Glossary
The Englicious Glossary includes the new National Curriculum glossary terms, which are shown against a white background. However, there's much more to be found here:
- we have added many entries that we feel are important, but cannot be found in the NC Glossary (e.g. connective), and
- in many cases we have added information to the (often very brief) NC entries that need further explanation (e.g. clause and phrase).
Please note that in line with our practice throughout the site, we use capital letters for function terms such as Subject, Direct Object, Indirect Object, Modifier, etc. Although this convention is not followed in the documentation published by the Department for Education we have also done so in the text that forms part of the National Curriculum Glossary.
Tip: Within our units and resources, Glossary items appear highlighted within the text. When you hover over them, or click on them in the Slideshow, a popup is generated.
absolute
abstract noun
accent
accusative case
acronym
action verb
active
An active verb has its usual pattern of Subject and Object (in contrast with the passive).
- Active: The school arranged a visit.
- Passive: A visit was arranged by the school.
Active voice is the more common pattern, which contrasts with the passive voice. In an active clause the agent is expressed as the Subject, e.g. My sister painted the fence. When an active clause is changed into a passive one, the patient becomes the Subject: The fence was painted by my sister.
adjective
The surest way to identify adjectives is by the ways they can be used:
- before a noun, to make the noun’s meaning more specific (i.e. to modify the noun), or
- after the verb be, as its complement.
- The pupils did some really good work. [adjective used before a noun, to modify it]
- Their work was good. [adjective used after the verb be, as its complement]
Adjectives cannot be modified by other adjectives. This distinguishes them from nouns, which can be.
Adjectives are sometimes called “describing words” because they pick out single characteristics such as size or colour. This is often true, but it doesn’t help to distinguish adjectives from other word classes, because verbs, nouns and adverbs can do the same thing.
Not adjectives:
- The lamp glowed. [verb]
- It was such a bright red! [noun]
- He spoke loudly. [adverb]
- It was a French grammar book. [noun]
See also: adjective phrase, possessive adjective.
adjective phrase
adjective test
- Express an attribute of a person or thing.
- Can be in an attributive position before the noun.
- an old car
- Can be in a predicative position after the verb.
- the car is old
Adjunct
adverb
Adverbs often modify verbs, and can also modify adjectives, other adverbs, or entire clauses.
The surest way to identify adverbs is by the ways they can be used: they can modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb or even a whole clause.
- Usha soon started snoring loudly. [adverbs modifying the verbs started and snoring]
- That match was really exciting! [adverb modifying the adjective exciting]
- We don't get to play games very often. [adverb modifying the other adverb, often]
- Fortunately, it didn't rain. [adverb modifying the whole clause 'it didn't rain' by commenting on it]
Adverbs are sometimes said to describe manner or time. This is often true, but it doesn't help to distinguish adverbs from other word classes that can be used as adverbials, such as preposition phrases, noun phrases and subordinate clauses.
Not adverbs:
- Usha went up the stairs. [preposition phrase as adverbial: modifies leaves]
- She finished her work this evening. [noun phrase used as adverbial]
- She finished when the teacher got cross. [subordinate clause used as adverbial]
On the distinction between adverb and Adverbial, see the entry on the latter.
adverb phrase
Adverbial
An Adverbial is a word or phrase that is used, like an adverb, to modify a verb or clause. Of course, adverbs can be used as Adverbials, but many other types of words and phrases can be used this way, including preposition phrases and subordinate clauses.
- The bus leaves in five minutes. [preposition phrase as adverbial: modifies leaves]
- She promised to see him last night. [noun phrase modifying either promised or see, according to the intended meaning]
- She worked until she had finished. [subordinate clause as adverbial]
What exactly is the difference between adverb and Adverbial? The former is a word class label, whereas the latter is a function label. Adverbials are the optional units in a clause which provide an answer to one or more of the questions 'when did this occur?', 'where did this occur?', 'why did this occur?', or 'how did this occur?'. So in the sentence Harriet did well in the SPaG test we say that the word well is an adverb which functions as an Adverbial. Here are some further examples, with the Adverbials highlighted:
- Last week, we finished all the work quickly. [noun phrase and adverb phrase functioning as Adverbial]
- The police drove very fast. [adverb phrase functioning as Adverbial]
- She hurriedly finished her meal in the restaurant. [adverb phrase and prepositional phrase functioning as Adverbial]
A linking Adverbial is an Adverbial that links a sentence, clause, etc. to another bit of text. Here are some examples:
- Early application from students abroad is advised. However, where there is time to do so, students who are uncertain about their qualifications should write in the first instance to the Assistant Registrar, to check that they are eligible for consideration.
- By April eighty-seven, Dr. Reeves noticed that the floor of the eye socket was sinking. Nevertheless, on the eighteenth of May she resumed work as a nursing auxiliary in the out-patients department of Pembury Hospital.
A fronted Adverbial is an Adverbial that is placed at the start of a sentence or clause. The National Curriculum demands that a comma is placed after fronted adverbials. Here are some examples:
- Reluctantly , we left the theatre.
- In the evening, we had a party on the beach.
affix
agent
agentless passive
agreement
antonym
Two words are antonyms if their meanings are opposites.
- hot - cold
- light - dark
- light - heavy
apostrophe
The apostrophe, written ', is one of the 9 main punctuation marks in English.
Apostrophes have two completely different uses:
- showing the place of missing letters (e.g. I'm for I am)
- marking possessives (e.g. Hannah's mother)
- I'm going out and I won't be long. [showing missing letters]
- Hannah's mother went to town in Justin's car. [marking possessives]
article
The articles are the, a, and an.
The articles the (definite) and a or an (indefinite) are the most common type of determiner.
- The dog found a bone in an old box.
aspect
Aspect is a grammatical notion, and refers to the way in which the unfolding of situations over time is encoded in language, typically through the use of grammatical patterns involving auxiliary verbs. For example, They are discussing it uses progressive aspect and presents the action as ongoing.
Some grammarians refer to the perfect construction as 'perfect aspect', as in They have discussed it, which indicates that the action occurred before the present, but has relevance in the present. Other grammarians refer to perfect constructions as 'perfect tense'.
aspectual auxiliary
An auxiliary verb that is used to mark aspect. The verb be is an aspectual auxiliary, e.g. in the past progressive construction They were watching TV.
Some grammarians say that the perfect construction represents aspect as well. In that case, have is an aspectual auxiliary, e.g. in He has sold his car.
attributive position
auxiliary verb
The auxiliary verbs are be, have and do and the modal verbs. They can be used to make questions and negative statements. In addition:
- be is used in the progressive and passive
- have is used in the perfect
- do is used to form questions and negative statements if no other auxiliary verb is present
- They are winning the match. [be used in the progressive]
- Have you finished your picture? [have used to make a question, and the perfect]
- No, I don't know him. [do used to make a negative; no other auxiliary is present]
- Will you come with me or not? [modal verb will used to make a question about the other person's willingness]
Auxiliary verbs 'help' the main verb they precede by adding further shades of meaning such as aspect or modality. E.g. They are leaving; She has finished; We should help him.
base form
blended mode
blending
by-phrase
case
clause
A clause is a special type of phrase whose Head is a verb. Clauses can sometimes be complete sentences. Clauses may be main or subordinate.
