Basic Concepts of English Grammar (4)

Relative pronoun
A pronoun such as who, which, or
that which is used at the beginning of
a relative clause.

Reported speech
Speech that is reported without using
the exact words of the speaker.
Sometimes called 'indirect speech'.

Reporting clause & reported clause
A statement that reports what people
think or say is often divided into a
reporting clause and a reported
clause (e.g. She said (= reporting
clause) that the building was unsafe
(= reported clause)).

Simple sentence
A sentence consisting of one clause.

State verb
A verb that is used to describe a state
(e.g. believe, think) rather than an
action. Compare DYNAMIC VERB.

Subject
The person or thing that does the
action of the verb (e.g. Tommy went
home). Compare OBJECT.

Subjunctive
The subjunctive is a set of verb forms
used, mainly in rather formal
English, to talk about possibilities
rather than facts (e.g. We recommend
that he be given the job; If I were
you, I'd go home now).

Transitive verb
A verb that takes an object (e.g. She
was holding a bunch of flowers.).
Compare INTRANSITIVE VERB.

Two-word verbs & three-word verbs
Verbs that are commonly used with a
particular particle (adverb or
preposition) are referred to here as
two-word verbs (e.g. She looked after
her elderly parents). Verbs that are
commonly used with two particular
particles (adverb + preposition) are
referred to here as three-word verbs
(e.g. He looked up to his older
brothers). These are sometimes called
'prepositional verbs' and 'phrasal
verbs'.

Wh-words
A group of words (e.g. who, where,
when, how) that are used in WHQUESTIONS.

Wh-question
A question that begins with a WHWORD
(e.g. Where are you going?).

Yes/no question
A question that can be answered with
'yes' or 'no' (e.g. Do you like coffee?).