Glossary of English Grammar Terms

This glossary of English grammar terms relates to the English language. Some terms here may have additional or extended meanings when applied to other languages. For example, "case" in some languages applies to pronouns and nouns. In English, nouns do not have case and therefore no reference to nouns is made in its definition here.

Abstract nouns name ideas, characteristics, or qualities, such as courage, pride, goodness, and success.

Active voice – one of two voices in English; a direct form of expression where the subject performs or “acts” the verb; see also passive voice. Eg: “Many people eat rice.”

Action verbs are verbs that show action.  Action verbs are the most common verbs.

Adjective prepositional phrase - a prepositional phrase that is used as an adjective telling, which or what kind, and modifying a noun or pronoun. An adjective prepositional phrase will come right after the noun or pronoun that it modifies. If there are two adjective prepositional phrases together, one will follow the other. Only adjective prepositional phrases modify the object of the preposition in another prepositional phrase.

Adjective clause - a dependent clause that is used to modify a noun or a pronoun. It will begin with a relative pronoun (who, whose, whom, which, and that) or a subordinate conjunction (when and where). Those are the only words that can be used to introduce an adjective clause. The introductory word will always rename the word that it follows and modifies except when used with a preposition, which will come between the introductory word and the word it renames.

Adjectives modify or affect the meaning of nouns and pronouns and tell us which, whose, what kind, and how many about the nouns or pronouns they modify.  They generally come before the noun or pronoun they modify, but there are exceptions to that rule.  There are seven (7) words in the English language that are always adjectives.  They are the articles a, an, and the and the possessives my, our, your, and their (the possessives are from the possessive pronoun list, but are always used with nouns as adjectives). 

Adjunct – word or phrase that adds information to a sentence and that can be removed from the sentence without making the sentence ungrammatical. Eg: “It was a big dog.”

Adverb clause - a dependent clause that modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb. It usually modifies the verb.  Adverb clauses are introduced by subordinate conjunctions including after, although, as, as if, before, because, if, since, so that, than, though, unless, until, when, where, and while. (These are just some of the more common adverb clauses.) 

Adverb infinitives are infinitives that are used to modify verbs. They usually tell why.  Adverb infinitives are also used to modify predicate adjectives. They may also be compound. 

Adverb prepositional phrase - a prepositional phrase used as an adverb telling how, when, where, how much, and why and modifying the verb and sometimes an adjective. Adverb prepositional phrases can come anywhere in the sentence and can be moved within the sentence without changing the meaning. 

Adverbial clause – dependent clause that act an adverb and indicates such things as time, place or reason. Eg: Although we are getting older, we grow more beautiful.

Adverbial nouns (adverbial objectives) are nouns used as adverbs. They usually tell amount, weight, time, distance, direction, or value. They can have adjectives modifying them. Example: He waited two days. 

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They tell how (manner), when (time), where (place), how much (degree), and why (cause). Why is a common one-word adverb that tells why. Adverbs that tell us how, when, where, and why always modify the verb. Adverbs that tell us how much modify adjectives or other adverbs (these adverbs must come before the word they modify).  Examples: He kicked the ball solidly. (how); He kicked the ball immediately. (when); He kicked the ball forward. (where); He kicked the ball too hard. (how much).

Affirmative – statement that expresses (or claims to express) a truth or “yes” meaning; opposite of negative. Eg. The sun is hot.

Affix – language unit (morpheme) that occurs before or after (or sometimes within) the root or stem of a word. Eg. un- in unhappy (prefix), -ness in happiness (suffix)

Agreement – (also known as “concord”) logical (in a grammatical sense) link between words based on tense, case or number. Eg. this phone, these phones.

Antecedent - the word for which the pronoun stands.  An example would be: The boy threw the football.  He threw it over the fence.  Boy is the antecedent for he, and football is the antecedent for it.  A pronoun can also be an antecedent for another pronoun.  For example: He likes his new car.  He is the antecedent for his. The antecedent always comes before the pronoun for which it is the antecedent.  

Appositive - a word, or group of words, that identifies or renames the noun or pronoun that it follows. Commas set off an appositive, unless it is closely tied to the word that it identifies or renames. ("Closely tied" means that it is needed to identify the word.) Examples: My son Carl is a medical technician. (no commas) Badger, our dog with a missing leg, has a love for cats. (commas needed)  Appositives should not be confused with predicate nominatives. A verb will separate the subject from the predicate nominative. An appositive can follow any noun or pronoun including the subject, direct object, or predicate nominative.  

