Terms

Question 1

infinitive

Answer 1

The base form of a verb, that, in English, is often formed with to, eg, to come, to go.

Question 2

abbreviation

Answer 2

A shortened form of a word, phrase, or title, used for convenience and to save space, eg, BBC for “British Broadcasting Corporation”.

Question 3

abstract noun

Answer 3

A noun that refers to an idea, quality, or state (e.g. warmth, liberty, happiness), rather than a physical thing that can be seen or touched.

Question 4

acronym

Answer 4

A type of abbreviation that is made up of the initial letters of words and is pronounced as one word, eg, ‘laser’ for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”.

Question 5

active
(Describes a v…)

Answer 5

Describes a verb in which the subject of the sentence carries out or causes the action expressed by the verb, eg, ‘hit’ in “He hit me.”

Question 6

adjective (*2)

Answer 6

A word or group of words that describes a person or thing more precisely by indicating a quality that he, she, or it possesses; they point out some distinguishing mark or feature of the noun (or pronoun).

Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns; they limit or restrict the words they are modifying. (Not just any possum, but the purple possum.)

Question 7

adverb (*3)

Answer 7

An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Essentially, they give more information, saying when, where, and how.

Adverbs answer such questions as when (now), where (aloft), how much (very), to what extent (extremely), and in what manner (deftly).

Adverbs are mainly used to express in one word what would otherwise require two or more words.

Question 8

adverbial
(… part of the se… eg, ‘carefully’ …)

Answer 8

The part of the sentence that provides further information, usually about the verb, eg ‘carefully’ in “They chose the site carefully.”

Question 9

adverbial clause
(… is a …)
(Essentially, …)

Answer 9

An adverbial clause is a dependent clause that modifies a verb, an adjective, or an adverb in the independent clause.

Essentially, it is a subordinate clause that functions as an adverb.

Question 10

adverbial phrase
(A phra…)
(In English g… Instead, ad…)
(An adv…)

Answer 10

A phrase that functions as an adverb, eg: as soon as possible; strangely enough.

In English grammar, adverbial phrases describe why, how, where, or when an event occurred without using a subject or a verb. Instead, adverbial phrases often combine multiple adverbs, as in the sentence “She cooks very well.”

An adverbial phrase differs from an adverbial clause only because it lacks a subject and a predicate.

Question 11

agent
(The …, eg, ‘Hugh’ in …)

Answer 11

The doer of the action of a verb, eg, ‘Hugh’ in the passive sentence “The supper was cooked by Hugh.”

Question 12

agreement (or concord)
(The c…)

Answer 12

The correspondence that exists between two or more words or phrases that must have the same number, gender, etc, for the sentence to be grammatical, eg, ‘She’ and ‘has’ in “She has a friend”.

Question 13

apposition
(The rela… betw…)

Answer 13

The relationship between two noun phrases that refer to exactly the same person or thing and define him, her, or it more closely, eg, ‘Paris’ and the ‘capital of France’ in ‘Paris, the capital of France’.

Question 14

appositive clause

Answer 14

A clause used in apposition.

Question 15

article (*2)

Answer 15

Articles belong to the group of words called determiners. An article is a word placed before a noun to show whether the noun is used in a particular or general sense.

English has two types of articles: the definite article and indefinite article.

Question 16

attributive adjective

Answer 16

An adjective that comes before the noun (or noun element) that it modifies, eg, ‘red’ in “a red dress.”

Question 17

auxiliary verb (*3)
… have a g…
They come …
For ex…
In English, the pr…

Answer 17

Auxiliary verbs have a grammatical rather than a lexical role; they are used in combination with other verbs to form particular tenses and constructions.

They come before the main verb and save you the trouble of changing the main verb to show past, present, and future tenses.

For example, ‘have’ is an auxiliary verb (forming the perfect) in ‘They have sold their house’, where it is used in combination with the main verb ‘sold’. By contrast, ‘have’ is a main verb in ‘They have a lovely house’, where it has lexical meaning (‘own, possess’) and is not used to support another verb.

In English, the primary auxiliary verbs are ‘be’, ‘have’, and ‘do’; modal verbs such as ‘can’, ‘must’, etc., are also a type of auxiliary verb.

Question 18

sentence

Answer 18

A sentence is a group of words that makes sense and is complete in itself. A sentence typically contains a main verb, begins with a capital letter, and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark, or question mark.

Question 19

minor sentence

Answer 19

A sentence that contains no verb, such as “No.”

Question 20

major sentence

Answer 20

A sentence that contains a verb.

Question 21

clause (*3)
(A clause is … (usu. the …))
(Clauses that ex…)
(Clauses that do n…)

Answer 21

A clause is a meaningful group of words containing both a subject and a predicate (usu. the finite verb and any complements the verb requires). Clauses are either independent or dependent (aka subordinate).