Traditionally, a clause had to have a finite verb, but most modern grammarians also recognise nonfinite clauses.
- It was raining. [single-clause sentence]
- It was raining but we were indoors. [two finite clauses]
- If you are coming to the party, please let us know. [finite subordinate clause inside a finite main clause]
- Usha went upstairs to play on her computer. [non-finite clause]
A clause is a structure which typically expresses a situation such as an action, process or state of affairs (declarative clause), but it can also be used to ask a question (interrogative clause) or issue a command (imperative clause). One or more clauses can make up a sentence. For example, He will find them is a main clause which stands alone as a sentence. By contrast, that he will find them is a subordinate clause functioning as a Direct Object within the main clause I know that he will find them.
The National Curriculum defines clauses as "a special type of phrase whose Head is a verb". This idea is similar to regarding a group of words whose pivotal element is a noun as a noun phrase, and a string of words whose main element is an adjective as an adjective phrase.
See also: clause type.
clause type
cleft sentence/construction
Cleft sentences are used to highlight or foreground a particular part of a sentence. For example, if you want to highlight that Tim ate all the biscuits, as opposed to someone else, you can say: Don't accuse me of eating all the biscuits. It was Tim who ate all the biscuits! Ordinary cleft constructions conform to the pattern it + {form of the verb be} + Item in Focus + who/that. Here's another example:
- It was in Brazil that I was so happy.
This is a cleft version of I was so happy in Brazil.
There's another cleft construction in English called the pseudocleft construction. This is typically introduced by what in the pattern what + Subject + Verb + {form of the verb be} + Item in Focus.
Example: What he likes is cream cakes.
clipping
closed class
closed interrogative
coherence
cohesion
Cohesion refers to the grammatical relationships that exist within a text between words, phrases, etc. When we talk only of the semantic links, i.e. the meaning links, we speak of coherence.
A text has cohesion if it is clear how the meanings of its parts fit together. Cohesive devices can help to do this.
In the example, there are repeated references to the same thing (shown by the different combinations of bold, capitals, underlining and asterisks), and the logical relations, such as time and cause, between different parts are clear.
A visit has been arranged for YEAR 6, to the Mountain Peaks Field Study Centre, leaving school at 9.30am. This is an overnight visit. The centre has beautiful grounds and *a nature trail*. During the afternoon, THE CHILDREN will follow *the trail*.
cohesive device
Cohesive devices are words used to show how the different parts of a text fit together. In other words, they create cohesion.
Some examples of cohesive devices are:
- determiners and pronouns, which can refer back to earlier words
- conjunctions and adverbs, which can make relations between words clear
- ellipsis of expected words.
- Julia's dad bought her a football. The football was expensive! [determiner; refers us back to a particular football]
- Joe was given a bike for Christmas. He liked it very much. [the pronouns refer back to Joe and the bike]
- We'll be going shopping before we go to the park. [conjunction; makes a relationship of time clear]
- I'm afraid we're going to have to wait for the next train. Meanwhile, we could have a cup of tea. [adverb; refers back to the time of waiting]
- Where are you going? [_] To school! [ellipsis of the expected words I'm going; links the answer back to the question]
combining form
command
common noun
comparative
Complement
Complement is often used as a general functional label for any constituent whose presence is required by a verb, noun, adjective or preposition.
A verb's Subject Complement adds more information about its Subject, and its Object Complement does the same for its Object.
Unlike the verb's object, its complement may be an adjective. The verb be normally has a Subject Complement.
- She is our teacher. [adds more information about the subject, she]
- They seem very competent. [adds more information about the subject, they]
- Learning makes me happy. [adds more information about the object, me]
Thus many grammars use the notion Complement in a wider sense as a cover term to denote Direct Objects, Indirect Objects and any other unit that a particular verb (or other element) selects. Under this wider definition, all of the highlighted portions in the sentences below are Complements.
- Luke crashed his bike in the playground. [noun phrase acting as Direct Object]
- My company sent me a new smartphone. [pronominal noun phrase acting as Indirect Object and noun phrase acting as Direct Object]
- They suggested that I should upgrade. [clause acting as Direct Object]
- We relied on his knowledge of the area. [prepositional phrase acting as Complement of the verb]
On the Englicious site we use Subject Complement and Object Complement as terms for specific functions within the clause.
complex preposition
complex sentence
compound
A compound word contains at least two root words in its morphology; e.g. whiteboard, superman.
Compounding is very important in English.
- blackbird, blow-dry, bookshop, ice-cream, English teacher, inkjet, one-eyed, bone-dry, baby-sit, daydream, outgrow
A root word is also known as a lexical base. Compounds are written in different ways: sometimes as one word, sometimes hyphenated, and sometimes as separate words. A neoclassical compound is a compound consisting of two combining forms derived from classical languages, e.g. bio- + -graphy.
compound sentence
concrete noun
A noun that refers to something that can be directly perceived by the senses, such as baby, frog, or skyscraper. Concrete nouns express a different type of meaning from abstract nouns like sadness.
It is debatable whether non-tangible things that can be perceived by the senses, such as sound, are concrete. Nouns like pain can be seen as having a concrete meaning ("physical pain" perceived by the senses) and an abstract meaning ("emotional pain" not perceived by the senses).
conjoin
conjunction
A conjunction links two words or phrases together.
There are two main types of conjunctions:
- coordinating conjunctions (e.g. and) link two words or phrases together as an equal pair.
- subordinating conjunctions (e.g. when) introduce a subordinate clause.
- James bought a bat and ball. [links the words bat and ball as an equal pair]
- Kylie is young but she can kick the ball hard. [links two clauses as an equal pair]
- Everyone watches when Kyle does back-flips. [introduces a subordinate clause]
- Joe can't practise kicking because he's injured. [introduces a subordinate clause]
The principal coordinating conjunctions are and, or and but) and some typical subordinating conjunctions are because, when, that, if, whether, for).
The 2016 GPaS test sample papers also refer to conjunctions as joining words.
connective
'Connective' is an old term that has been widely used by teachers for words that can connect units of information in various ways. These include words like however, so and nonetheless, and because, although and after.
In most contemporary discussions of grammar, and in the 2014 National Curriculum, the term 'connective' is not used because the words that have been given this label belong grammatically to different word classes. Instead, we distinguish between subordinating conjunctions, coordinating conjunctions and certain types of adverbs.
Subordinating conjunctions place one clause in a lower (subordinate) relationship to another.
- He is only six years old, although he is very tall.
- They devoured the cookies because they were hungry.
On the other hand, coordinating conjunctions link two units of an equal status:
- novels and plays
- fast but unsafe
Finally, words that connect sentences or clauses more loosely in terms of their meaning are called (linking) adverbs:
- Everyone loves vacations in Hawaii. Nevertheless, I would never want to go there myself.
- I have lots of friends, so I'm very happy.
Note that the adverbs above can be omitted, and the result would still be a grammatical sentence. The conjunctions in the first two examples cannot be omitted without the result becoming a "run-on" sentence. This is just one very good reason why these two types of connective words (conjunctions and adverbs) are not part of a single grammatical category.
