Glossary Flashcards
Adjectival Modifier
A word, phrase or clause that acts as an adjective in qualifying the meaning of a noun or pronoun. Your country; a turn-of-the-century event; people who are always late
Adjective
A word that modifies, quantifies or otherwise describes a noun or pronoun.
Drizzly November; midnight dreary; only requirement
Adverb
A word that modifies or otherwise qualifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
Gestures gracefully; exceptionally quiet engine
Adverbial phrase
A phrase that functions as an adverb (see phrase). Langdon laughs with abandon
Agreement
The correspondence of a verb with its subject in person and number (Karen goes to Cal Tech; Her sisters go to UCLA) and of a pronoun with its antecedent in person, number and gender (As soon as Karen finished the exam, she picked up her books and left the room)
Antecedent
The noun to which a pronoun refers. A pronoun and its antecedent must agree in person, number and gender.
Michael and his teammates moved off campus
Appositive
A noun or noun phrase that renames or adds identifying information to a noun it immediately follows.
His brother, an accountant with Arthur Andersen, was recently promoted.
Articles
The words a, an, and the, which signal or introduce nouns. The definite article, the, refers to a particular item: the report.
The indefinite articles, a and an, refer to a general item or one not already mentioned: an apple
Auxiliary Verb
A verb that combines with the main verb to show differences in tense, person, and voice. The most common auxiliaries are forms of be, do, and have.
I am going; we did not go; they have gone.
Case
The form of a noun or pronoun that reflects its grammatical function in a sentence as subject (they), object (them), or possessor (their).
She gave her employees a raise that pleased them greatly
Colloquialism
A word or expression appropriate to informal conversation but not usually suitable for academic or business writing.
They want to get even (instead of they wanted to retaliate)
Complement
A word or phrase (especially a noun or adjective) that complements the predicate.
Subject complements complete linking verbs and rename or describe the subject: Martha is my neighbor. She seems shy.
Object complements complete transitive verbs by describing or renaming the direct object: They found the play exciting. Robert considers Mary a wonderful wife.
Compound Sentence
Two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction, a correlative conjunction, or a semicolon.
Caesar conquered Gaul, but Alexander the Great conquered the world
Compound Subject
Two or more simple subjects joined by a coordinating or correlative conjunction.
Hemmingway and Fitzgerald had little in common
Conjunction
A word that joins words, phrases, clauses or sentences. The coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, yet, so, far) join grammatically equivalent elements.
Correlative conjunctions (both, and; either, or; neither, nor) join the same kind of elements.
Contraction
A shortened form of a word or group of words: can’t for cannot; they’re for they are
Dependent Clause
A group of words that includes a subject and verb but is subordinate to an independent clause in a sentence. Dependent clauses begin with either a subordinating conjunction, such as if, because since, or a relative pronoun, such as who, which, that.
When it gets dark, we’ll find a restaurant that has music
Direct Object
A noun or pronoun that recieves the action of a transitive verb.
Pearson publishes books
Gerund
The -ing form of a verb that functions as a noun.
Hiking is good exercise. She was praised for her playing.
Indefinite Pronoun
A pronoun that refers to an unspecific person (anybody) or thing (something).
Independent Clause
A group of words with a subject and verb that can stand alone as a sentence.
Raccoons steal food
Indirect Object
A noun or pronoun that indicates to whom or for whom, to what or for what the action of a transitive verb is performed.
I asked her a question. Ed gave the door a kick.
Infinitive/split infinitive
In the present tense, a verb phrase consisting of to followed by the base form of a verb (to write)
A split infinitive occurs when one or more words separate to and the verb (to boldly go)
Intransitive verb
A verb that does not take a direct object.
His nerve failed
Linking Verb
A verb that joins the subject of a sentence to its complement.
Professor Chapman is a philosophy teacher. They were ecstatic.
Loose sentence
A sentence that begins with the main idea and then attaches modifiers, qualifiers, and additional details.
He was determined to succeed, with or without the promotion he was hoping for and in spite of the difficulties he was confronting at every turn.
Main Clause
An independent clause, which can stand alone as a grammatically complete sentence.
Grammarians quibble.
