A phrase that consists of a preposition and its object and
phrase functions as an adjective or an adverb.
present A participle expressing present action, formed by adding the
participle suffix -ing to verbs and used as an adjective and with the
auxiliary verb be to make progressive tenses. See Grammar,
participles and verbs, tenses of.
present perfect A verb tense expressing action completed at the present time,
tense formed by combining the present tense of have with a past
participle, as in He has spoken. See Grammar, verbs, tenses of.
present tense The verb tense expressing action in the present time, as in She
writes and She is writing. See Grammar, verbs, tenses of.
principal parts The forms of a verb that are necessary to derive other forms. In
English these are the infinitive, the past tense, the past
participle, and the present participle. See Grammar, verbs,
principal parts of.
progressive A verb form that expresses an action or condition in progress. In
English progressive verb forms employ a form of the verb be
and a present participle of the main verb, as in He is walking,
He has been walking, He had been walking. See Grammar,
verbs, tenses of.
pronoun A word that functions as a substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
proper noun A noun used as a name for a specific individual, event, or place
and usually having few possibilities for modification.
reflexive A pronoun used as the direct object of a reflexive verb.
pronoun Reflexive pronouns end in -self or -selves.
reflexive verb A verb whose subject is identical with its object, as dressed in
regular
relative clause
relative pronoun
restrictive
clause
singular
split infinitive
strong verb
subject
subjunctive
She dressed herself.
Conforming to the usual pattern of inflection, derivation, or
word formation. A plural ending in -s is a regular plural.
A dependent clause introduced by a relative pronoun, as which
is downstairs in The stereo, which is downstairs, has four
speakers.
A pronoun that introduces a relative clause and refers to an
antecedent. Who, whom, whose, which, and that the relative
pronouns. See Grammar, that, who, and which.
A dependent clause that identifies the noun, phrase, or clause
it modifies and limits or restricts its meaning, as the clause who
live in glass houses in People who live in glass houses should
not throw stones.
1. A grammatical form that designates a single person or thing
or a group of things considered as a single unit. 2. A verb form
that expresses the action or state of a grammatically singular
subject.
An infinitive with an element, usually an adverb, interposed
between to and the verb, as to boldly go. See Grammar, split
infinitive.
A verb such as drink, ride, or speak, that forms its past tense
by a change in the vowel of the base form and that forms its
past participle by a change in vowel and sometimes by adding n or -en. See Grammar, verbs, principal parts of.
The noun, noun phrase, or pronoun in a sentence or clause that
denotes the doer of the action or what is described by the
predicate. In some sentences the subject is not a doer but is
acted upon. This is true for sentences with verbs in the passive
voice and for verbs with a passive meaning, such as undergo in
She underwent surgery to repair her shoulder.
The verbal mood that expresses the speaker’s attitude about
the likelihood or factuality of the situation and is also used in
conditional clauses, in that clauses making a command or
expressing an intention, and in other clauses. See Grammar,
verbs, mood of and subjunctive.
A dependent clause.
subordinate
clause
subordinate A conjunction, such as after, because, if, and where, that
conjunction introduces a dependent clause.
substantive A word or group of words functioning as a noun, as wealthy in
Only the wealthy can afford to belong to that club.
suffix An affix added to the end of a word, forming a new word or
serving as an inflectional ending, as -ness in gentleness, -ing in
walking, or -s in sits.
superlative The extreme degree of comparison of an adjective or adverb,
degree as best and brightest.
syntax 1. The system of rules whereby words are combined to form
grammatical phrases and sentences. 2. The pattern of word
arrangement in a given phrase or sentence.
tense A set of verb forms that indicates the time (as past, present, or
future) and the continuance or completion of the action or
state. See Grammar, verbs, tenses of.
transitive verb A verb that requires a direct object to complete its meaning,
carrying the action of the verb from the subject to the object.
In the sentence She played the waltz, play is a transitive verb.
In the sentence She plays beautifully, play is not transitive. See
Grammar, verbs, transitive and intransitive.
verb A word that expresses existence, action, or occurrence.
voice A property of verbs that indicates the relationship between the
subject and the action of the verb. See Grammar, verbs,
transitive and intransitive and verbs, voice of.
weak verb A verb that forms its past tense and past participle by adding a
suffix that ends in -d, -ed, or -t, as start, have, and send. See
Grammar, verbs, principal parts of.
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