Articles are the adjectives a, an, and the. 

Aspect – feature of some verb forms that relates to duration or completion of time; verbs can have no aspect (simple), or can have continuous or progressive aspect (expressing duration), or have perfect or perfective aspect) expressing completion).

Auxiliary verb – (also called “helping verb”) verb used with the main verb to help indicate something such as tense or voice. Eg. I do not like you. She has finished. He can swim.

Bare infinitive – unmarked form of the verb (no indication of tense, nood, person, or aspect) without the particle “to”; typically used after modal auxiliary verbs, see also infinitive. Eg. “He should come”, “I can swim.”

Base form – basic form of a verb before conjugation into tenses etc. Eg. be, speak.

Case - means that a different form of a pronoun is used for different parts of the sentence. There are three cases: nominative, objective, and possessive. form of a pronoun based on its relationship to other words in the sentence; case can be subjective, objective or possessive
eg: "I love this dog", "This dog loves me", "This is my dog"

Causative verb – verb that causes things to happen such as “make”, “get” and “have”; the subject does not perform the action but is indirectly responsible for it. Eg. “she made me go to school”, “I had my nails painted.”

Clause - a group of words having a subject and a verb. 

Co-ordinate conjunctions join words, phrases, or clauses of equal rank. There are two kinds: simple and correlative.  Simple co-ordinate conjunctions will be referred to as co-ordinate conjunctions in our lessons.  The co-ordinate conjunctions are the following: and, but, or, nor, for, and yet. (For and yet can only join clauses.) 

Collective nouns name groups, such as team, class, and choir.

Comparative form compares two things or persons.  Examples: newer, more careless, better.

Comparative adjective form of an adjective or adverb made with "-er" or "more" that is used to show differences or similarities between two things (not three or more things)
eg: colder, more quickly

Complement – part of a sentence that completes or adds meaning to the predicate. Eg. Mary did not say where she was going.

Complex sentence - a sentence made up of an independent clause and a dependent clause. Example: The television was playing (independent clause which can stand alone and make sense) as I left the room (dependent clause which must be attached to the independent clause to make sense). There are three kinds of dependent clauses: adjective, adverb, and noun.

Compound nouns are made up of more than one word, such as dining room, Bill of Rights, Jeff Hansen, and homerun.  Compound nouns can also be concrete or abstract.

Compound sentence - a combination of two or more independent clauses. Commas separate the clauses of a compound sentence. (A short sentence joined by and is sometimes combined without a comma.) Example: She talks and he listens. A semicolon can take the place of the conjunction and comma. Only clauses closely related in thought should be joined to make a compound sentence. 

Compound verb - when two or more verbs are in a sentence. A compound verb is joined by either a co-ordinate conjunction or a correlative conjunction. Example: The bell rang and rang.

Concrete nouns name things that exist physically as sidewalk, bird, toy, hair, and rain. 

Concord – another term for agreement.

Conditional structure in English where one action depends on another ("if-then" or "then-if". structure); most common are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd conditionals

eg: "If I win I will be happy", "I would be happy if I won"

Conjugation – to show the different forms of a verb according to voice, mood, tense, number and person; conjugation is quite simple in English compared to many other languages. Eg. I walk, you walk, he/she/it walks, we walk, they walk; I walked, you walked, he/she/it walked, we walked, they walked.

Conjunction - a word that joins other words, phrases (groups of words), or clauses (groups of words with a subject and verb). 

Content word: word that has meaning in a sentence, such as a verb or noun (as opposed to a structure word, such as pronoun or auxiliary verb); content words are stressed in speech.
eg: "Could you BRING my GLASSES because I've LEFT them at HOME"

Continuous (also called "progressive") verb form (specifically an aspect) indicating actions that are in progress or continuing over a given time period (can be past, present or future); formed with "BE" + "VERB-ing". eg: "They are watching TV."

Contraction shortening of two (or more) words into one. eg: isn't (is not), we'd've (we would have)

Correlative conjunctions are co-ordinate conjunctions and are always in pairs. They are either-or, neither-nor, both-and, not only-but also, and whether-or. 

Count nouns (also called countable noun) are nouns that can be counted. You can use a, an, many, or a number before count nouns. Examples include: one boy, six sheep, and many days.  

Dangling participle illogical structure that occurs in a sentence when a writer intends to modify one thing but the reader attaches it to another

eg: "Running to the bus, the flowers were blooming." (In the example sentence it seems that the flowers were running.)

Declarative sentence - a sentence that makes a statement. Example: The assignment is due tomorrow. 