Although the label 'connective' can be useful as a general notion that encourages students to think about how they might connect one piece of information to another, we would strongly encourage you to avoid it.
See also Adverbial.consonant
A sound which is produced when the speaker closes off or obstructs the flow of air through the vocal tract, usually using lips, tongue or teeth.
- /p/ [flow of air stopped by the lips, then released]
- /t/ [flow of air stopped by the tongue touching the roof of the mouth, then released]
- /f/ [flow of air obstructed by the bottom lip touching the top teeth]
- /s/ [flow of air obstructed by the tip of the tongue touching the gum line]
Most of the letters of the alphabet represent consonants. Only the letters a, e, i, o, u and y can represent vowel sounds.
The term 'consonant' is used either for a sound made by bringing the vocal organs together or close to each other, or for a letter used to write a consonant sound: for example, the sound at the start of the word mat is a consonant sound, written with the consonant letter m.
constituency test
constituent
construal
content word
continuous
conversion
coordinate
coordinating conjunction
coordination
Words or phrases are coordinated if they are linked as an equal pair by a coordinating conjunction (i.e. and, but, or).
In the examples below, the coordinated elements are shown in bold, and the conjunction is in red.
- Susan and Amra met in a cafe. [links the words Susan and Amra as an equal pair]
- They talked and drank tea for an hour. [links two clauses as an equal pair]
- Susan got on a bus but Amra walked. [links two clauses as an equal pair]
The difference between coordination and subordination is that, in subordination, the two linked elements are not equal.
Not coordination: They ate before they met. [before introduces a subordinate clause]
In coordination, elements or strings of elements (conjoins) are juxtaposed by means of a coordinating conjunction. E.g. Bulgaria and Greece.
coordinator
copula
copular verb
core modal
corpus
count noun
declarative clause
definite article
deixis
demonstrative pronoun
derivation
derivational morphology
descriptive
determiner
A determiner specifies a noun as known or unknown, and it goes before any modifiers (e.g. adjectives or other nouns).
Some examples of determiners are:
- articles (the, a or an)
- demonstratives (e.g. this, those)
- possessives (e.g. my, your)
- quantifiers (e.g. some, every).
- the home team [article, specifies the team as known]
- a good team [article, specifies the team as unknown]
- that pupil [demonstrative, known]
- Julia’s parents [possessive, known]
- some big boys [quantifier, unknown]
Contrast:
- *home the team, *big some boys [both incorrect, because the determiner should come before other modifiers]
'Determiner' is a word class label. It's a cover term for a range of word classes that are also known by other names, as the National Curriculum entry makes clear. Determiners typically occur before a noun within a noun phrase to indicate the type of reference the noun has, e.g. the, a/an, this, that, many, all. The so-called cardinal numerals, e.g. one, two, three, as in I ate three bowls of spaghetti, are sometimes included in the class of determiners. However, their classification is disputed, because there are also reasons for regarding them as nouns, for example the fact that we can pluralise them, as in They travelled in twos and threes. The ordinal numerals, e.g. first, second, etc. are adjectives. In a few cases determiners occur outside noun phrases, e.g. I don't like chocolate that much.
dialect
digraph
A type of grapheme where two letters represent one phoneme. Sometimes, these two letters are not next to one another; this is called a split digraph.
- The digraph ea in each is pronounced /i:/.
- The digraph sh in shed is pronounced /ʃ/.
- The split digraph i–e in line is pronounced /aɪ/.
Direct Object
directive
discourse function
discourse marker
discourse structure
distribution
ditransitive verb
do-support
This term refers to the insertion of the dummy auxiliary do to add emphasis, to form interrogative sentences, etc. in sentences which do not already contain an auxiliary. For example, if we want to change the following sentence into an interrogative form we need to add do:
- Denise opened the file
~Did Denise open the file?
dummy auxiliary do
-ed participle
ellipsis
Ellipsis is the omission of a word or phrase which is expected and predictable.
- Frankie waved to Ivana and [she] watched her drive away.
- She did it because she wanted to [do it].
In addition to grammatical ellipsis, the term ellipsis can also refer to the punctuation mark written with three dots: ...
etymology
A word’s etymology is its history: its origins in earlier forms of English or other languages, and how its form and meaning have changed. Many words in English have come from Greek, Latin or French.
- The word school was borrowed from a Greek word σχολή (skholé) meaning 'leisure'.
- The word verb comes from Latin verbum, meaning 'word'.
- The word mutton comes from French mouton, meaning 'sheep'.
exclamation
exclamative clause
existential there
expanded noun phrase
extraposition
filler
finite
Finite verbs are verbs that carry tense and (with the exception of imperative clauses) have a Subject.
Every sentence typically has at least one verb which is either past or present tense. Such verbs are called ‘finite’. The imperative verb in a command is also finite.
- Lizzie does the dishes every day. [present tense]
- Even Hana did the dishes yesterday. [past tense]
- Do the dishes, Naser! [imperative]
Verbs that are not finite, such as participles or infinitives, cannot stand on their own: they are linked to another verb in the sentence.
Not finite verbs:
- I have done them. [combined with the finite verb have]
- I will do them. [combined with the finite verb will]
- I want to do them! [combined with the finite verb want]
Note that the term finite is applied to a verb to indicate that it carries tense, and also applied to a clause or sentence that contains a finite verb.
foregrounding
form
fronted adverbial
fronting
A word or phrase that normally comes after the verb may be moved before the verb: when this happens, we say it has been ‘fronted’. For example, a fronted adverbial is an adverbial which has been moved before the verb. When writing fronted phrases, we often follow them with a comma.
- Before we begin, make sure you’ve got a pencil. [Without fronting: Make sure you’ve got a pencil before we begin.]
- The day after tomorrow, I’m visiting my granddad. [Without fronting: I’m visiting my granddad the day after tomorrow.]
function
function word
future
Future time can be expressed in many different ways in English, but English does not have a future tense.
Reference to future time can be marked in a number of different ways in English. All these ways involve the use of a present tense verb. See also tense. Unlike many other languages (such as French, Spanish or Italian), English has no distinct ‘future tense’ form of the verb comparable with its present and past tenses.
- He will leave tomorrow. [present-tense will followed by infinitive leave]
- He may leave tomorrow. [present-tense may followed by infinitive leave]
- He leaves tomorrow. [present-tense leaves]
- He is going to leave tomorrow. [present tense is followed by going to plus the infinitive leave]
genre
GPC
gradability
gradience
For example, let’s look at the fuzziness or gradience of the noun category. Cat, table and apple are all deemed to be ‘prototypical’ members of this category. They are physical objects; they take a possessive form; they can be plural or singular, and they can appear after a determiner.
But news and information are more peripheral examples of nouns. The former is always in the plural, and the latter cannot take a plural ending.
grammar
grammatical
grammatical form
grammatical function
grammatical word
grapheme
A letter, or combination of letters, that corresponds to a single phoneme within a word.
- The grapheme t in the words ten, bet and ate corresponds to the phoneme /t/.
- The grapheme ph in the word dolphin corresponds to the phoneme /f/.
grapheme-phoneme correspondence
The links between letters, or combinations of letters (graphemes) and the speech sounds (phonemes) that they represent.
