Grammar Terms

A noun is a word for a person, place, or thing. (You might like to think of nouns as naming words.)

• Adjectives are describing words. 
• Large, grey and friendly are all examples of adjectives.

• An adverb can be added to a verb to modify its meaning.
• Usually, an adverb tells you when, where, how, in what manner, or to what extent an action is performed.
• Many adverbs end in ly — particularly those that are used to express how an action is performed.
• Although many adverbs end ly, lots do not, e.g., fast, never, well, very, most, least, more, less, now, far, and there.

• Conjunctions are used to join words or groups of words together.
• The most common ones are and, or, and but. (There are many others.)

• Interjections are words used to express strong feeling or sudden emotion.
• They are included in a sentence - usually at the start - to express a sentiment such as surprise, disgust, joy, excitement or enthusiasm.

• A preposition is a word which precedes a noun (or a pronoun) to show the noun's (or the pronoun's) relationship to another word in the sentence.
• (The word preposition comes from the idea of being positioned before. It is not true to say that a preposition always precedes a noun or a pronoun, but it does most of the time.)
• The following are all prepositions:
• above, about, across, against, along, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, by, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, of, off, on, since, to, toward, through, under, until, up, upon, with and within.

• Most of the time, a pronoun is used to replace a noun.
• The following are all pronouns: he, she, they, none, and which.
• There are lots more. As you can see, pronouns are usually short words.
• They are used to make sentences less cumbersome and less repetitive.

• Verbs are doing words.
• A verb can express:
• A physical action (e.g., to swim, to write, to climb).
• A mental action (e.g., to think, to guess, to consider).
• A state of being (e.g., to be, to exist, to appear).

• The verbs which express a state of being are the ones which take a little practice to spot, but, actually, they are the most common.
• The most common verb is the verb to be.

• A phrase is a group of words that stand together as a single unit, typically as part of a clause or a sentence.
• A phrase does not contain a subject and verb and, consequently, cannot convey a complete thought.
• (A phrase contrasts with a clause. A clause does contain a subject and verb, and it can convey a complete idea.)

• A clause is a group of words that includes a subject and a verb.
• A clause can be distinguished from a phrase, which does not contain a subject and a verb (e.g., in the afternoon, drinking from the bowl).
• An independent clause can express a complete thought (and can be a standalone sentence).
• A dependent clause is usually a supporting part of a sentence, and it cannot stand by itself as a meaningful proposition (idea).

• A subordinating conjunction is used to link a subordinate clause (also known as a dependent clause) to the main clause (also known as an independent clause). 
• In each example below, the main clause is in bold, and the subordinating conjunction is shaded.
• She left early because Mike arrived with his new girlfriend.
• Keep your hand on the wound until the nurse asks you to take it off.

• A modifier is a word, phrase, or clause which functions as an adjective or an adverb to describe a word or make its meaning more specific.
• Examples of Modifiers:
• Modifiers can play the roles of adjectives or adverbs.

• Modifiers As Adjectives:
• When a modifier is an adjective, it modifies a noun or a pronoun. (In these examples, the modifiers are shaded, and the words being modified are bold).
• Lee caught a small mackerel.(Here, the adjective small modifies the noun mackerel.)
• Lee caught a small mackerel.(Don't forget that articles (i.e., the, an, and a) are adjectives too.
• Here, a modifies the noun mackerel as does small.)
• Lee caught another one.(Here, the adjective another modifies the pronoun one.)

• Modifiers As Adverbs:
• When a modifier is an adverb, it modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
• For example:
• Lee accidentally caught a small whelk.(Here, the adverb accidentally modifies the verb caught.)
• Lee caught an incredibly small mackerel.(Here, the adverb incredibly modifies the adjective small.)
• Lee supposedly accidentally caught a small whelk.(Here, the adverb supposedly modifies the adverb accidentally.)

• A Modifier Can Be a Phrase or a Clause:
• Don't forget that phrases and clauses can play the roles of adjectives and adverbs too.
• For example:
• Lee caught a mackerel smaller than a Mars bar.(This is an adjective phrase modifying the noun mackerel.)
• Lee caught a mackerel of tiny proportions.(This is a prepositional phrase functioning as an adjective. It modifies the noun mackerel.)
• Lee caught a mackerel which was smaller than a Mars bar.(This is an adjective clause modifying mackerel.)
• When alone, Lee tried to catch mackerel.(This is an adverbial phrase (of time) modifying the verb tried.)
• When we left him alone, Lee set up his rod to catch mackerel.(This is an adverbial clause (of time) modifying the verb set up.)

• The subject of a sentence is the person or thing doing the action or being described.
• For example (subjects shaded):
• Lee ate the pie.(Lee is the subject of the sentence. Lee is the subject of the main verb ate; i.e., Lee is the doing the action.) 
• Lee is putting on weight.(Lee is the subject of the sentence. Lee is the subject of the main verb is; i.e., Lee is being described.)

• The predicate is the part of a sentence (or clause) which tells us what the subject does or is.
• To put it another way, the predicate is everything that is not the subject.

• At the heart of the predicate is a verb. In addition to the verb, a predicate can contain direct objects, indirect objects, and various kinds of phrases. 
• A sentence has two parts: the subject and the predicate. The subject is what the sentence is about, and the predicate is a comment about the subject.