Defining relative clause (also called "restrictive relative clause") relative clause that contains information required for the understanding of the sentence; not set off with commas; see also non-defining clause eg: "The boy who was wearing a blue shirt was the winner"

Demonstrative pronouns are pronouns that point out. They include: this, that, these, and those. For example: That is my hat. I like these not those.

Dependent clause - a clause that is always used as some part of speech. It can be an adjective, adverb, or noun and cannot stand alone as a sentence. 

Determiner word such as an article or a possessive adjective or other adjective that typically comes at the beginning of noun phrases eg: "It was an excellent film", "Do you like my new shirt?", "Let's buy some eggs"

Direct object - receives the action performed by the subject. The verb used with a direct object is always an action verb. Example: The car hit the tree. To find the direct object, say the subject and verb followed by whom or what. The car hit whom or what? Tree answers the question so tree is the direct object.  The direct object must be a noun or pronoun. A direct object will never be in a prepositional phrase. The direct object will not equal the subject as the predicate nominative, nor does it have a linking verb as a predicate nominative sentences does.

Direct speech saying what someone said by using their exact words; see also indirect speech
eg: "Lucy said: 'I am tired.'"

Elliptical clauses - an adverb clause that uses than and as to introduce the clause. That means they have some of their parts understood but not stated. Example: You are smarter than I. (am smart.) They always modify the comparative word (smarter).

Embedded question: question that is not in normal question form with a question mark; it occurs within another statement or question and generally follows statement structure.

eg: "I don't know where he went," "Can you tell me where it is before you go?", "They haven't decided whether they should come"

Exclamatory sentence - a sentence that shows strong feeling. Declarative, imperative, or interrogative sentences can be made into exclamatory sentences by punctuating them with an exclamation point. Examples: The assignment is due tomorrow! Stop! Do you know that man!

Finite verb: verb form that has a specific tense, number and person. eg: I work, he works, we learned, they ran

First conditional "if-then" conditional structure used for future actions or events that are seen as realistic possibilities. eg: "If we win the lottery we will buy a car".

First person pronouns are when a pronoun refers to the speaker or speakers. First person pronouns include: I, my, mine, me, myself, we, our, ours, us, ourselves.  They are also considered personal pronouns.

Fragment incomplete piece of a sentence used alone as a complete sentence; a fragment does not contain a complete thought; fragments are common in normal speech but unusual (inappropriate) in formal writing. eg: "When's her birthday? - In December", "Will they come? - Probably not".

Function purpose or "job" of a word form or element in a sentence. eg: The function of a subject is to perform the action. One function of an adjective is to describe a noun. The function of a noun is to name things.

Future continuous (also called "future progressive") tense* used to describe things that will happen in the future at a particular time; formed with WILL + BE + VERB-ing.
eg: "I will be graduating in September."

Future perfect tense* used to express the past in the future; formed with WILL HAVE + VERB-ed. eg: "I will have graduated by then."

Future perfect continuous tense* used to show that something will be ongoing until a certain time in the future; formed with WILL HAVE BEEN + VERB-ing. eg: "We will have been living there for three months by the time the baby is born."

Future simple  tense* used to describe something that hasn't happened yet such as a prediction or a sudden decision; formed with WILL + BASE VERB. eg: "He will be late", "I will answer the phone."

Gerund - a verbal that always ends in ing and is used as a noun. Example: Eating is fun.  The gerund can be a subject (Eating is fun.); a direct object (I like eating.); a predicate nominative (A fun time is eating.); an appositive (A fun time, eating, takes much time.); an indirect object (I give eating too much time.); or an object of a preposition (I give much time to eating.) 

Gerund phase - a phrase that is made up of direct objects, predicate nominatives, predicate adjectives, or modifiers. Example: Eating solid foods is hard for babies. Eating is the gerund used as the subject of the verb is. It has its own direct object foods with the adjective solid, which together make up the gerund phrase eating solid foods serving as the subject of the sentence.

Gradable adjective: adjective that can vary in intensity or grade when paired with a grading adverb ; see also non-gradable adjective eg: quite hot, very tall.

Grading adverb:  adverb that can modify the intensity or grade of a gradable adjective. eg: quite hot, very tall.

Hanging participle another term for dangling participle.

Helping verbs another term for auxiliary verb: are verbs used to make verb phrases. There are twenty-three (23) helping verbs that should be memorized since they are used so often.  They are usually grouped in the following five groups:

Group 1: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been Group 2: has, have, had Group 3: do, does, did Group 4: shall, will, should, would Group 5: may, might, must, can, could

Imperative  form of verb used when giving a command; formed with BASE VERB only. eg: "Brush your teeth!"