In the English writing system, graphemes may correspond to different phonemes in different words.
- The grapheme s corresponds to the phoneme /s/ in the word see, but…
- …it corresponds to the phoneme /z/ in the word easy.
Grice's maxims
1 quantity: make your contribution as informative as is required for the current purposes of the exchange - don't say too much or too little
2 quality: try to make your contribution one that is true
3 relation: be relevant
4 manner: be perspicuous - avoid unneccessary obscurity and ambiguity
Head
A grammatical function label which refers to the principal word in a phrase. For example, a noun phrase has a noun as its Head, an adjective phrase has an adjective as its Head, an adverb phrase has an adverb as its Head, and so on.
hedge
homonym
Two different words are homonyms if they both look exactly the same when written, and sound exactly the same when pronounced.
- Has he left yet? Yes – he went through the door on the left.
- The noise a dog makes is called a bark. Trees have bark.
See also homophone.
homophone
Two different words are homophones if they sound exactly the same when pronounced.
- hear, here
- some, sum
See also homonym.
idiom
imperative clause
indefinite article
indefinite pronoun
Indirect Object
infinitive
A verb’s infinitive is the basic form used as the head-word in a dictionary (e.g. walk, be).
Infinitives are often used:
- after to
- after modal verbs.
- I want to walk.
- I will be quiet.
The infinitive with to is called the to-infinitive, whereas the infinitive without to, for example after modal verbs, is called the bare infinitive. We can then say that the clause after a modal verb is a bare infinitive clause (e.g. We can send you some more information.)
inflection
When we add -ed to walk, or change mouse to mice, this change of morphology produces an inflection (‘bending’) of the basic word which has special grammar (e.g. past tense or plural). In contrast, adding -er to walk produces a completely different word, walker, which is part of the same word family. Inflection is sometimes thought of as merely a change of ending, but, in fact, some words change completely when inflected.
- dogs is an inflection of dog.
- went is an inflection of go.
- better is an inflection of good.
An inflection is a change to the base form of a word to express grammatical information, usually by adding an ending (or suffix). Sometimes inflection involves another kind of change to the base form (e.g. mouse/mice).
inflectional morphology
information structuring
The ability to structure the presentation of information in different ways in sentences and clauses, for example to place emphasis on a particular part. Typical strategies for information structuring include employing passive voice and preposing or postposing elements.
- I really like those shoes ~ Those shoes, I really like [them] (preposing).
- I left the cake out in the rain ~ The cake was left out in the rain [by me] (passive).
See also fronting.
-ing participle
initialism
intensifier
interjection
international phonetic alphabet
interrogative clause
interrogative pronoun
intertextuality
intransitive preposition
intransitive verb
A verb which does not need an Object in a sentence to complete its meaning is described as intransitive. See transitive verb.
- We all laughed.
- We would like to stay longer, but we must leave.
letter
lexeme
lexical base
lexical verb
lexical word
lexis
linking device
linking verb
locative there
main clause
A sentence contains at least one clause which is not a subordinate clause; such a clause is a main clause. A main clause may contain any number of subordinate clauses.
- It was raining but the sun was shining. [two main clauses]
- The man who wrote it told me that it was true. [one main clause containing two subordinate clauses.]
- She said, “It rained all day.” [one main clause containing another.]
A main clause is a clause which is not subordinate to any other clause and can stand alone as a sentence, e.g. I saw them last night. It differs from a subordinate clause, which functions as part of a larger clause.
main verb
mass noun
metaphor
Metaphor is, however, pervasive in everyday language and can operate to shape our way of seeing things. Thus, 'argument' is regularly expressed in terms of to 'war' (we defend a point, attack an idea, marshall facts); we live by metaphors of time analogised as if it were a commodity - thus we spend and waste time. Such metaphors are 'dead metaphors' or sufficiently 'frozen' for them to be not really noticed, though they reveal much about how individuals and cultures shape meanings.
modal verb
A modal verb is an auxiliary verb which expresses modality (meanings to do with what is possible, necessary, and so on).
Modal verbs are used to change the meaning of other verbs. They can express meanings such as certainty, ability, or obligation. The main modal verbs are will, would, can, could, may, might, shall, should, must and ought. A modal verb only has finite forms and has no suffixes (e.g. I sing – he sings, but not I must – he *musts).
- I can do this maths work by myself.
- This ride may be too scary for you!
- You should help your little brother.
- Is it going to rain? Yes, it might.
- *Canning swim is important. [not possible because can must be finite; contrast: Being able to swim is important, where being is not a modal verb]
modality
mode
Modifier
This is a functional label for an element in a phrase which supports (or 'modifies') the Head word. Adverbials modify verbs or clauses.
One word or phrase modifies another by making its meaning more specific.
Because the two words make a phrase, the ‘modifier’ is normally close to the modified word.
In the phrase primary-school teacher:
- teacher is modified by primary-school (to mean a specific kind of teacher)
- school is modified by primary (to mean a specific kind of school).
Other examples of modifiers are happy in the noun phrase a happy bunny, very in the adjective phrase very cheeky and extremely in the adverb phrase extremely quickly.
modify
monitoring device
morpheme
morphology
Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words.
A word’s morphology is its internal make-up in terms of root words and suffixes or prefixes, as well as other kinds of change such as the change of mouse to mice.
Morphology may be used to produce different inflections of the same word (e.g. boy – boys), or entirely new words (e.g. boy – boyish) belonging to the same word family.
- dogs has the morphological make-up: dog + s.
- unhelpfulness has the morphological make-up: unhelpful + ness, where unhelpful = un + helpful and helpful = help + ful
A word that contains two or more root words is a compound (e.g. news+paper, ice+cream).
Morphology looks at how words can be made up from smaller parts, e.g. bright + -er gives brighter; white + board = whiteboard; study + -ed = studied.
multi-clause sentence
As the distinction between complex and compound sentences is relatively advanced, the National Curriculum recommends that the term ‘multi-clause sentence’ be used up to KS2.
negated modal verb
negation
neoclassical compound
neologism
nominative case
non-countable noun
nonfinite
nonreferential it
noun
Nouns constitute one of the major word classes, which includes words for people, animals, and things (teacher, rabbit, desk) and also many words for abstract concepts (kindness, mystery, technology).
The surest way to identify nouns is by the ways they can be used after determiners such as the: for example, most nouns will fit into the frame “The __ matters/matter.”
Nouns are sometimes called ‘naming words’ because they name people, places and ‘things’; this is often true, but it doesn’t help to distinguish nouns from other word classes. For example, prepositions can name places and verbs can name ‘things’ such as actions.
- Our dog bit the burglar on his behind!
- My big brother did an amazing jump on his skateboard.
- Actions speak louder than words.
Not nouns:
- He’s behind you! [this names a place, but is a preposition, not a noun]
- She can jump so high! [this names an action, but is a verb, not a noun]
Nouns may be classified as common (e.g. boy, day) or proper (e.g. Ivan, Wednesday), and also as countable (e.g. thing, boy) or non-countable (e.g. stuff, money). These classes can be recognised by the determiners they combine with.
