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?).

Basic Concepts of English Grammar (3)

Inversion
Changing the usual word order so
that the verb comes before the
subject (e.g. Up went the balloon).

Linking verb
A verb (e.g. be, become, appear) that
connects a SUBJECT with its
COMPLEMENT.

Modal verbs
A group of verbs (can, could, dare,
may, might, must, need, ought to,
shall, should, will, would, used to)
that give information about such
things as possibility, necessity, and
obligation.

Noun
A word that refers to a person, place,
thing, quality, etc. A proper noun is
the name of a particular person,
place or thing (e.g. John Todd,
Berlin, Sydney Opera House).

Noun phrase
A group of words where the main
word is a noun (e.g. I've been talking
to the woman across the road; We
spoke to several small children).

Object
The person or thing affected by the
action of the verb or that is involved
in the result of the action (e.g. I put
the book back on the shelf).
Compare SUBJECT.

Participle
The present participle is the '-ing'
form of a verb (e.g. walking, singing,
eating) used, for example, in
continuous tenses. The past participle
is the '-ed' form of a verb (e.g.
walked, sung, eaten) used, for
example, in perfect tenses. A
participle adjective is one formed
from the present or past participle of
a verb (e.g. the candidates applying,
a broken plate).

Passive
In a passive clause or passive
sentence, the grammatical subject is
the person or thing that experiences
the effect of the action given in the
verb (e.g. The book was written by
Geoff.). Compare ACTIVE.

Performative verb
A verb which states the action that is
performed when a speaker uses the
verb (e.g. I promise I'll do it
tomorrow; I apologise).

Possessive
The possessive form of a noun ends
in either -'s (e.g. Mark's car) or -s'
(e.g. the girls' changing room).

Preposition
A word such as in, on, by that comes
before a noun, pronoun, noun phrase
or -ing form (e.g. in March, above
my uncle's head, by investing).

Prepositional phrase
A group of words that consists of a
preposition and its prepositional
object (a noun, pronoun, noun
phrase or -ing form) (e.g. behind our
house, across it).

Pronoun
A word that is used instead of a noun
or noun phrase. Pronouns include
personal pronouns (e.g. I, she, me),
reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself,
herself), and RELATIVE PRONOUNS
(e.g. who, which).

Quantifier
A word or phrase that goes before a
noun or noun phrase to talk about
the quantity of something (e.g. a little
water, many of the women in the
room).

Relative clause
A kind of SUBORDINATE CLAUSE that
describes a noun that comes before it
in a MAIN CLAUSE. A defining relative
clause says which person or thing is
being talked about (e.g. A friend who
lives in London is getting married).
A non-defining relative clause gives
more information about the noun
(e.g. My bicycle^ which I've left
outside your house, is over 20 years
old).

Basic Concepts of English Grammar (2)

Complement
A word or phrase that follows a
LINKING VERB and describes the
SUBJECT (e.g. Linda is a lawyer) or
OBJECT (e.g. I found the food inedible).

Completion
A completion is an ADVERBIAL or
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE w h i c h
completes the meaning of a verb.
Some verbs need a completion (e.g.
The disease originated in Britain;
'The disease originated' would be
incomplete).

Compound
A compound noun consists of two or
more words together used as a noun
(e.g. a language school). A compound
adjective consists of two or more
words together used as an adjective
(e.g. They were well-behaved).

Conditional
A conditional clause usually starts
with 'if, but other patterns are
possible (e.g. Had it not rained,
England would have won). A
conditional sentence is one
containing a conditional clause.

Conjunction
A word such as and, but, if, while,
after, because which connects words,
phrases, or clauses in a sentence.

Countable
A countable noun can be both
singular and plural (e.g. cup/cups).
An uncountable noun doesn't have a
plural form (e.g. electricity, but not
'electricities').

Determiner
A word that goes in front of a noun to
identify what the noun refers to (e.g.
this, some, the, a/an, each, all, my).

Direct speech
Speech that is written using the exact
words of the speaker, without any
changes. Compare REPORTED SPEECH.

Dynamic verb
A verb that describes an action (e.g.
walk, throw). Compare STATE VERB.