Imperative sentence - a sentence that gives a command or makes a request. Examples: Hand it in now. Stop. 

Indefinite pronouns point out generally, instead of pointing out specifically. Indefinite pronouns include such words as another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, both, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, many, neither, nobody, none, no one, one, other, others, some, somebody, and someone.

Independent clause - a clause, or group of words that expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence; see also dependent clause. eg: "Tara is eating curry.", "Tara likes oranges and Joe likes apples."

Indirect object - an object that is really part of a prepositional phrase in which the preposition to or for is not stated but understood. It tells to whom or for whom something is done. The indirect object always comes between the verb and the direct object. Example: She gave me a gift. The indirect object always modifies the verb. It may have modifiers and be compound. It is used with verbs such as give, tell, send, get, buy, show, build, do, make, save, and read. Example: She sent the man and me a gift.

Indirect question another term for embedded question

Indirect speech (also called "reported speech") saying what someone said without using their exact words; see direct speech. eg: "Lucy said that she was tired."

Infinitive - a verbal that is to plus a verb form. It can be a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. Examples: to be, to see, to be seen, to be eaten.  The noun infinitive can be a subject (To eat is fun.); a direct object (I like to eat.); a predicate nominative (A fun thing is to eat.); an appositive (My hope, to travel, never happened.); an object of a preposition (I want nothing but to save.)  

Infinitive phrase - a phrase that is made up of an infinitive and any complements (direct objects, predicate nominatives, predicate adjectives, or modifiers). An infinitive phrase that comes at the beginning of the sentence is always followed by a comma and modifies the subject of the sentence.  Example: To eat solid foods is hard for babies. To eat is the noun infinitive used as the subject of the verb is, and it has its own direct object foods with the adjective solid, which together make up the infinitive phrase to eat solid foods serving as the subject of the sentence.

Inflection change in word form to indicate grammatical meaning. eg: dog, dogs (two inflections); take, takes, took, taking, taken (five inflections)

Intensive pronouns are the personal pronouns myself, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, and themselves. An example would be: Carl, himself, won the race.  

Interjection - a word or word group that shows feeling. A comma follows a mild interjection; a strong interjection is followed by an exclamation mark. Interjections do not fit grammatically with the rest of the sentence. They are never the subject and they come at the beginning of a sentence. Examples: Well, we will soon be home. Oh! I didn't know he had died.  

Interrogative pronouns ask questions. Who, whom, whose, which, and what are interrogative pronouns.

Interrogative sentence - a sentence that asks a question. Example: Do you know that man?

Intransitive complete are all the verbs that don't fit one of the other kinds of transitive or intransitive verbs. Examples: The bell rang suddenly. The girl knitted all evening (there is no receiver of the action). They were here (no action or predicate nominative or predicate adjective).

Intransitive linking are sentences with a predicate nominative or predicate adjective. Examples: The girl is Mary (predicate nominative). The girl is cute (predicate adjective). 

Intransitive verbs have no receiver of the action. They are classified as intransitive complete or intransitive linking.  Verb that does not take a direct object; see also transitive verb
e.g. "He is working hard", "Where do you live?"

Introductory there - to be an introductory there, it must meet these rules: 1) It must be the first word of a sentence (Sometimes a prepositional phrase out of its normal order can come before it.); 2) It cannot mean where; 3) It must be with a state of being verb; and 4) The subject will always come after the verb in such a sentence.  The introductory there doesn't fit grammatically with the rest of the sentence, as we will find most other words do.

Inversion any reversal of the normal word order, especially placing the auxiliary verb before the subject; used in a variety of ways, as in question formation, conditional clauses and agreement or disagreement. eg: "Where are your keys?”,” Had we watched the weather report, we wouldn't have gone to the beach", "So did he", "Neither did she."

Irregular verb see irregular verbs list verb that has a different ending for past tense and past participle forms than the regular "-ed"; see also regular verb . eg: buy, bought, bought; do, did, done.

Lexicon, lexis all of the words and word forms in a language with meaning or function.

Lexical verb another term for main verb.

Linking verbs (state of being verbs) show that something exists; they do not show action.  Some common linking verbs include: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been, seem, look, feel, and become. Verbs that connect the subject to more information (but do not indicate action), such as "be" or "seem"

Main clause another term for independent clause.