- common, countable: a book, books, two chocolates, one day, fewer ideas
- common, non-countable: money, some chocolate, less imagination
- proper, countable: Marilyn, London, Wednesday
Typical nouns share a number of grammatical properties, such as the ability to form a plural (teachers, kindnesses) and to occur after a/an or the (a teacher, the kindness of strangers). Collective nouns indicate collections of individuals (e.g. crowd, family, government) and can take either a singular or plural form of a following verb (e.g. My family are/is on holiday.)
See also noun phrase
noun phrase
A noun phrase is a phrase with a noun as its Head, e.g. some foxes, foxes with bushy tails. Some grammarians recognise one-word phrases, so that foxes are multiplying would contain the noun foxes acting as the head of the noun phrase foxes.
- Adult foxes can jump. [adult modifies foxes, so adult belongs to the noun phrase]
- Almost all healthy adult foxes in this area can jump. [all the other words help to modify foxes, so they all belong to the noun phrase]
See also expanded noun phrase.
number
numeral
Object
An Object is normally a noun, pronoun or noun phrase that comes straight after the verb, and shows what the verb is acting upon.
- Year 2 designed puppets. [noun acting as Object]
- I like that. [pronoun acting as object]
- Some people suggested a pretty display. [noun phrase acting as Object]
Objects can be turned into the Subject of a passive verb, and cannot be adjectives (contrast with Complement).
Contrast:
- A display was suggested. [Object of active verb becomes the Subject of the passive verb]
- *Year 2 designed pretty. [incorrect, because adjectives cannot be objects]
Note that Object is a function label which covers two different types: Direct Object and Indirect Object (and some other units typically selected by verbs). We use the label prepositional Object to indicate the function of a unit that comes after a preposition, typically a noun phrase (e.g. on the stairs, with cheese).
Object Complement
objective case
open class
open interrogative
participle
Verbs in English have two participles, called present participle (e.g. walking, taking) and past participle (e.g. walked, taken).
Unfortunately, these terms can be confusing to learners, because:
- they don’t necessarily have anything to do with present or past time
- although past participles are used as perfects (e.g. has eaten) they are also used as passives (e.g. was eaten).
- He is walking to school. [present participle in a progressive]
- He has taken the bus to school. [past participle in a perfect]
- The photo was taken in the rain. [past participle in a passive]
The present participle is sometimes called the -ing participle or gerund participle. The past participle is also called the -ed participle. A present participle clause (also called an -ing-clause) is a clause with a present participle as its Head verb. Example:
- Chewing on a sandwich, Pete tried to make a phone call at the same time.
A past participle clause (also called an -ed clause) is a clause with a past participle as its Head verb. Example:
- Kate flung herself onto the sofa, exhausted by a long day's work.
particle
passive
'Passive' is a term applied to a special pattern (or voice) used in a sentence or clause, formed with the auxiliary verb be followed by a verb in the -ed participle form, as in The fence was painted by my sister. Compare this with the more usual active pattern, as in My sister painted the fence. In the active example, the agent or 'doer' of the action (my sister) is expressed as the Subject; but in the passive example, the patient of the action (the fence) becomes the Subject.
The sentence It was eaten by our dog is the passive of Our dog ate it. A passive is recognisable from:
- the past participle form eaten
- the normal Object (it) turned into the Subject
- the normal Subject (our dog) turned into an optional preposition phrase with by as its Head
- the verb be(was), or some other verb such as get.
Contrast active.
A verb is not ‘passive’ just because it has a passive meaning: it must be the passive version of an active verb.
- A visit was arranged by the school.
- Our cat got run over by a bus.
Active versions:
- The school arranged a visit.
- A bus ran over our cat.
Not passive:
- He received a warning. [past tense, active received]
- We had an accident. [past tense, active had]
past participle
past perfect
past progressive
past tense
The past tense is a grammatical marking on verbs. (See also inflection.) E.g. the verb in She sounded tired is a past tense form (compare the present tense form in She sounds tired).
Verbs in the past tense are commonly used to:
- talk about the past
- talk about imagined situations
- make a request sound more polite.
Most verbs take a suffix –ed, to form their past tense, but many commonly-used verbs are irregular.
See also tense.
- Tom and Chris showed me their new TV. [names an event in the past]
- Antonio went on holiday to Brazil. [names an event in the past; irregular past of go]
- I wish I had a puppy. [names an imagined situation, not a situation in the past]
- I was hoping you'd help tomorrow. [makes an implied request sound more polite]
patient
perfect
The perfect construction is composed of a form of have followed by an past participle, e.g. has cooked, have walked, had eaten.
The perfect form of a verb generally calls attention to the consequences of a prior event; for example, he has gone to lunch implies that he is still away, in contrast with he went to lunch. ‘Had gone to lunch’ takes a past time point (i.e. when we arrived) as its reference point and is another way of establishing time relations in a text. The perfect tense is formed by:
- turning the verb into its past participle inflection
- adding a form of the verb have before it.
- She has downloaded some songs. [present perfect; now she has some songs]
- I had eaten lunch when you came. [past perfect; I wasn’t hungry when you came]
It can also be combined with the progressive (e.g. he has been going).
Many grammars refer to the perfect construction as a type of aspect.
person
personal pronoun
phoneme
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that signals a distinct, contrasting meaning. For example:
- /t/ contrasts with /k/ to signal the difference between tap and cap
- /t/ contrasts with /l/ to signal the difference between bought and ball.
It is this contrast in meaning that tells us there are two distinct phonemes at work.
There are around 44 phonemes in English; the exact number depends on regional accents. A single phoneme may be represented in writing by one, two, three or four letters constituting a single grapheme.
- The word cat has three letters and three phonemes: /kæt/
- The word catch has five letters and three phonemes: /kaʧ/
- The word caught has six letters and three phonemes: /kɔ:t/
phonetics
phonology
phrasal verb
phrase
A phrase is a group of words that are grammatically connected so that they stay together, and that expand a single word, called the Head. The phrase is a noun phrase if its Head is a noun, a preposition phrase if its Head is a preposition, and so on; but if the Head is a verb, the phrase is called a clause. Phrases can be made up of other phrases.
- She waved to her mother. [a noun phrase, with the noun mother as its Head]
- She waved to her mother. [a preposition phrase, with the preposition to as its Head]
- She waved to her mother. [a clause, with the verb waved as its Head]
We distinguish noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, prepositional phrases and adverb phrases (though note that the term ‘verb phrase’ is not used in the National Curriculum). You can think of the Head of a phrase as the most important element that tells you what the phrase is a 'kind of'. For example, a neighbour from hell is a kind of neighbour, and an unbelievably weird story is a kind of story. Phrases may include other elements which function as Modifier of the Head. For example, in the phrases above from hell and unbelievably weird are Modifiers.
Note: the National Curriculum does not regard single words as phrases, so that in Cats hate dogs, both cats and dogs are simply nouns, not noun phrases, and in I am happy, happy is an adjective, not an adjective phrase. The programme specifications state that: "
The National Curriculum refers to 'clauses' as a type of 'phrase'. This may at first seem a little bit puzzling, but if you think of a clause as a grouping of words whose pivotal element (i.e. Head) is a verb, then it begins to makes sense. Some grammarians prefer to distinguish between 'verb phrases', which do not include a Subject, and 'clauses', which do include a Subject.
plural
A plural noun normally has a suffix –s or –es and means ‘more than one’.
