active verbs

verbs that express a specific action performed by the subject (e.g., run, jump, contain, kick)

adjective

an adjective describes or modifies a noun, providing more detail about qualities like size, color, number, or personality

adverb

a word that modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb by describing how, when, where, or to what extent something happens

adverbial conjunctions

words or phrases that connect independent clauses and show relationships like cause, contrast, or sequence (e.g., however, therefore, moreover). they require punctuation, often a semicolon before and a comma after when joining sentences

antecedent

the noun that a pronoun refers back to or replaces in a sentence

antecedent clarity

the principle that a pronoun’s reference must be unmistakably clear, ensuring the noun it replaces (its antecedent) is easily identifiable and avoids reader confusion

article

an article is a word placed before a noun to show whether the noun is specific or general. English has three articles: a, an, and the

bare infinitive

a bare infinitive is the base form of a verb used without to, typically following modal verbs or certain expressions (e.g., can go, let him speak)

clause

a clause is a group of words that contains both a subject and a verb; it can be independent (a complete sentence) or dependent (a sentence fragment)

collective nouns

nouns that refer to a group of individuals acting as a single unit or as separate members, such as family, team, or audience; verb agreement depends on whether the group is viewed as one or many

command sentence

a command sentence is a simple sentence that gives a direction or instruction and typically omits the subject, which is implied to be “you.” Example: Close the window.

common nouns

general names for people, places, things, or ideas that are not capitalized unless they start a sentence (e.g., girl, city, watch)

comparable adjectives

comparable adjectives show varying degrees of a quality, using forms like more (comparative) and most (superlative) to express comparison

complement (of a preposition)

the noun or pronoun that follows a preposition to complete its meaning (e.g., in the house, under the table, after dinner)

complex sentence

a complex sentence contains one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. Example: Because it was raining, we canceled the picnic.

compound nouns

nouns formed by combining two or more words into a single unit, written as one word (daydream), hyphenated (dry-cleaning), or with a space (vacuum cleaner)

compound predicate

a compound predicate has two or more verbs or verb phrases that share the same subject, connected by a coordinating conjunction. Example: She washed the dishes and dried them.

compound sentence

a compound sentence contains two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction, a semicolon, or a conjunctive adverb. Example: The experiment was successful, but the results were unexpected.

compound-complex sentence

a compound-complex sentence contains at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause. Example: Although she was tired, she finished the project, and she emailed it to her boss.

conjunctions

words that connect words, phrases, or clauses within a sentence

coordinating conjunctions

conjunctions that join equal elements (e.g., two nouns, phrases, or independent clauses). The most common are remembered by the acronym FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

correlative conjunctions

paired conjunctions (e.g., either…or, neither…nor, not only…but also) that link equal sentence elements, requiring careful attention to subject-verb agreement based on the element closest to the verb

count nouns

nouns that can be counted and made plural (e.g., apple, book, fox); they can be used with numbers and articles like a or an

definite article

the is the definite article; it refers to a specific noun that is already known to the reader or listener

demonstrative pronoun

a pronoun that replaces a noun by pointing to something specific in relation to distance or time (e.g., this, that, these, those), with this and these indicating closeness and that and those indicating distance

dependent clause

a dependent clause contains a subject and a verb but does not express a complete thought; it must be attached to an independent clause to form a complete sentence

direct object

a direct object is a noun, pronoun, phrase, or clause that receives the action of the verb directly; it answers what? or whom? after the verb

gerund

a verb ending in -ing that acts like a noun (e.g., swimming is fun)

helping verbs

verbs that come before the main verb to form a verb phrase and express tense, mood, or voice (e.g., have eaten, is going, can ride)

indefinite article

a and an are indefinite articles; they refer to a non-specific or general noun. Use a before words beginning with a consonant sound (e.g., a cat), and an before words beginning with a vowel sound (e.g., an orange)

indefinite pronoun

a pronoun that refers to one or more unspecified people or things (e.g., anyone, each, nobody, one), often used to generalize or indicate unknown quantities or identities

independent clause

an independent clause contains a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought, making it able to stand alone as a sentence

infinitive

an infinitive is the base form of a verb usually preceded by to (e.g., to write) and functions as a noun, adjective, or adverb

intransitive verbs

action verbs that do not require a direct object (e.g., he sleeps peacefully)

irregular plurals

nouns that do not follow standard pluralization rules and instead change form in unique ways (e.g., man → men, mouse → mice, deer → deer)