Main verb (also called "lexical verb") any verb in a sentence that is not an auxiliary verb; a main verb has meaning on its own. eg: "Does John like Mary?", "I will have arrived by 4pm."

Mass nouns are nouns that are not countable and include words like gasoline, water, and dirt.

Modal verb (also called "modal") auxiliary verb such as can, could, must, should etc; paired with the bare infinitive of a verb. eg: "I should go for a jog."

Modifier word or phrase that modifies and limits the meaning of another word. eg: the house => the white house, the house over there, the house we sold last year.

Mood sentence type that indicates the speaker's view towards the degree of reality of what is being said, for example subjunctive, indicative, imperative.

Morpheme unit of language with meaning; differs from "word" because some cannot stand alone. e.g. un-, predict and -able in unpredictable.

Multi-word verb: verb that consists of a basic verb + another word or words (preposition and/or adverb). eg: get up (phrasal verb), believe in (prepositional verb), get on with (phrasal-prepositional verb).

Negative  form which changes a "yes" meaning to a "no" meaning; opposite of affirmative. eg: "She will not come", "I have never seen her."

Nominative case another term for subjective case.

Nominative case pronouns are I, she, he, we, they, and who. They are used as subjects, predicate nominatives, and appositives when used with a subject or predicate nominative.

Non-defining relative clause (also called "non-restrictive relative clause") relative clause that adds information but is not completely necessary; set off from the sentence with a comma or commas; see defining relative clause. eg: "The boy, who had a chocolate bar in his hand, was still hungry."

Non-gradable adjective: adjective that has a fixed quality or intensity and cannot be paired with a grading adverb; see also gradable adjective. eg: freezing, boiling, dead.

Non-restrictive relative clause another term for non-defining relative clause.

Noun - a word that names a person, place, or thing. Examples of nouns include: man, city, book, and courage. Nouns often follow words like a, an, and the.

Noun adjuncts - nouns used as adjective or nouns used to describe another noun,. They tell us whose or what kind.

Noun clause - a dependent clause that can be used in the same way as a noun or pronoun. It can be a subject, predicate nominative, direct object, appositive, indirect object, or object of the preposition. Some of the words that introduce noun clauses are that, whether, who, why, whom, what, how, when, whoever, where, and whomever. Notice that some of these words also introduce adjective and adverb clauses. (To check a noun clause substitute the pronoun it or the proper form of the pronouns he or she for the noun clause.) Examples: I know who said that. (I know it.) Whoever said it is wrong. (He is wrong.) Sometimes a noun clause is used without the introductory word. Example: I know that he is here. (I know he is here.)

Noun infinitive – an infinitive that is a noun.  Noun infinitives can be a subject (To eat is fun.); a direct object (I like to eat.); a predicate nominative (A fun thing is to eat.); an appositive (My hope, to travel, never happened.); an object of a preposition (I want nothing but to save.)

Nouns of address (nominatives of address) are the persons or things to which you are speaking. They are set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma or commas, may have modifiers, and are not related to the rest of the sentence grammatically. If they are removed, a complete sentence remains. They may be first, last, or in the middle of the sentence. Examples: John, where are you going? Where are you going, John? Where, John, are you going?

Noun phrase (NP) any word or group of words based on a noun or pronoun that can function in a sentence as a subject, object or prepositional object; can be one word or many words; can be very simple or very complex. eg: "She is nice", "When is the meeting?", "The car over there beside the lampost is mine."

Number change of word form indicating one person or thing (singular) or more than one person or thing (plural). eg: one dog/three dogs, she/they.

Object thing or person affected by the verb; see also direct object and indirect object. eg: "The boy kicked the ball", "We chose the house with the red door."

Object of the preposition - a noun or noun equivalent in a prepositional phrase.

Objective case case form of a pronoun indicating an object. eg: "John married her", "I gave it to him"

Objective case pronouns are me, her, him, us, them, and whom. They are used as direct objects, indirect objects, objects of the preposition, and appositives when used with one of the objects. (You and it are both nominative and objective case.)

Objective complement - a noun or an adjective, which follows the direct object renaming or modifying it. It is used with verbs like make, name, call, choose, elect, and appoint. It is not set off with commas as an appositive is. Example: I call my dog Badger.  A verb that has an objective complement in the active voice may, in the passive voice, have a predicate nominative or a predicate adjective. Examples: My dog is called Badger by me. I consider my dog smart. My dog is considered smart by me.

Part of speech one of the classes into which words are divided according to their function in a sentence. eg: verb, noun, adjective, …

Participial adjectives are verb forms used as adjectives. Examples: the lost mine, the howling wolf.  