There are a few nouns with different morphology in the plural (e.g. mice, formulae).
- dogs [more than one dog]
- boxes [more than one box]
- mice [more than one mouse]
A term describing a form of a noun or pronoun which refers to more than one person or thing. Singular and plural are contrasting values of number. For example, roses is a plural form which contrasts with the singular form rose.
possessive
A form of noun (with ' or 's added) or pronoun that is often used to show possession.
A possessive can be:
- a noun followed by an apostrophe, with or without s
- a possessive pronoun.
- Tariq’s book [Tariq has the book]
- The boys’ arrival [the boys arrive]
- That essay is mine. [I wrote the essay]
The relation expressed by a possessive goes well beyond ordinary ideas of ‘possession’. A possessive may act as a determiner.
- His obituary [the obituary is about him]
The meaning of a possessive is not always 'possession' in a literal sense, e.g. John's arrival.
See also possessive adjective.
possessive adjective
Many websites on English grammar make mention of possessive adjectives. They use this term for words like my, his, her, our, your, etc. which always occur before nouns, typically to indicate possession. This would seem to make sense. After all, there is a similarity between the following:
- my daughters
and
- lovely daughters
However, the fact that my and lovely both occur before the noun daughters does not mean that they are both adjectives.
Adjectives are often said to be describing words: they ascribe a property to the noun that they accompany ('being lovely'). By contrast, words like my, his, her, etc. have a 'specifying' or 'identifying' function. They belong to the class of determiners, along with a, the, this, that, those, etc. Compare the following:
- a cat
and
- the cat
If you and I are talking, and I use the former phrase then I'm talking about a cat that is not known to you: it has as yet not been identified. The property of not being identifiable is called 'indefiniteness'. Conversely, the property of being identifiable is called 'definiteness'. So, when I use the phrase the cat in a conversation with you then you are familiar with (or I'm assuming that you are familiar with) the particular cat I'm talking about: it is an identifiable cat. Similarly, when I use the phrase my daughters then the individuals I'm talking about are identifiable to you.
Adjectives are grammatically different from determiners: typically they have comparative and superlative forms: lovely, lovelier, loveliest, and they are often gradable: very lovely. However, determiners cannot be modified in this way. We can't say my-er, my-est or very my.
possessive pronoun
Postmodifier
postposing
pragmatics
Predicate
Predicative Complement
predicative position
Predicator
prefix
A prefix is added at the beginning of a word in order to turn it into another word.
Contrast suffix.
- overtake, disappear
See also affix.
Premodifier
preposing
preposition
A member of a closed word class, including of and in, which grammatically link other elements together, and generally expresses relations in space, in time, or in the mind.
A preposition links a following noun, pronoun or noun phrase to some other word in the sentence. Prepositions often describe locations or directions, but can describe other things, such as relations of time.
Words like before or since can act either as prepositions or as conjunctions.
- Tom waved goodbye to Christy.
- She’ll be back from Australia in two weeks.
- I haven’t seen my dog since this morning.
Contrast: I’m going, since no-one wants me here! [conjunction: links two clauses]
preposition phrase
A preposition phrase has a preposition as its Head followed by a noun, pronoun or noun phrase.
- He was in bed.
- I met them after the party.
On the Englicious site we generally use the term prepositional phrase, by which we mean the same as preposition phrase.
prepositional Object
prepositional phrase
prepositional verb
prescriptive
present participle
present perfect
present progressive
present tense
The present tense is a grammatical marking on verbs which often, but not always, expresses present time. (See also inflection.) E.g. the verb in She sounds tired is a present tense form (compare the past tense form in She sounded tired).
Verbs in the present tense are commonly used to:
- talk about the present
- talk about the future.
They may take a suffix –s (depending on the subject).
See also tense.
- Jamal goes to the pool every day. [describes a habit that exists now]
- He can swim. [describes a state that is true now]
- The bus arrives at three. [scheduled now]
- My friends are coming to play. [describes a plan in progress now]
progressive
The progressive (also known as the continuous) form of a verb generally describes events in progress. It is formed by combining the verb’s present participle (e.g. singing) with a form of the verb be (e.g. he was singing).
- Michael is singing in the store room. [present progressive]
- Amanda was making a patchwork quilt. [past progressive]
The progressive can also be combined with the perfect (e.g. he has been singing).
- Usha had been practising for an hour when I called. [past perfect progressive]
The progressive construction conveys aspect, in that it indicates that a situation is viewed as an ongoing process.
pronoun
A closed class of words, including he, I and you, which can generally stand in for a noun phrase.
Pronouns are normally used like nouns, except that:
- they are grammatically more specialised
- it is harder to modify them.
In the examples, each sentence is written twice: once with nouns, and once with pronouns (in red). Where the same thing is being talked about, the words are shown in bold.
- Amanda waved to Michael. She waved to him.
- John’s mother is over there. His mother is over there.
- The visit will be an overnight visit. This will be an overnight visit.
- Simon is the person: Simon broke it. He is the one who broke it.
Note that pronouns often occur not just in similar positions to nouns, but also in similar positions to entire noun phrases, e.g.
- The children went to the park. ~They went to the park.
As well as personal pronouns like they and him, there are many other types of pronoun, including demonstrative pronouns (this, these, that), e.g. that is amazing!, indefinite pronouns (who, which, what, etc.) and reciprocal pronouns (each other, one another). Who and that are relative pronouns when they relate to an antecedent (e.g. That is the fox that we saw last night)
Some pronouns can change their form depending on their function. For example, in Subject position we have I, she, he, we, they, who, whereas in Object position we have me, her, him, us, them, whom. This is a distinction of case.
proper name
proper noun
pseudocleft sentence
A sentence which conforms to the following pattern: Wh-item + ... + {form of be} + Focus, as in
- What Janice did was laugh out loud.
Compare with cleft sentence.
punctuation
Punctuation includes any conventional features of writing other than spelling and general layout: the standard punctuation marks . , ; : ? ! - – ( ) “ ” ‘ ’ , and also word-spaces, capital letters, apostrophes, paragraph breaks and bullet points. One important role of punctuation is to indicate sentence boundaries.
- “I’m_going_out,_Usha,_and_I_won’t_be_long,”_Mum_said.
question
question word
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation (often abbreviated to RP) is an accent which is used only by a small minority of English speakers in England. It is not associated with any one region. Because of its regional neutrality, it is the accent which is generally shown in dictionaries in the UK (but not, of course, in the USA). RP has no special status in the National Curriculum.
recipient
reciprocal pronoun
referential it
reflexive
register
'Register' is a broad description of the type of sociolinguistic context of written and spoken language, similar to genre in meaning.
Classroom lessons, football commentaries and novels use different registers of the same language, recognised by differences of vocabulary and grammar. Registers are ‘varieties’ of a language which are each tied to a range of uses, in contrast with dialects, which are tied to groups of users.
