A-Z Grammar Terms

Object: The part of a sentence that receives the action.

Example: She loves chocolate.

Object complement: A word or phrase that describes or renames the object.

Example: They made him captain.

Objective (case): The form of a noun or pronoun used as an object.

Example: He saw me (instead of "I").

Oblique (case) (see objective case): Another name for the objective case.

Omission (see ellipsis; gap; zero): Leaving out words that are understood.

Example: She can sing, and so can I (omitting "sing").

Open and closed word classes:

Open class: New words can be added (e.g., nouns, verbs).
Closed class: Rarely changes (e.g., prepositions, pronouns).

Open interrogative clause: A question that starts with wh- words.

Example: Where is she going?

Operator: The first auxiliary verb in a verb phrase.

Example: She has finished her work.

Ordinal number/numeral: A number showing order.

Example: first, second, third

Paradigm: A set of related word forms.

Example: Go, goes, going, went, gone

Parenthetical: Extra information inside commas, brackets, or dashes.

Example: My friend, a doctor, is very kind.

Participial, participle: A verb form used as an adjective or in verb phrases.

Example: Running water, He has finished his homework.

Particle: A small word that helps a verb (often in phrasal verbs).

Example: Look up, give in.

Parts of speech: Categories of words (noun, verb, adjective, etc.).

Passive, passive voice: The subject receives the action.

Example: The cake was eaten by John.

Past participial construction (see -ed clause; participle): A phrase with a past participle.

Example: Tired from work, she went to bed.

Past participle: The -ed or irregular verb form used in perfect tenses.

Example: She has gone home.

Past perfect (pluperfect): "Had" + past participle, showing earlier past.

Example: She had left before I arrived.

Past progressive: "Was/were" + -ing, showing an action in progress in the past.

Example: They were watching TV.

Past simple (simple past): Shows a finished past action.

Example: She walked to school.

Past tense: Any verb form showing past time.

Perfect (aspect): A tense showing completed actions.

Example: She has eaten lunch.

Perfect infinitive: "To have" + past participle.

Example: She seems to have forgotten.

Perfect progressive: A tense showing ongoing action over time.

Example: He has been studying all day.

Perfective and imperfective:

Perfective: Focuses on a completed action. Example: She has written the book.
Imperfective: Focuses on an ongoing action. Example: She was writing a book.

Person: Shows who is speaking (first, second, third).

Example: I (first), you (second), he/she (third).

Personal pronouns: Words that replace people or things.

Example: I, you, he, she, it, we, they

Phrasal verb: A verb + a particle with a new meaning.

Example: Give up, take off.

Phrasal-prepositional verb: A phrasal verb + a preposition.

Example: Put up with, run out of.

Phrase: A group of words that work together.

Example: A big house, running fast.

Pied-piping: Moving a word (usually a preposition) with a question word.

Example: To whom did you give the book?

Place adverbial, place adverb: A word or phrase showing location.

Example: He lives here.

Pluperfect (see past perfect): Another name for the past perfect tense.

Plural: More than one.

Example: Cats, houses.

Polarity: Whether a sentence is positive or negative.

Example: She is happy (positive). / She is not happy (negative).

Polysyndeton: Using many conjunctions for effect.

Example: I bought apples and oranges and bananas and grapes.

Positive: A sentence without negation.

Example: She is happy.

Possessive: Shows ownership.

Example: John’s book.

Possessive determiner: A word that shows ownership before a noun.

Example: My, your, his, her, its, our, their.

Possessive pronouns: A pronoun that shows ownership.

Example: Mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs.

Postdeterminer: A word that comes after a determiner and before a noun.

Example: The next day.

Postmodifier, post-modification: A word or phrase that comes after the noun to describe it.

Example: The book on the table is mine.

Predeterminer: A word that comes before a determiner.

Example: All the students passed.

Predicate: The part of the sentence that includes the verb and says something about the subject.

Example: She runs fast.

Predication: The way a sentence gives information about the subject.

Predicative (another term for complement): A word or phrase that comes after a linking verb and describes the subject.

Example: She is happy.

Predicative adjective: An adjective that comes after a linking verb.

Example: The sky is blue.

Predicative complement: A noun or adjective that completes the meaning of a linking verb.

Example: He became a teacher.

Premodifier, premodification: A word or phrase that comes before a noun to describe it.

Example: A big house.

Prenucleus: A word or phrase that comes before the subject for emphasis.

Example: Only then did she understand.

Preposition: A word that shows the relationship between a noun/pronoun and another word.

Example: She is in the room.

Prepositional adverb: A word that looks like a preposition but acts like an adverb.

Example: He went inside quickly.

Prepositional complement: The noun or pronoun that follows a preposition.

Example: She is fond of chocolate.

Prepositional object (see prepositional verb): The noun or pronoun that comes after a prepositional verb.

Example: She looks at the painting.

Prepositional phrase: A phrase that starts with a preposition and includes its object.

Example: She sat on the chair.

Prepositional verb: A verb that needs a preposition before its object.

Example: She listened to music.

Prescriptive grammar: Grammar rules that tell how language should be used.

Example: "Don’t split infinitives" is a prescriptive rule.

Present continuous (see present progressive): Another term for the present progressive.

Present participle: The -ing form of a verb used in continuous tenses.

Example: She is singing.

Present perfect (or present perfective): "Have/has" + past participle, showing a past action with a connection to now.

Example: She has finished her work.

Present perfect progressive: "Have/has been" + -ing, showing an action that started in the past and is still happening.

Example: He has been reading for an hour.

Present progressive (also called present continuous): "Am/is/are" + -ing, showing an action happening now.

Example: She is cooking dinner.

Present simple (or simple present): A verb tense for habits, facts, or general truths.

Example: The sun rises in the east.

Present tense: A verb tense that describes actions happening now or regularly.

Example: He runs every morning.

Preterite (tense) (see past tense): Another term for the past simple tense.

Primary verbs: The three main helping verbs: be, have, do.

Example: She is happy. / I have seen it. / They do know.

Pro-form: A word that replaces a longer phrase.

Example: I like that (instead of "I like the idea").

Progressive (aspect) (also called ‘continuous’): A verb form showing an ongoing action.

Example: She was eating lunch.

Pronominal: A word related to pronouns or behaving like one.

Example: That is mine.

Pronouns: Words that replace nouns.

Example: I, you, he, she, it, we, they

Proper noun: A name of a specific person, place, or thing (always capitalized).

Example: London, John, Amazon.

Pseudo-cleft construction: A sentence structure that emphasizes information using "what."

Example: What I need is a break.

Purpose adverb, purpose adverbial: A word or phrase that explains why something happens.

Example: She studies hard to pass the test.