Participial phrase - a phrase that is made up of a participle and any complements (direct objects, predicate nominatives, predicate adjectives, or modifiers). A participial phrase that comes at the beginning of the sentence is always followed by a comma and modifies the subject of the sentence.

Participle - a verbal that is an adjective and ends various ways. A present participle always ends with ing as does the gerund, but remember that it is an adjective. A past participle ends with ed, n, or irregularly. Examples: played, broken, brought, sung, seeing, having seen, being seen, seen, having been seen.  Participles modify nouns and pronouns and can precede or follow the word modified. 

Passive voice one of two voices in English; an indirect form of expression in which the subject receives the action; see also active voice. eg: "Rice is eaten by many people."

Past continuous tense often used to describe an interrupted action in the past; formed with WAS/WERE + VERB-ing. eg: "I was reading when you called."

Past perfect tense that refers to the past in the past; formed with HAD + VERB-ed. eg: "We had stopped the car."

Past perfect continuous tense that refers to action that happened in the past and continued to a certain point in the past; formed with HAD BEEN + VERB-ing. eg: "I had been waiting for three hours when he arrived."

Past participle verb form (V3) - usually made by adding "-ed" to the base verb - typically used in perfect and passive tenses, and sometimes as an adjective. eg: "I have finished", "It was seen by many people", "boiled eggs."

Perfect verb form (specifically an aspect); formed with HAVE/HAS + VERB-ed (present perfect) or HAD + VERB-ed (past perfect).

Person grammatical category that identifies people in a conversation; there are three persons: 1st person (pronouns I/me, we/us) is the speaker(s), 2nd person (pronoun you) is the listener(s), 3rd person (pronouns he/him, she/her, it, they/them) is everybody or everything else.

Personal pronouns refer to three types of people: the speaker or speakers, those spoken to, and those spoken about.  Personal pronouns can be singular (one) or plural (two or more), just as verbs and nouns.

Phrasal verb multi-word verb formed with a verb + adverb. eg: break up, turn off (see phrasal verbs list). NB: many people and books call all multi-word verbs "phrasal verbs" (see multi-word verbs).

Phrase - a group of words used as a sentence part. It does not have a subject and a verb. It can be a noun, adjective, or adverb.  Some common phrases are prepositional, gerund, participial, and infinitive.

Plural of a noun or form indicating more than one person or thing; plural nouns are usually formed by adding "-s"; see also singular, number. eg: bananas, spoons, trees, …

Position grammatically correct placement of a word form in a phrase or sentence in relation to other word forms. eg: "The correct position for an article is at the beginning of the noun phrase that it describes."

Positive comparison states a quality of one thing or person.  Examples: new, careless, good, …

Possessive adjective:  adjective (also called "determiner") based on a pronoun: my, your, his, her, its, our, their. eg: "I lost my keys", "She likes your car."

Possessive case pronouns are my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, your, yours, their, and theirs. They are used to show ownership. 

Possessive pronouns are personal pronouns that show whose something is. Possessive pronouns include: my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, their, and theirs. An example would be: The money is mine. Mine tells whose money it is.  Possessive pronouns never have apostrophes, but possessive nouns do. Do not confuse the possessive personal pronouns its, your, and their with the contractions it's (it is, it has), you're (you are), and they're (they are).

Possessives are the adjectives my, our, your, and their (the possessives are from the possessive pronoun list, but are always used with nouns as adjectives). 

Predicate one of the two main parts (subject and predicate) of a sentence; the predicate is the part that is not the subject. eg: "My brother is a doctor", "Who did you call?", "The woman wearing a blue dress helped me"  

Predicate nominative (predicate noun) - a word that completes a linking verb and renames the subject. It is a complement or completer, because it completes the verb. Predicate nominatives complete only linking verbs. The linking verbs include the following: the helping verbs is, am, are, was, were, be, being, and been; the sense verbs look, taste, smell, feel, and sound; and verbs like become, seem, appear, grow, continue, stay, and turn. The word equals can always replace the verb in a sentence having a predicate nominative. Example: Mr. Johanson is a teacher. Mr. Johanson equals a teacher.

Prefix affix that occurs before the root or stem of a word. eg: impossible, reload

Preposition - a word that begins a prepositional phrase and shows the relationship between its object and another word in the sentence. Words are prepositions if they have an object to complete them. To decide if the word in question is a preposition, say the preposition followed by whom or what. If a noun or a pronoun answers the question, the word is a preposition. If there is no noun or pronoun to complete the sentence, the word is not a preposition.