- I regret to inform you that Mr Joseph Smith has passed away. [formal letter]
- Have you heard that Joe has died? [casual speech]
- Joe falls down and dies, centre stage. [stage direction]
'Register' is frequently used to refer to the degree of formality/informality of a text (a property arising out of the situation), whereas genre tends to have a more traditional 'library classification' meaning (e.g. instructional/informative, fiction/non-fiction).
relational verb
relative clause
A relative clause is a special type of subordinate clause that modifies a noun. It often does this by using a relative pronoun such as who or that to refer back to that noun, though the relative pronoun that is often omitted.
A relative clause may also be attached to a clause. In that case, the pronoun refers back to the whole clause, rather than referring back to a noun.
In the examples, the relative clauses are in red, and both the pronouns and the words they refer back to are in bold.
- That’s the boy who lives near school. [who refers back to boy]
- The prize that I won was a book. [that refers back to prize]
- The prize I won was a book. [the pronoun that is omitted]
- Tom broke the game, which annoyed Ali. [which refers back to the whole clause]
relative pronoun
root word
Root words are words that can stand alone, unlike prefixes and suffixes, which cannot stand alone.
Morphology breaks words down into root words, which can stand alone, and suffixes or prefixes which can’t. For example, help is the root word for other words in its word family such as helpful and helpless, and also for its inflections such as helping. Compound words (e.g. help-desk) contain two or more root words. When looking in a dictionary, we sometimes have to look for the root word (or words) of the word we are interested in.
- played [the root word is play]
- unfair [the root word is fair]
- football [the root words are foot and ball]
schwa
The name of a vowel sound that is found only in unstressed positions in English. It is the most common vowel sound in English.
It is written as /ə/ in the International Phonetic Alphabet. In the English writing system, it can be written in many different ways.
- /əlɒŋ/ [along]
- /bʌtə/ [butter]
- /dɒktə/ [doctor]
semantic role
semantics
sentence
A sentence is a group of words which are grammatically connected to each other but not to any words outside the sentence.
The form of a sentence’s main clause shows whether it is being used as a statement, a question, a command or an exclamation.
A sentence may consist of a single clause or it may contain several clauses held together by subordination or co-ordination. Classifying a sentence as a simple sentence, complex sentence or compound sentence can be confusing, because a ‘simple’ sentence may be complicated, and a ‘complex’ one may be straightforward. The terms single-clause sentence and multi-clause sentence may be more helpful.
- John went to his friend’s house. He stayed there till tea-time.
- John went to his friend’s house, he stayed there till tea-time. [comma splice]
- This is a ‘comma splice’, a common error in which a comma is used where either a full stop or a semi-colon is needed to indicate the lack of any grammatical connection between the two clauses.
- You are my friend. [statement]
- Are you my friend? [question]
- Be my friend! [command]
- What a good friend you are! [exclamation]
- Ali went home on his bike to his goldfish and his current library book about pets. [single-clause sentence]
- She went shopping but took back everything she had bought because she didn’t like any of it. [multi-clause sentence]
See also clause type, command, exclamation, question, statement.
simple past
simple present
simple sentence
single-clause sentence
singular
speech verb
split digraph
Standard English
Standard English can be recognised by the use of a very small range of forms such as those books, I did it and I wasn’t doing anything (rather than their non-Standard equivalents); it is not limited to any particular accent. It is the variety of English which is used, with only minor variation, as a major world language. Some people use Standard English all the time, in all situations from the most casual to the most formal, so it covers most registers. The aim of the national curriculum is that everyone should be able to use Standard English as needed in writing and in relatively formal speaking.
- I did it because they were not willing to undertake any more work on those houses. [formal Standard English]
- I did it cos they wouldn’t do any more work on those houses. [casual Standard English]
- I done it cos they wouldn’t do no more work on them houses. [casual non-Standard English]
Note that standards change, and that Standard English in Shakespeare's time, or in Dickens's time, was different from Standard English today. Likewise, Standard English in 200 years will be different from Standard English now.
Likewise, standards vary around the world. American English and British English do have some significant differences, such that what is standard in America may be non-standard in the UK.
statement
stress
A syllable is stressed if it is pronounced more forcefully than the syllables next to it. The other syllables are unstressed.
- about
- visit
The emphasis that a speaker places on a word or syllable of a word makes the word or syllable louder, higher, and/or longer than other words or syllables. Words have characteristic stress patterns: for example, tiger is stressed on the first syllable while about is stressed on the second syllable.
Subject
The Subject of a verb is normally the noun, noun phrase or pronoun that names the ‘do-er’ or ‘be-er’. The Subject’s normal position is:
- just before the verb in a statement
- just after the auxiliary verb, in a question.
Unlike the verb’s Object and Complement, the Subject can determine the form of the verb (e.g. I am, you are).
- Rula’s mother went out.
- That is uncertain.
- The children will study the animals.
- Will the children study the animals?
'Subject' is a function label for an element in the clause which often identifies the agent that carries out the action expressed by the main verb. However, not all Subjects denote agents (e.g. in Linda felt tired, Linda is not really a 'do-er' - she is not carrying out an action), so the Subject is better defined in terms of grammatical properties. These include its typical position in the clause, and the way it shows agreement with the verb in person and number.
Subject Complement
Subject-verb inversion
subjective case
subjunctive
In some languages, the inflections of a verb include a large range of special forms which are used typically in subordinate clauses, and are called 'subjunctives'. English has very few such forms and those it has tend to be used in rather formal styles.
- The school requires that all pupils be honest.
- The school rules demand that pupils not enter the gym at lunchtime.
- If Zoë were the class president, things would be much better.
Subjunctive verbs are triggered by adjectives such as necessary, imperative, crucial, or by verbs such as demand, require, insist, etc. When the subjunctive verb has a third person singular subject, it does not take the -s inflection.
- I insist that he leave at once.
- We stipulated that she take a French course.
Many grammarians now take the view that English does not have a subjunctive mood.
subordinate
subordinate clause
A clause which is subordinate to some other part of the same sentence is a subordinate clause; for example, in The apple that I ate was sour, the clause that I ate is subordinate to apple (which it modifies).
- That’s the street where Ben lives. [relative clause; modifies street]
- He watched her as she disappeared. [Adverbial; modifies watched]
- What you said was very nice. [acts as Subject of was]
- She noticed an hour had passed. [acts as Object of noticed]
Subordinate clauses contrast with coordinate clauses as in It was sour but looked very tasty. (Contrast: main clause)
However, clauses that are directly quoted as direct speech are not subordinate clauses.
- Not subordinate: He shouted, “Look out!”
A subordinate clause does not function as a sentence on its own but functions instead as part of a larger clause. For example, in the sentence I believe that we will have a hot summer the clause that we will have a hot summer is a subordinate clause functioning as part of the larger main clause: it is the Direct Object of the verb believe.
subordinating conjunction
subordination
The relationship between two elements of unequal grammatical status, often linked by a subordinate conjunction.
A subordinate word or phrase tells us more about the meaning of the word it is subordinate to. Subordination can be thought of as an unequal relationship between a subordinate word and a main word. For example:
- an adjective is subordinate to the noun it modifies
- Subjects and Objects are subordinate to their verbs.
