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. |