Finite verb
A verb that has a tense (e.g. She
waited; She is waiting for you). Nonfinite
verb forms are INFINITIVES
(e.g. He came to see me) and
PARTICIPLE forms (e.g. Shouting
loudly, I was able to make myself
heard; Born in Germany, he now
lives in France).

Imperative
An imperative clause uses the BARE
INFINITIVE form of a verb for such
things as giving orders and making
suggestions (e.g. Go to bed!).

Infinitive
The form of a verb that usually goes
after 'to'. The form can be either the
to-infinitive (e.g. to sing, to eat) or
the bare infinitive (e.g. sing, eat).

Intransitive verb
A verb that doesn't take an object
(e.g. She smiled). Compare
TRANSITIVE VERB.

Basic Concepts of English Grammar (1)

Active
In an active clause or active sentence,
the grammatical subject is the person
or thing that performs the action
given in the verb (e.g. Geoff wrote
the book). Compare PASSIVE.

Adjective
A word that describes a noun (e.g. an
interesting book) or a pronoun (e.g. a
big one). Gradable adjectives can be
used to say that a person or thing has
more or less of this quality (e.g. She's
very happy), while ungradable
adjectives can't (e.g. It's impossible.
We can't say '...very impossible').
Classifying adjectives say that
something is of a particular type (e.g.
atomic, initial). Emphasising
adjectives stress how strongly we feel
about something (e.g. utter nonsense).

Adjective phrase
A group of words where the main
word is an adjective (e.g. It's
extremely important; It wasn't strong
enough).

Adverb
A word that describes or gives more
information (when, how, where, etc.)
about a verb (e.g. He ran quickly),
adjective (e.g. an extremely expensive
car), another adverb (e.g. She's doing
very well), or phrase (e.g. They live
just across the road.). Types of
adverb include: adverbs of manner
which we use to say how something
is done (e.g. slowly, violently);
connecting adverbs (e.g.
consequently, similarly); time
adverbs (e.g. tomorrow, already);
place adverbs (e.g. upstairs, outside);
comment adverbs (e.g. apparently,
personally) which we use to make a
comment on what we are saying;
viewpoint adverbs (e.g. financially,
politically) which we use to make
clear from what point of view we
 are speaking; adverbs of indefinite
frequency (e.g. always, never);
degree adverbs (e.g. completely,
quite) which give information about
the extent or degree of something;
focus adverbs (e.g. just, even) which
we use to focus on a particular word
or phrase.

Adverbial clause
A type of SUBORDINATE CLAUSE that
says when, how, where, etc.
something happens (e.g. Before I
went to school this morning, I did
my homework).

Adverbial phrase
A group of words that says when,
how, where, etc. something happens
(e.g. with a great deal of noise, about
a week ago).

Affirmative sentence
A statement (i.e. not a question) that
is positive, not negative.

Agent
The person or thing that performs
the action described in a verb.
Usually it is the subject in an active
clause and comes after 'by...' in a
passive clause.

Auxiliary verbs
The verbs be, have and do when they
are used with a main verb to form
questions, negatives, tenses, passive
forms, etc. MODAL VERBS are also
auxiliary verbs.

Clause
A group of words that contains a
verb. A clause may be a complete
sentence or a part of a sentence. A
main clause can exist as a separate
sentence, while a subordinate clause
cannot (e.g. If I see Tony at work
(= subordinate clause), I'll invite him
over this evening (= main clause)).
Types of clause include: since-clause
(e.g. I haven't seen him since we left
school); that-clause (e.g. She said that
she was thirsty); wh-clause (e.g. I
asked Sandra where she was going);
it-clause (e.g. It's not surprising that
you're feeling cold); what-clause (e.g.
What I want to do is buy a better
computer); if-clause (e.g. If you leave
now, you'll be home by 10.00);
whether-clause (e.g. You have to take
the exam whether you want to or
not); -ing clause (e.g. Feeling hungry,
I went into the kitchen); past
participle (-ed) clause (e.g. Built
during the 1950s, the building is now
in need of repair); being past
participle (-ed) clause (e.g. Being
unemployed, Tom had a lot of time
on his hands); having past participle
(-ed) clause (e.g. Having seen the
doctor, I went straight home).