Modal auxilaries
Any of the verbs that combine with the main verb to express necessity (must), obligation (should), permission (may), probability (might), possibility (could), ability (can), or tentativeness (would).
Mary might wash the car
Modifier
A word or phrase that qualifies, describes, or limits the meaning of a word, phrase, or clause.
Frayed ribbon, dancing flowers, worldly wisdom
Nominative pronoun
A pronoun that functions as a subject or a subject complement: I, we, you, he, she, it, they, who
Nonrestrictive modifier
A phrase or clause that does not limit or restrict the essential meaning of the element that it modifies.
My youngest niece, who lives in Ann Arbour, is a magazine editor
Noun
A word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. Most nouns have a plural and a possessive form.
Carol; the park; the cup; democracy
Number
A feature of nouns, pronouns, and a few verbs, referring to singular or plural. A subject and its corresponding verb must be consistent in number; a pronoun should agree in number with its antecedent.
A solo flute plays; two oboes join in
Object
The noun or pronoun that completes a prepositional phrase or the meaning of a transitive verb.
Frost offered his audience a poetic performance they would never likely forget
Participial Phrase
A present or past participle with accompanying modifiers, objects, or complements.
The buzzards, circling with sinister determination, squawked loudly
Participle
A verbal that functions as an adjective.
Present participles end in -ing (brimming); past participles end in -d or -ed (injured) or -en (broken) but may appear in other forms (brought, been, gone)
Periodic sentence
A sentence that expresses the main idea at the end.
With or without their parent’s consent, and whether or not they receive the assignment relocation they requested, they are determined to get married
Phrase
A group of related words that functions as a unit but lacks a subject, a verb, or both.
Without the resources to continue
Possessive
The case of nouns and pronouns that indicates ownership or possession (Harold’s, ours, mine)
Predicate
The verb and its related words in a clause or sentence. The predicate expresses what the subject does, experiences, or is.
Birds fly. The partygoers celebrated wildly for a very long time.
Preposition
A word that relates its object (a noun, pronoun or -ing verb form) to another word in the sentence.
She is the leader of our group. We opened the door by picking the lock. She went out the window
Prepositional Phrase
A group of words consisting of a preposition, its object, and any of the object’s modifiers.
Georgia on my mind
Principal verb
The predicating verb in a main clause or sentence
Pronominal possessive
Possessive pronouns such as hers, its, and theirs
Proper noun
The name of a particular person, place, or thing. Proper nouns are capitalised. Common nouns name classes of people, places, or things and are not capitalised.
Relative clause
A clause introduced by a relative pronoun, such as who, which, that, or by a relative adverb, such as where, when, why.
Relative pronoun
A pronoun that connects a dependent clause to a main clause in a sentence: who, whom, whose, which, that, what, whoever, whomever, whichever and whatever
Restrictive term, element, clause
A phrase or clause that limits the essential meaning of the sentence element it modifies or identifies.
Professional athletes who perform exceptionally should earn stratospheric salaries.
Sentence fragment
A group of words that is not grammatically a complete sentence but is punctuated as one: Because it mattered greatly.
Subject
The noun or pronoun that indicates what a sentence is about, and which the principal verb of a sentence elaborates.
The new Steven Speilberg movie is a box office hit
Subordinate clause
A clause dependent on the main clause in the sentence.
After we finish our work, we will go out for dinner
Syntax
The order or arrangement of words in a sentence. Syntax may exhibit parallelism (I came, I saw, I conquered), inversion (Whose woods these are I think I know), or other formal characteristics
Tense
The time of a verb’s action or state of being, such as past, present, or future. Saw, see, will see
Transition
A word or group of words that aids coherence in writing by showing the connection between ideas.
Moreover, In addition
Transitive verb
A verb that requires a direct object to complete its meaning: They washed their new car.
An intransitive verb does not require an object to complete its meaning: The audience laughed.
Many verbs can be both: The wind blew furiously. My car blew a gasket.
Verb
A word or group of words that expresses the action or indicates the state of being of the subject. Verbs activate sentences
Verbals
A verb form that functions in a sentence as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb rather than as a principal verb.
Thinkin**g can be fun. An embroidered handkerchief.
Voice
The attribute of a verb that indicates whether its subject is active (Janet played the guitar) or passive (The guitar was played by Janet)