• Grammatical case pertains to nouns and pronouns.
• A noun's or a pronoun's case shows its relationship with the other words in a sentence.
• The main cases you will encounter in English are:
• The Subjective Case (or Nominative Case)
• The Possessive Case (or Genitive Case)
• The Objective Case (or Accusative Case or Dative Case)
• The Vocative Case

• The subjective case is for a noun or pronoun that is the subject of a verb.
• For example:
• Anne went to the shop. 
• She went to the shop.
• The subjective case is also used for a subject complement.
• For example:
• Bill is a policeman.
• It is he.(In informal writing, the objective case (him) can be used.)

• The possessive case is used to show possession. With nouns, it is shown with an apostrophe. (Read the rules about using apostrophes for possession.)
• For example:
• This is Anne's bag.
• This is her bag.

• The objective case is for a noun or pronoun that is either the direct object or indirect object of a verb or the object of a preposition.
• For example:
• I visited Anne.
• I visited her.
• Take me to her.

• The vocative case is used to indicate when a person (usually) is being addressed directly.
• In terms of spelling, it is identical to the subjective case.
• However, words in the vocative case should be offset from the remainder of the sentence with comma(s).
• For example:
• Paul, is this your tent peg?
• You, get off my lawn.

• A transitive verb is a verb that can take a direct object.
• In other words, it is done to someone or something.
• Most verbs are transitive.

• An intransitive verb is one that does not take a direct object.
• In other words, it is not done to someone or something.
• It only involves the subject.The opposite of an intransitive verb is a transitive verb.
• A transitive verb can have a direct object.
• For example:
• He laughed.(Laughed is an intransitive verb. It has no direct object. You cannot laugh something.)

• Every single person voted.
• The jackdaws roost in these trees.
• The crowd demonstrated outside the theatre.(In this example, demonstrated is an intransitive verb. However, to demonstrate can be used transitively too, e.g., He demonstrated a karate chop to the class.)

• A linking verb is a verb which connects a subject to its predicate without expressing an action.
• A linking verb is used to re-identify or describe its subject.

• A helping verb (which is also known as an auxiliary verb) sits before a main verb to help express the main verb's mood, tense, or voice.
• Be, do, and have are the most common helping verbs.
• You will see them in these forms:Be: am, is, are, was, were, being, beenDo: does, do, didHave: has, have, had, having

• In a passive sentence, the subject does not perform the action in the sentence.
• In fact, the action is performed on it.

Nowadays, black kites are protected.(The action is being done to the subject, black kites.)

• In an active sentence, the subject performs the action of the verb.
• An active sentence is the opposite of a passive sentence.
• Examples:
• The dog ate all the biscuits.(In this example, The dog is the subject of the sentence. 
• The dog is the subject of the verb to eat. 
• The dog is performing the action of the verb; i.e., it is the thing doing the eating.)

• The definite article is the word the.
• It is used before a noun to specify it as something previously considered.
• There are two types of articles:
• The Definite Article (the)
• The Indefinite Article (a and an).
• The articles are classified as adjectives.

A prepositional phrase is phrase that starts with a preposition and ends with noun (or a pronoun).

• Prepositional Phrases Function As Adjectives or Adverbs
• Answering: Which one, how many, whose, what kind?
• Here are some more examples of prepositional phrases.
• In each example, the prepositional phrase is shaded with the preposition in bold.
• Be aware that prepositional phrases function as adjectives or adverbs.
• Prepositional phrases functioning as adjectives:
• Please read the message from Lee.(The prepositional phrase describes the noun message.)

• Prepositional Phrases Function As Adjectives or Adverbs
• Answering: How, why, when , where?
• Here are some more examples of prepositional phrases. 
• In each example, the prepositional phrase is shaded with the preposition in bold. 
• Be aware that prepositional phrases function as adjectives or adverbs.
• Lee caught a small mackerel with utmost pride.(The prepositional phrase modifies the verb caught. It is an adverb of manner; i.e., it tells us how he caught it.)

• A verbal is a verb form which functions as a noun or an adjective.
• In English, there are three types of verbals:
• Participles (past participles and present participles).
• Gerunds
• Infinitives

• A gerund is a noun formed from a verb.
• All gerunds end -ing.
• For example:
• swimming, running, drinking
• Even though a gerund is a noun, a gerund can still take a direct object (like a verb).
• This is known as a gerund complement.
• For example:
• swimming the lake
• running a mile
• drinking a beer

• A participle is a word formed from a verb which can be used as an adjective.
• The two types of participles are the present participle (ending ing) and the past participle (usually ending -ed, -d, -t, -en, or -n).

• The infinitive form of a verb is the verb in its basic form.
• It is the version of the verb which will appear in the dictionary. 
• The infinitive form of a verb is usually preceded by to (e.g., to run, to dance, to think).
• The infinitive form is not always preceded by to.
• Look at these examples:
• I need to run every day.(The infinitive form with the word to is called the full infinitive or to-infinitive.) 
• I must run every day.(After certain verbs, the to is dropped (more on this below).)
• I run every day.(This is not in the infinitive form. This is a finite verb, i.e., a verb functioning as the main verb.)

• A dangling modifier is a modifier that has nothing to modify.
• Remember, modifiers describe a word or make its meaning more specific.
• A dangling modifier is an error caused by failing to use the word that the modifier is meant to be describing.

• Meticulous and punctual, David's work ethic is admirable. 
• In this example, the missing word is David (as a standalone subject).
• A correct version would be:
• Meticulous and punctual, David has an admirable work ethic. (In this example, the modifier Meticulous and punctual is modifying David as it should, not David's work ethic.)