Sentence Master Games Grammar Glossary
Glossary is an English term.
A glossary is a list of words or phrases used in a particular field with their definitions.
Glossaries are often found in texts, journals and academic books as an appendix to the text.
An English grammar glossary is a list of English linguistic and grammatical terms,
grammar definitions, explanations, context examples and cross-references to other
relevant English grammar terms.
An English dictionary is an alphabetical list of English words giving their definitions,
examples and grammatical classification and usually includes phonetic symbols indicating
the pronunciation. An English dictionary can also be an alphabetical list with definitions
of the key words from a profession or industry like a dictionary of medicine or computing.
An English thesaurus is an English book that organizes English words by categories and
concepts, so synonyms, near-synonyms and the opposites antonyms will be grouped together.
You can purchase the
Blueprint for English Grammar Summary
which contains English language grammar reference information, examples and English vocabulary lists.
The following are a few brief examples of the many English grammar terms.
English words are classified into Eight Parts of Speech
All English words are classified. The term we use to name these classifications is
"Parts of Speech". All English words are classified into eight parts of speech: the verb, the noun, the pronoun, the adjective, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, and the interjection.
The parts of speech are the building blocks of the English language.
Each English part of speech explains what the word is, how the word is used and the function the word performs. The same English word can perform as a noun in one sentence and a verb or adjective in the next sentence.
The verb is perhaps the most important part of the sentence. A verb or compound verb states something about the subject of the sentence. The verb depicts actions, events, or states of being.
A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place,
thing, or abstract concepts. A noun can function in a sentence as a subject, a
direct object, an indirect object, a subject complement, an object complement,
an appositive, an adjective or an adverb.
Pronouns as a part of speech can replace a noun, another pronoun, noun phrases and perform most of the functions of a noun.
An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun by describing, identifying, or quantifying words. Many consider articles: "the, a, an" to be adjectives.
An adverb can modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a phrase, or a complete clause by indicating manner, time, place, cause, or degree.
A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words
in a sentence.
Conjunctions link words, phrases, and clauses.
An interjection is a part of speech used to show or express emotion or illustrate an exclamation.
English grammar rules are the blueprint for constructing English phrases, clauses and sentences.
English Phrases are a word or group of words used as a single value
An English word or group of words used as a single value (without either a subject or
predicate) are called phrases. English phrases tend to be larger than individual words
and are usually considered as expansions of an individual word. English phrases are
smaller than clauses or sentences as they do not have subjects and predicates or
subjects and verbs.
Phrase classifications are generally based on the headword, phrase function or phrase
construction. We refer to the central element in an English phrase as the head of
the phrase. If the head is a noun then the phrase is usually called a noun phrase.
There is some overlap when describing phrases based on either the phrase headword or
phrase function. The phrase headword can usually stand alone as a one-word phrase. The
headword is the only English word that cannot be omitted from a phrase.
There is some debate classifying phrases. In general these are the phrase types: Noun Phrase,
Verb Phrase, Adjective Phrase, Adverb Phrase, Prepositional Phrase, Gerundive Phrase,
Participial Phrase, Absolute Phrase, Infinitive Phrase and appositives.
Noun phrases perform the work of a noun in the sentence as subjects, direct objects,
indirect objects, complements or objects of prepositions.
The widest definition for verb phrases states their function as predicates of sentences.
A narrower definition of 'verb phrase' is the verbal elements: a main verb as the head,
auxiliaries, infinitive markers and other verbal particles.
Adjectival phrases are composed of the adjectives and the elements that modify the
adjectives. Adjectival phrases can occur inside noun phrases perform as modifiers to a
noun phrase or act as complements.
Adverbial phrases of one or more adverbs can modify a verb, adjective, verb phrase, an
adjectival phrase or an entire clause.
Prepositional phrases are used either adjectivally to modify nouns or noun phrases that
can act as the object or adverbially to modify verbs, adjectives, or clauses.
Gerundive phrases can perform most of the functions of a gerund or verbal noun as
subjects, objects, objects of a preposition, or even as adjectives.
Participial phrases always function as adjectives and contains the participle and the
object of the participle and any words modified by or related to the participle.
Absolute phrases modify an entire sentence and usually consist of a subject noun phrase,
a participial and any modifiers.
The infinitive phrase can perform three functions as a noun, adjective or adverb.
An appositive phrase renames, means the same thing as or further explains another noun
or pronoun and are usually placed beside what they rename.
A clause is an organized group of English Words
An English clause is an organized group of English words with a subject and predicate.
A main clause is an independent clause which can stand alone as a complete sentence.
Independent clauses also called principal or main clauses can form sentences.
A dependant clause cannot form a sentence. A subordinated clause is a dependent clause
and is not complete.
An adverbial clause is a clause that has an adverb-like function in modifying another
clause similar to the way adverbs modify verbs. Adverbial clauses can modify an entire
independent clause or another subordinate clause to which they might be attached.
Adverbial clauses describe time of the event, place of the event, manner of the event,
cause of the event or condition for the event.
A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies nouns and pronouns. Relative
clauses are adjectival and they occur after the modified noun or pronoun. Relative
clauses give essential information to define or identify the noun or pronoun.
Nominal clauses function as nouns and may be replaced with a pronoun. Like a noun, a
nominal clause names a person, place, thing, or idea. A nominal clause may function in a
sentence as a subject, subjective complement, appositive, object of preposition, direct
object or indirect object.
A compound sentence contains two or more principal clauses.
A complex sentence contains a principal clause and one or more dependant or subordinate
A compound sentence can combine with another subordinate clause to form a
compound-complex sentence. A compound-complex sentence contains two principal
clauses and one or more subordinate clauses.
English sentences are organized groups of English words.
An English sentence is an organized group of English words expressing a complete thought. The two
fundamental parts of every English sentence are the subject and predicate. The subject
names the topic and the predicate tells about the subject. Subjects can also be
described as the component that performs the action as described by the predicate.
To construct a simple English sentence the writer has to create a subject, a predicate and
express a complete thought.
The simple formula: Subject + Predicate = SENTENCE
A predicate must have a verb. A verb shows action or state of being. To construct a
simple English sentence the writer has to create a subject, place a verb in the predicate and
express a complete thought.
A more accurate formula: Subject + Predicate containing a Verb = SENTENCE
An abbreviation is a shortened form of an English word.
An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or expression. Abbreviation is a word
created from the Latin word brevis for "short". Usually an abbreviation consists of a
letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase.
As an example, the word "abbreviation" can itself be represented by the abbreviation
For the sake of convenience, many British publications have completely done away with
the use of periods in all abbreviations.
Publications based in the U.S. tend to follow three different style guides. Some two-word
abbreviations, like "United Nations", are abbreviated with uppercase letters and periods,
and others, like "personal computer" (PC) and "compact disc" (CD), are not.
In general if the original word was capitalized, then the first letter of its abbreviation should
retain the capital, for example Ont. for Ontario. When abbreviating words spelled with
lower case letters usually there is no need for capitalization.
Example abbreviations of grammatical terms:
a. = adjective;
adv. = adverb;
imp. = imperfect;
n. = noun;
pass. = passive;
p.p. = past participle;
p.pr. = present participle;
pref. = prefix;
prep. = preposition;
pres. = present;
subj. = subjunctive;
v.i. = intransitive verb;
v.t. = transitive verb.
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