- big dogs [big is subordinate to dogs]
- Big dogs need long walks. [big dogs and long walks are subordinate to need]
- We can watch TV when we’ve finished. [when we’ve finished is subordinate to watch]
Subordination is much more common than the equal relationship of coordination.
See also subordinate clause.
subordinator
suffix
A suffix is an ‘ending’, used at the end of one word to turn it into another word. Unlike root words, suffixes cannot stand on their own as a complete word.
Contrast prefix.
- call – called
- teach – teacher [turns a verb into a noun]
- terror – terrorise [turns a noun into a verb]
- green – greenish [leaves word class unchanged]
See also affix.
superlative
syllable
A syllable sounds like a beat in a word. Syllables consist of at least one vowel, and possibly one or more consonants.
- Cat has one syllable.
- Fairy has two syllables.
- Hippopotamus has five syllables.
synonym
Two words are synonyms if they have the same meaning, or similar meanings. Contrast antonym.
- talk – speak
- old – elderly
syntactic distribution
syntax
tag question
tense
Tense is a grammatical notion, and refers to the way that time is encoded in language, typically through verb endings (inflections).
In English, tense is the choice between present tense and past tense verbs, which is special because it is signalled by inflections and normally indicates differences of time. In contrast, languages like French, Spanish and Italian have three or more distinct tense forms, including a future tense. (See also: future.)
The simple tenses (present and past) may be combined in English with the perfect and progressive.
- He studies. [present tense – present time]
- He studied yesterday. [past tense – past time]
- He studies tomorrow, or else! [present tense – future time]
- He may study tomorrow. [present tense + infinitive – future time]
- He plans to study tomorrow. [present tense + infinitive – future time]
- If he studied tomorrow, he’d see the difference! [past tense – imagined future]
Contrast three distinct tense forms in Spanish:
- Estudia. [present tense]
- Estudió. [past tense]
- Estudiará. [future tense]
text grammar
text-world
A text-world is a mental image that is triggered by language and fleshed out by a reader's own background knowledge. For example, in the sentence the black dog looked menacingly at the nervous postman, a text-world is constructed out of nouns (dog, postman) and Modifiers in the form of adjectives (black, nervous) and adverbs (menacingly).
My knowledge of the world (in this instance of dogs and postmen) fleshes out the detail - although there is nothing in the text that states it, I imagine the dog to be big and snarling, and the postman to be wearing a uniform and carrying a large bag.
Thinking about language like this allows us to appreciate that the way we interpret texts is a result of two things: (1) the text itself, and (2) our own, unique personal experiences, memories and background knowledge.
thought verb
topicalisation
transitive preposition
transitive verb
A transitive verb takes at least one Object in a sentence to complete its meaning, in contrast to an intransitive verb, which does not.
- He loves Juliet.
- She understands English grammar.
tree (diagram)
trigraph
A type of grapheme where three letters represent one phoneme.
- High /haɪ/
- pure /pjʊə/
- patch /pætʃ/
- hedge /hɛdʒ/
uncountable noun
undergoer
ungrammatical
unstressed
unvoiced
utterance
verb
Verbs constitute one of the major word classes, including words for actions (e.g. shout, work, travel) and states (e.g. be, belong, remain). There are two main types of verb: main verbs and auxiliary verbs.
The surest way to identify verbs is by the ways they can be used: they can usually have a tense, either present tense or past tense (see also future).
- He lives in Birmingham. [present tense]
- The teacher wrote a song for the class. [past tense]
Verbs are sometimes called ‘doing words’ because many verbs name an action that someone does; while this can be a way of recognising verbs, it doesn’t distinguish verbs from nouns (which can also name actions). Moreover many verbs name states or feelings rather than actions.
- He likes chocolate. [present tense; not an action]
- He knew my father. [past tense; not an action]
Not verbs:
- The walk to Halina’s house will take an hour. [noun]
- All that surfing makes Morwenna so sleepy! [noun]
Verbs can be classified in various ways: for example, as auxiliary verbs, or modal verbs; as transitive verbs or intransitive verbs; and as states or events.
Irregular verbs form their past tense typically by a change of vowel (e.g. break-broke, see-saw, eat-ate). Be aware that in the National Curriculum a sequence of one or more auxiliaries together with a main verb are regarded as forms of the main verb. For example, have eaten is a form (the perfect form) of the verb eat, and will have been being seen is a form of the verb see. In other frameworks such sequences are regarded as verb phrases.
verb form
The forms a verb can take. For example, for be we have am, are, is, was, being, been; for walk we have walks, walked, walking, and for see we have sees, saw, seeing, and seen.
The National Curriculum also uses this term to include tense and aspect. In this sense there are six different ‘tense’ forms of a verb: the simple present tense and past tense forms, plus the present and past forms of the progressive and perfect.
- He lives in Birmingham. [simple present]
- He lived in Birmingham. [simple past]
- He is living in Birmingham. [present progressive]
- He was living in Birmingham. [past progressive]
- He has lived in Birmingham. [present perfect]
- He had lived in Birmingham. [past perfect]
verb phrase
In grammar studies the term verb phrase (VP) has been defined in different ways. On the Englicious website we mainly use the first definition.
1. A verb phrase is a phrase in which a lexical verb functions as the Head. The Head can occur alone or together with one or more auxiliary verbs:
In this conception of verb phrase the direct object and possible adjuncts are not included in the VP.
Note: The label 'verb phrase' is not used in the National Curriculum. The National Curriculum defines a clause as "a special type of phrase whose Head is a verb".
2. A verb phrase is a phrase in which a lexical verb functions as the Head; it can also contain elements other than verbs. In the sentence below the verb phrase comprises only the intransitive verb blush:
But in the next two sentences the VP consists of a verb and a following noun phrase taken together:
In these sentences the NPs function as Direct Object.
In addition to an Object a verb phrase may also contain an Adverbial:
See also clause.
vocal articulators
vocal tract
voice
voiced
vowel
A vowel is a speech sound which is produced without any closure or obstruction of the vocal tract.
Vowels can form syllables by themselves, or they may combine with consonants.
In the English writing system, the letters a, e, i, o, u and y can represent vowels.
The term 'vowel' is used in two ways: first, for a sound which is made with the mouth fairly open and which forms the central part of a syllable; and second, for a letter which is used to write a vowel sound, e.g. a, e, i, o, u. See also the contrasting term consonant.
wh-movement
word
A word is a unit of grammar: it can be selected and moved around relatively independently, but cannot easily be split. In punctuation, words are normally separated by word spaces. Sometimes, a sequence that appears grammatically to be two words is collapsed into a single written word, indicated with a hyphen or apostrophe (e.g. well-built, he’s).
- headteacher or head teacher [can be written with or without a space]
- I’m going out.
- 9.30 am
word class
Every word belongs to a word class which summarises the ways in which it can be used in grammar. The major word classes for English are: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, determiner, pronoun, conjunction. Word classes are sometimes called parts of speech.
A word class is a group of words which show similar grammatical behaviour. For example, words which belong to the class of nouns occur as the Heads of noun phrases, can be preceded by determiners, and so on.
word family
The words in a word family are normally related to each other by a combination of morphology, grammar and meaning.
- teach – teacher
- extend – extent – extensive
- grammar – grammatical – grammarian