Grammar Glossary

Here's a running list of all the grammar terms I've discussed in my posts and a few others that are generally useful. Feel free to suggest additions in the comments.

Noun: A word that describes a person, place or thing. Examples: boy, country, house.

Proper Noun: A noun that describes a specific person, place or thing. Examples: David, Uzbekistan, Fallingwater.

Adjective: A word that gives more information about a noun or pronoun. Examples: quick, careful, good.

Adverb: A word that gives more information about a verb, adjective or adverb. Most (but not all) adverbs end in -ly. Examples: quickly, carefully, well.

Pronoun: A word that stands in for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns come in several cases:

• Subjective: Acts as a subject, as in “I ate the pie” or “he ran the race.”
• Objective: Acts as the object of a verb or preposition, as in “serve him the meal” or “we bought the books for her.”
• Possessive: Shows ownership, as in “that's their house.” Also goes before verbs ending in -ing, as in “my singing has improved."
• Reflexive: Used when the subject and object are the same, as in “the computer was my gift to myself.” Can also be used as an intensive to provide emphasis, as in “she herself oversaw the project.”

Clause: A collection of words that includes a subject (usually a noun or pronoun) that performs an action and a predicate verb (an “active” verb form such as “go,” “run” or “stop”) that describes an action.

Independent Clause: A clause that expresses a complete thought, which means it can stand on its own as a sentence. Also called a main clause.

Dependent Clause: A clause that does not express a complete thought, typically formed by adding a subordinating conjunction to an independent clause. Also called a subordinate clause.

Coordinating Conjunction: Formally, a word that links two or more items of equal syntactic importance, such as nouns in a list or independent clauses in a compound sentence. The seven coordinating conjunctions are for, and, nor, but, or, yet and so; remember them with the acronym FANBOYS.

Subordinating Conjunction: Formally, a word that links an independent clause to a dependent (subordinate) clause. Practically, a word that makes a thought seem incomplete, as though the speaker isn't finished talking. Examples: as, because, if, though, that, when, where, while, until. Derived words and phrases such as “even though” and “whenever” are also subordinating conjunctions.

Compound Sentence: A sentence that contains two or more independent clauses joined by coordinating conjunctions or semicolons.

Complex Sentence: A sentence that contains a dependent clause and an independent clause.

Compound-Complex Sentence: A sentence that contains at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.

Phrase: A collection of words that is not a clause but functions as a single unit within a sentence. Examples: to the store, my white horse, extremely loud

Modifying Phrase: A phrase that gives more information about a noun or pronoun in the sentence. Modifying phrases must be placed as close as possible to the words they modify, with no other nouns or pronouns in between.