Grammar Terms
Parts of speech (grammatical functions of words and phrases)
adjective - a word that modifies or adds more information to a noun (pretty, sad, tired, big)
adverb - a word that modifies a verb, adjective, adverb or clause (slowly, silently, very)
conjunction - a word that joins words, phrases, or clauses (and, but, or; after, when; while)
The teacher started the class and we all sat down. -- When she spoke, we all listened.
determiner - a word which precedes nouns and classifies, identifies, or indicates their quantity
 article (a, an, the) – a determiner indicates that a noun will follow
 indefinite article –indicates an unspecified noun (a, an)
 definite article - indicates a specific entity which both the reader and writer recognize (the)
 demonstrative adjective - a word that indicates distance in place or time (this, that, these, those)
 possessive adjective - a word that indicates the owner (my, his, your, her, our, their)
noun - a word used to identify a person, place or thing
 count nouns - things which can be counted and made plural (chair/chairs, book/books, pen/pens)
 noncount nouns - things which are not countable and are always singular (advice, water, money)
 proper noun - the name of a person or place (written with initial capital letters – Mary, France, UCI)
preposition - a word indicating the relationships between two things which may be spatial, temporal,
grammatical or metaphorical (about, above, after, against, around, at, before, behind, beside, down, for,
from, in, into, of, to, under, up, while, with, within) -- The pen is on the table. Please see me after class.
pronoun - a word that takes the place of a noun or noun phrase (I, you, he, she, it, we, they, me, him, her, us, them)
verb - a word that shows action or state of being (go, bring, be, study)






or
auxiliary verb - a helping verb that is added to a main verb to indicate mood, voice or tense (do, may, be)
 modal - an auxiliary verb that indicates necessity, ability, possibility, permission or obligation
(can, could, will, would, shall, should, ought, might, may, must, have to)
gerund - a verb with an -ing ending that functions as a noun (studying, thinking, going)
infinitive - a verb form that is not marked for time or person (often preceded by to - to go, to be, to sing)
intransitive verb - a verb that does not take a direct object (sleep - She slept late yesterday.)
transitive verb - a verb that requires a direct object to complete its meaning (tell - Please tell me the story.)
participle - a verb + -ing (present participle) or -ed-en -t (past participle) that can be part of a verb phrase
act as an adjective (going, caring, seen, tired – she is going; the caring boy; they have seen it; a tired man)
[tense - the time of the verb action (simple past, simple present, simple future; past progressive, present
progressive, future progressive; past perfect, present perfect, future perfect)]
Sentence Structure
sentence - a grammatically complete assertion that contains a subject and a verb -clause - any group of words that has a subject and a verb -- she went



She came late.
dependent clause - a clause that cannot stand alone – when I lived there
independent clause - a clause that can stand alone as a simple sentence – They've decided.
relative clause - a dependent clause that usually begins with a relative pronoun (who, which, that, whose)
The boy who lives next door is my friend.
conditional sentence - a hypothetical sentence with a dependent clause beginning with if, when, or unless
If I want to pass, I’d better do more work.
fragment - a group of words ending with a period (.) that does not constitute a complete sentence
Before I decided to come.
Because he loves me.
phrase - a word group that acts as a single part of speech but does not have both a subject and a verb
after the prom
looking unhappy
while talking on the phone
run-on sentence - independent clauses joined with commas, inappropriate conjunctions, or no punctuation
I ate my lunch, I polished my shoes.
subject – the noun or noun phrase that names the doer of the action of the verb --
She registered on time.