Prepositional phrase - a phrase that starts with a preposition, ends with an object, and may have modifiers between the preposition and object of the preposition.

Prepositional verb multi-word verb that is formed with verb + preposition. eg: believe in, look after, …

Present participle -ing form of a verb (except when it is a gerund or verbal noun)
eg: "We were eating", "The man shouting at the back is rude", "I saw Tara playing tennis."

Present simple (also called "simple present") tense usually used to describe states and actions that are general, habitual or (with the verb "to be") true right now; formed with the basic verb (+ s for 3rd person singular). eg: "Canada sounds beautiful", "She walks to school", "I am very happy."

Present continuous (also called "present progressive") tense used to describe action that is in process now, or a plan for the future; formed with BE + VERB-ingeg: "We are watching TV", "I am moving to Canada next month."

Present perfect tense that connects the past and the present, typically used to express experience, change or a continuing situation; formed with HAVE + VERB-ed. eg: "I have worked there", "John has broken his leg", "How long have you been in Canada?"

Present perfect continuous tense used to describe an action that has recently stopped or an action continuing up to now; formed with HAVE + BEEN + VERB-ing. eg: "I'm tired because I've been running", "He has been living in Canada for two years."

Progressive:  another term for continuous.

Pronominal adjectives are pronouns used as adjectives.

Pronoun - a word that replaces a noun, or a group of words used as nouns.

Proper nouns name a special person, place, or thing and begin with capital letters.  Nouns are grouped into two general classifications: proper and common.  All nouns that begin with small letters and are considered common.

Punctuation standard marks such as commas, periods and question marks within a sentence
eg: , . ? ! - ; :

Qualifiers are adverbs that strengthen or weaken the words they modify.

Quantifier determiner or pronoun that indicates quantity. eg: some, many, all, …

question tag final part of a tag question; mini-question at end of a tag question. eg: "Snow isn't black, is it?"

Question word another term for WH-word.

Reciprocal pronoun: pronoun that indicates that two or more subjects are acting mutually; there are two in English - each other, one another. eg: "John and Mary were shouting at each other", "The students accused one another of cheating"

Reduced relative clause (also called "participial relative clause") construction similar to a relative clause, but containing a participle instead of a finite verb; this construction is possible only under certain circumstances. eg: "The woman sitting on the bench is my sister", "The people arrested by the police have been released."

Reflexive pronoun: pronoun ending in -self or -selves, used when the subject and object are the same, or when the subject needs emphasis. eg: "She drove herself", "I'll phone her myself."

Regular verb see regular verbs list verb that has "-ed" as the ending for past tense and past participle forms; see also irregular verb. eg: work, worked, worked.

Relative adverb: adverb that introduces a relative clause; there are four in English: where, when, wherever, whenever; see also relative pronoun.

relative clause dependent clause that usually starts with a relative pronoun such as who or which, or relative adverb such as where. eg: "The person who finishes first can leave early" (defining), "Texas, where my brother lives, is big. " (non-defining).

Relative pronouns join dependent clauses to independent clauses. Relative pronouns include:  who, whose, whom, which, and that. Example: He found his money that he had lost. That joins the two clauses together into one sentence.

Reported speech- another term for indirect speech.

Restrictive relative clause: another term for defining relative clause.

State of being verbs (linking verbs) show that something exists; they do not show action.  Some common linking verbs include: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been, seem, look, feel, and become.

second conditional "if-then" conditional structure used to talk about an unlikely possibility in the future. eg: "If we won the lottery we would buy a car."

Second person pronouns are when the pronoun refers to people who are spoken to. Second person pronouns include:  you, your, yours, yourself, yourselves.  They are also considered personal pronouns.

Sentence - a group of words expressing a complete thought, and it must have a subject and a verb (predicate - some grammar books use the word predicate, but we will use verb). A verb shows action or state of being. Examples: The bell rang. The boy is here. The subject tells who or what about the verb. Examples: The bell rang. The boy is here.  There are four kinds of sentences: declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory.

Series list of items in a sentence. eg: "The children ate popsicles, popcorn and chips."

Singular of a noun or form indicating exactly one person or thing; singular nouns are usually the simplest form of the noun (as found in a dictionary); see also plural, number. eg: banana, spoon, tree, …

Split infinitive situation where a word or phrase comes between the particle "to" and the verb in an infinitive; considered poor construction by some. eg: "He promised to never lie again."