Clauses that express a complete thought are called independent; they can stand on their own as a complete sentence.

Clauses that do not express a complete thought are dependent (aka subordinate); they cannot stand alone as a complete sentence.

Question 22

independent clause [main clause; principal clause]
(… is a …)
(It can … because it …)

Answer 22

An independent clause (aka main clause) is a clause that expresses a complete thought.

It can stand alone as a complete sentence because it contains both a subject and a predicate and is not made dependent (eg, by a subordinating conjunction or relative pronoun).

Question 23

two main types of dependent (subordinate) clause

Answer 23

The two main types of dependent (subordinate) clauses are: the relative clause and the conditional clause.

Question 24

relative clause
(… is a type of …)
(… gives more spe… and begins wi…)

Answer 24

A relative clause is a type of subordinate clause.

It gives more specific information about the noun to which it refers and begins with a word such as: that, which, who, whose, when, or where.

Question 25

conditional clause

Answer 25

A type of subordinate clause which describes something that is possible or probable, depending on something else happening.

Conditional clauses usually begin with ‘if’ or ‘unless’.

Question 26

subject

Answer 26

The subject of a sentence or clause is who or what the sentence is about; it is the word or group of words that a clause or sentence makes a statement about.

If you put Who? or What? in front of a verb, your answer is the subject.

The subject is a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun that normally comes before the verb in an ordinary sentence. It often says (in an active clause) who or what does the action that the verb refers to.

The subject is the part which agrees grammatically with the verb.

Question 27

verb

Answer 27

A verb is a word that signifies action or the doing of something; or it may be a word that affirms, commands, or asks a question.

Verbs describe what a person or thing does, or what happens. A sentence isn’t complete without a verb.

Question 28

object
(… is a … which …)
(… norm…)
(There are t…)
(An …)

Answer 28

The object of a sentence is a noun, noun phrase, pronoun, or clause which refers to a person or thing that receives or is affected by the action of the verb; it is the person or thing affected by the verb.

The object normally comes after the verb in an active clause.

There are two possible types of object in a sentence: a direct object and an indirect object. Sometimes a clause can have both.

An object forms the complement of a transitive verb.

Question 29

direct object
(… most often refe …)
(… usually comes aft…)

Answer 29

The direct object most often refers to the person or thing (or people or things) directly affected by the action of the main verb.

The direct object usually comes after the verb, and answers the question What? or Whom? after the verb. For example: “I hit the wall”, ‘wall’ being the direct object.

Question 30

indirect object tells …
(It usually re…)
(The … usually co…)
(Eg, watch)

Answer 30

The indirect object tells us about the person or thing that benefits from the action described by the verb.

It usually refers to the person (or people) who receive(s) the direct object.

The indirect object usually comes after the verb and before the direct object.

In the sentence “Anna gave me a watch”, the indirect object is ‘me’, and the direct object is ‘a watch.’

Question 31

complement
(… is a w…)
(… tells us …)
(Clauses can …)

Answer 31

A complement is a word, phrase, or clause that completes the meaning of another word. For example, in “She is fond of chocolate”, the phrase ‘of chocolate’ is the complement of ‘fond’.

The complement tells us more about the element of the sentence that it relates to.

Clauses can have a subject complement or an object complement.

Question 32

determiner
(… intr… They spec…)
(They include: …)

Answer 32

Determiners introduce nouns. They specify the particular object or person, or the number of objects or persons, in a group that a noun refers to.

They include: a, the, this, that, all, each, every, few, more, much, many, some, which, whichever, and what.

Question 33

definite article

Answer 33

A term for the determiner “the”. It is called the definite article because it refers to a specific person or thing; thus, “the man” means a specific individual.

Question 34

indefinite article

Answer 34

A term for the determiner ‘a’ (or an). This is called an indefinite article because it does not refer to a particular person or thing but indicates the noun in its most general sense; for instance, ‘a man’ can mean any man on the planet.

Question 35

noun (*2)

Answer 35

A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, quality, or act, which includes tangible objects (concrete nouns) and abstract objects (abstract nouns).

Nouns fall into two categories: Proper nouns and common nouns.

Question 36

pronoun (*3)
(… word used in pl…)
(… used inste…)
(categories)

Answer 36

A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun so that you don’t have to repeat the same noun too often.

They are used instead of a noun to indicate someone or something that has already been mentioned (its antecedent).

The two categories of pronouns are: singular and plural.

Question 37

personal pronoun
(Def. + 9 eg.)

Answer 37

A pronoun that is used in place of a noun that has already been mentioned or that is already known. Examples are: I, me, you, him, her, us, we, they, or them.

Question 38

possessive pronoun
(… is a type of …)
(They ref…)
(The main … are …)

Answer 38

A possessive pronoun is a type of pronoun which indicates possession.

They refer to something owned by the speaker or by someone or something previously referred to.