irregular verbs

verbs that do not follow standard patterns when changing tenses. instead of adding -ed for the past tense, they often change form entirely (e.g., go → went, run → ran, eat → ate)

linking verbs

verbs that connect the subject to a subject complement, showing a state of being or condition rather than action (e.g., is, seems, becomes); they act like an equal sign (e.g., she is happy)

multi-word verbs

verbs made up of two or more words that function together as a single verb and often carry a different meaning than the individual words (e.g., shut up, find out, carry out)

non-comparable adjectives

non-comparable adjectives describe absolute or binary states (e.g., dead, true, unique) that generally do not vary in degree

non-count nouns

nouns that represent a mass or concept that cannot be counted or made plural (e.g., furniture, advice, happiness); they require quantifiers like some, much, or a piece of

non-finite verbs

verb forms that do not show tense and cannot stand alone as the main verb in a sentence. Types include gerunds, participles, and infinitives

noun

words that name people, places, things, or ideas, including both general terms (e.g., book, city) and specific ones (e.g., Dr. Nguyen, Puerto Rico)

participle

a verb form used as an adjective. present participles end in -ing (e.g., the sleeping baby); past participles often end in -ed, -en, or irregular forms (e.g., the broken toy)

personal pronoun

a pronoun that replaces a specific noun referring to a person or thing (e.g., I, she, they) and changes form based on case and number

phrase

a phrase is a group of words that acts as a single part of speech and lacks both a subject doing the action and a complete verb

plural nouns: regular plurals

nouns that form the plural by following standard rules, usually by adding -s or -es (e.g., cats, foxes, heroes) or changing -y to -ies after a consonant (e.g., skies)

possessive pronoun

a pronoun that shows ownership; may function independently (mine, yours) or modify a noun (my, your)

predicate

the predicate is the part of a sentence that contains the verb and tells what the subject does, is, or experiences; it includes the verb and any modifiers or objects. Every complete sentence consists of a subject and a predicate

preposition

a word that shows the relationship between its complement and another element in the sentence, often indicating direction, time, location, or cause (e.g., in, on, before, under)

pronoun

a word that takes the place of a noun and can function as a subject or object in a sentence (e.g., he, they, this, who, everyone)

pronoun agreement

the grammatical rule that a pronoun must match its antecedent in number (singular or plural), gender, and person to maintain clarity and correctness in a sentence

proper nouns

specific names of people, places, or organizations that are always capitalized (e.g., New York, Google, Elizabeth)

reflexive pronoun

a pronoun that refers back to the subject of the sentence and ends in -self or -selves (e.g., myself, herself, themselves)

relative pronoun

a pronoun that introduces a dependent clause and relates it to a noun (e.g., who, whom, whose, that, which); used to add information or describe the noun it follows

royal order of adjectives

the standard sequence in which multiple adjectives should appear before a noun to maintain clarity and natural flow. When two or more adjectives are used, they typically follow this order: determiner → observation → size → shape → age → color → origin → material → qualifier → noun. For example: “Those beautiful large round old blue Italian glass serving bowls”

royal order of adverbs

the typical sequence in which multiple adverbs appear in a sentence—manner, place, frequency, time, and purpose—to maintain clarity and natural flow. Example: She sang (manner) beautifully (place) in the hall (frequency) every week (time) to practice for the recital (purpose).

simple sentence

a simple sentence contains one independent clause and no dependent clauses, though it may have a compound subject or predicate. Example: The sun set behind the hills.

subject

the subject is the noun, pronoun, phrase, or clause that a sentence is about. Every complete sentence consists of a subject and a predicate

subject-verb agreement

the rule that verbs must match their subjects in number and person. Singular subjects take singular verbs (she writes), while plural subjects take plural verbs (they write). Compound subjects joined by and require plural verbs (the cat and dog are outside)

subordinating conjunctions

words that connect a dependent clause to an independent clause, showing relationships like time, cause, condition, or contrast (e.g., because, although, since, if, when)

transitive verbs

action verbs that require a direct object to complete their meaning (e.g., she wrote a letter)

verb tenses

forms of verbs that show when an action happens. The three basic tenses are: present (she works), past (she worked), and future (she will work). In the present tense, third-person singular subjects take an -s ending

verb types

categories of verbs based on their function in a sentence, including active, linking, helping, and multi-word forms

verbal nouns

nouns derived from verbs that function like regular nouns in a sentence; includes gerunds and other forms like running, jogging, and meeting