English Grammar Glossary

adjective: a descriptive word that modifies a noun, as in beautiful , lively , funny , large , and red .
American English: the type of English spoken by people of the United States and, sometimes, Canada (but usually only when they have been influenced by American popular culture).
British English: the type of English spoken by people of the United Kingdom and most of its former colonies: England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, India, Nigeria, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and dozens of islands and territories. The exception is the United States.
clause: a phrase that contains a verb, as in “We were going to the ballpark .” A main clause forms a complete sentence, as in “We took him with us .” A dependent clause is incomplete, as in “because he couldn’t stay home alone .” The dependent clause can attach to the main clause.
comparative: adjectives that compare two things, such as wetter , crazier , and more content .
conjunction: words that join phrases, including for , and , nor , but , or , yet , and so . FANBOYS is an easy-to-remember mnemonic for them.
consonant: a letter in the alphabet that creates a specific closed sound, such as d , t , or m . English has 21 consonants.
contraction: a word in which two letters, such as nt , are joined by an apostrophe to indicate that there is a missing letter or letters between them. For example, can’t = cannot .
diacritical marks: accent marks such as á , ñ , and ö .
etymology: the study of word origins.
genitive: the indication that one noun is related to another, as in the cat’s meow and the meow of the cat .
gerund: an –ing verb that functions as a noun, as in “Cooking is a special joy for me.”
grammar: the system of rules and practices that govern the way a language works.
homophone: words that sound the same but are different in meaning, spelling, or origins.
idiom: a word or phrase that indicates something different from the actual words, as in “My brother is sawing logs in his room.”
interjection: a word or phrase that serves as an aside or to convey emotion, as in no way , whoa , oy , or dang .
intransitive: an action word that does not need an object, such as “I sat ” or “They read ”; see also: transitive .
irregular verb: a verb that does not follow conventional forms such as “I laugh,” “He laughs,” and “You laughed.” Instead, an irregular verb might read, “I go ,” “He goes ,” and “You went .”
modal verbs: a verb that indicates possibility or necessity, as in could , must , or might .
modifier: an adjective or noun that changes the main noun, such as good-looking man.
nominative: a noun or pronoun that serves as the subject of a verb, as in “We went.”
noun phrase: two or more words that modify a noun, such as “my new pen,” “the woman who stole yard signs ,” and “the competition to win .”
object: the part of the sentence being acted upon by the subject, as in “The dog ate my homework .”
parallel construction: using the same form of repetition within a sentence, as in “He ate two eggs, two waffles, and three strawberries.”
participle: a past (–ed) or present (–ing) form of a verb that can be used as an adjective (the howling wind), a noun (photographing animals is great), or part of a multipart verb when used with an auxiliary or helping verb (was eating or had been ).
phrasal verb: a context-specific idiomatic phrase, such as break down , comprising a verb or adverb + a preposition. It usually means something different from its literal interpretation.
plural: a noun or verb that indicates more than one person or thing, as in “three chairs .”
possessive: when one wishes to indicate ownership or relationship, as in “He is my dog.”
predicate: the part of a sentence that includes the verb, as in “He [subject] went to the store [predicate].”
prose: one or more sentences written without attention paid to meter, such as the one you’re reading right now. Poetry in strict metric format, such as a sonnet, is the opposite of prose.
punctuation: a range of symbols that illustrate how sentences divide, and that help clarify meaning. For example, “Let’s eat, Grandma” differs from “Let’s eat Grandma.”
quotation marks: a type of punctuation (“) that indicates quoted material or a word used in irony.
relative pronoun: words such as that , which , who , and when ; they connect a clause that relates to the main part of the sentence. For example, “I ate food that I brought to work.”
root: a word from which other words can be constructed, as in spire leading to aspire , perspire , respire , conspire , and others.
singular: a noun or verb that refers to just one person or thing, as opposed to more than one.
subject: a noun that is doing the acting in a sentence, as in “Emma ate lunch.”
subjunctive: a way of expressing oneself that indicates something that might happen, as in “If I were to have coffee with you, we would probably enjoy ourselves.”
superlative: the most extreme form of an adjective, positive or negative, such as wettest .
syllable: a syllable is a pronounced unit of a word. Requiring at least one vowel and usually including consonants, a syllable can form a complete word, such as bat . Battle is a two-syllable word.
tense: an expression of a verb that indicates time or duration, as in past tense used to describe the word sat , or future tense to describe the words will sit .
transitive: an action word + the object connected to the action: “He [subject] brings [transitive verb] chocolate [object].”
vocative: a word or phrase that points to the person or thing being addressed, as in “My friend , you are looking well.”
voice: the way we arrange a sentence so that it is active (“I broke the lamp”) or passive (“The lamp was broken by me ”).
vowel: a letter such as a , e , i , o , or u that represents one of the many sounds we make; the letter y is a semi-vowel. A vowel is the core of a syllable and is in contrast to the consonant.