Standard English (S.E.) "normal" spelling, pronunciation and grammar that is used by educated native speakers of English.

Structure word: word that has no real meaning in a sentence, such as a pronoun or auxiliary verb (as opposed to a content word, such as verb or noun); structure words are not normally stressed in speech. eg: "Could you BRING my GLASSES because I've LEFT them at HOME."

Subject  - a word that tells who or what about the verb. When finding the subject and the verb in a sentence, always find the verb first and then say who or what followed by the verb. Example: The bell rang. Find the verb - rang. Now say who or what rang? The bell rang. Bell is the subject.  

Subjective case also called "nominative" case form of a pronoun indicating a subject. eg: Did she tell you about her?

Subjunctive fairly rare verb form typically used to talk about events that are not certain to happen, usually something that someone wants, hopes or imagines will happen; formed with BARE INFINITIVE (except past of "be"). eg: "The President requests that John attend the meeting."

Subordinate clause another term for dependent clause.

Subordinate conjunctions join dependent clauses to independent clauses.  Some common subordinate conjunctions are after, although, as, as if, because, before, if, since, so that, than, unless, until, when, where, and while.

Suffix affix that occurs after the root or stem of a word. eg: happiness, quickly

Superlative form compares more than two things or persons. Examples: newest, most careless, best, …

Superlative adjective: adjective or adverb that describes the extreme degree of something
eg: happiest, most quickly, …

SVO subject-verb-object; a common word order where the subject is followed by the verb and then the object. eg: "The man crossed the street."

Syntax sentence structure; the rules about sentence structure.

Tag question special construction with statement that ends in a mini-question; the whole sentence is a tag question; the mini-question is a question tag; usually used to obtain confirmation. eg: "The Earth is round, isn't it?", "You don't eat meat, do you?"

Tense form of a verb that shows us when the action or state happens (past, present or future). Note that the name of a tense is not always a guide to when the action happens. The "present continuous tense", for example, can be used to talk about the present or the future.

Third conditional "if-then" conditional structure used to talk about a possible event in the past that did not happen (and is therefore now impossible). eg: "If we had won the lottery we would have bought a car."

Third person pronouns are when the pronoun refers to those spoken about. Third person pronouns include: he, his, him, himself, she, her, hers, herself, it, its, itself, they, their, theirs, them, themselves.  They are also considered personal pronouns.

Transitive active verbs are the verbs in sentences with a direct object. Example: The boy kicked the ball. The subject is the doer and the direct object is the receiver of the action. 

Transitive passive verbs have the subject receiving the action with the doer in a prepositional phrase or omitted in the sentence. Examples: The ball was kicked by the boy. The ball was kicked hard. The verb in the transitive passive voice always has is, am, are, was, were, be, being, or been as an auxiliary or helping verb. 

Transitive verbs are verbs that have subjects or objects that receive an action. They are either active voice or passive voice.

Uncountable nouns (also called "mass nouns" or "non-count") thing that you cannot count, such as substances or concepts; see also countable nouns. eg: water, furniture, music, …

Usage way in which words and constructions are normally used in any particular language.

V1, V2, V3 referring to Verb 1, Verb 2, Verb 3 - being the base, past and past participle that students typically learn for irregular verbs. eg: speak, spoke, spoken.

Verb word that describes the subject's action or state and that we can change or conjugate based on tense and person. eg: (to) work, (to) love, (to) begin, …

Verb phrase is when a verb is more than one word.  Using auxiliary or helping verbs makes verb phrases.

Verbal - a verb form used as some other part of speech. There are three kinds of verbals: gerunds, participles, and infinitives.  

Verbs show action or state of being.  Most verbs are action words, but a few verbs indicate state of being or existence.

Voice form of a verb that shows the relation of the subject to the action; there are two voices in English: active, passive.

WH-question question using a WH-word and expecting an answer that is not "yes" or "no"; WH-questions are "open" questions; see also yes-no question. eg: Where are you going?

WH-word (also called "question word") word that asks a WH-question; there are 7 WH-words: who, what, where, when, which, why, how, …

Word order: order or sequence in which words occur within a sentence; basic word order for English is subject-verb-object or SVO.

Yes-no question: question to which the answer is yes or no; yes-no questions are "closed" questions; see also WH-question. eg: "Do you like coffee?"

Zero conditional "if-then" conditional structure used when the result of the condition is always true (based on fact). eg: "If you dial O, the operator comes on."

* note that technically English does not have a real future tense
** some authorities consider the base form of the verb without "to" to be the true infinitive