The main possessive pronouns in modern English are mine, ours, yours, his, hers, its, and theirs, as in ‘these books are mine’.

Question 39

singular pronouns
(15 eg.)

Answer 39

The singular pronouns are: I, me, my, mine; you, your, yours; he, him, his; she, her, hers; and it, its.

Question 40

plural pronouns (11)

Answer 40

The plural pronouns are: we, us, our, ours; you, your, yours; and they, them, their, theirs.

Question 41

preposition
(shows how)
(shows relation…)
(also used)
(examples)

Answer 41

A preposition is a word or phrase that shows how people and things relate to the rest of the words in a sentence.

A preposition shows the relationship between its object (usually a noun or pronoun) and another part of the sentence; they show a relationship in space or time or a logical relationship between two or more people, places, or things.

They can also be used to introduce an object.

Examples are: at, after, before, behind, for, in, of, out.

Question 42

conjunction

Answer 42

A word that joins two words, phrases, clauses, and sentences together.

The most common examples are: and, also; either, or; neither, nor; though, yet; but, however; for, that; because, since; therefore, wherefore, then, and if.

Question 43

interjection

Answer 43

A word that expresses surprise, shock, or some other sudden emotion. Nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs become interjections when they are uttered as one-word exclamations: Nonsense! Strange! No!

Question 44

The nine parts of speech

Answer 44

All words in the English language fall into nine categories, called “the parts of speech.” They are: noun, article, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.

Question 45

singular
(the fo…)

Answer 45

The form of a word used when it refers to only one person or thing.

Question 46

plural
(The for…)

Answer 46

The form of a word used when it refers to more than one person or thing.

Question 47

zero plural
(A noun whose …)

Answer 47

A noun whose form does not change whether it is singular or plural, eg ‘sheep’.

Question 48

intransitive verb

Answer 48

A verb that does not have a direct object, eg ‘advanced’ in “The army advanced.”

Question 49

transitive verb

Answer 49

A verb that has a direct object, eg ‘bring’ in “Bring home some food to the party.”

Question 50

linking verbs

Answer 50

Provide the connection between the subject and the noun or adjective in the predicate. They are used to link the subject of a clause to a complement that describes it.

Question 51

antecedent

Answer 51

What a pronoun replaces is called its antecedent. Pronouns are particularly helpful if the antecedent is long or complicated: an inter-city after-school programme.

Question 52

Proper nouns and common nouns

Answer 52

Proper nouns are formal names, as names of people; places; and countries. Common nouns refer to everything else in more general terms (man, city, nation).

Question 53

coordinating conjunctions

Answer 53

Coordinating conjunctions connect terms of equal grammatical value (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet).

Question 54

correlative conjunctions

Answer 54

Correlative conjunctions are coordinating conjunctions that come in pairs. They frame matching parts.

The 4 most common pairs are:

Both … and
Either … or
Neither … nor
Not only … but also

Question 55

subordinating conjunctions
(… connect …)
(They make …)
(… include: …)

Answer 55

Subordinating conjunctions connect clauses of unequal grammatical value: an independent and a dependent clause.

They make the clause they introduce subordinate to the other (ie, the clause it joins).

Subordinating conjunctions include: until, since, before, as, if, when, although, because, as long as, and after.

Question 56

prepositional phrase (consists o…)

Answer 56

A prepositional phrase consists of the preposition plus its object and any modifiers of the object.

Question 57

dependent clause (subordinate clause)
[… contains a … but isn…]
[… cannot st… because…]
[… usually intro…]
[Because a de… is alwa…]

Answer 57

A dependent clause (aka subordinate) contains a subject and a predicate but isn’t a complete sentence on its own. It is a clause that does not express a complete thought.

A dependent clause cannot stand alone as a complete sentence because of the presence of a word by which it would normally be linked to an independent clause.

A dependent clause is usually introduced by a word or phrase that subordinates it; a subordinating conjunction or a relative pronoun.

Because a dependent clause is always subordinate to an independent clause for contextual meaning, it is also called a subordinate clause.

Question 58

phrase
(A group of clo…)
(A phrase does not …)

Answer 58

A group of closely related words expressing a single notion or acting together as a unit.

A phrase is a group of words without a subject or a predicate or both.

Question 59

Nominative case

Answer 59

The case of a pronoun that is the subject of a finite verb.

Question 60

Objective case

Answer 60

The case of a pronoun that is the object of either a finite verb or a preposition.

Question 61

Phrasal preposition

Answer 61

A phrasal preposition, sometimes called a complex preposition, is two or more separate words used as a prepositional unit. Many are symptoms of officialese, such as: in regard to; in respect of; in the matter of etc.

Question 62

Fragment

Answer 62

A group of words that, although written as a sentence, doesn’t constitute a grammatically complete sentence {We took a break for lunch at noon. Because we were hungry.}.—Also termed ‘sentence fragment’.