English Grammar at a Glance

Useful terminology for teachers and learners alike

*On this page...*
Parts of Speech	The Tenses
Syntax	Pronunciation
The Moods	Style

Parts of Speech

Article	Adjective
Noun	Preposition
Pronoun	Conjunction
Verb	Interjection
Adverb	Number (Numeral)

Article
Indefinite article	There's a pen on the table.
Definite article	The pen is mine.
Zero article	Planning is important.

Noun
Singular noun	boy, box, baby, child, antenna, phenomenon
Plural noun	boys, boxes, babies, children, antennae, phenomena
Countable noun	one apple, two apples
Uncountable noun	some rice, some mayonnaise
Collective noun	furniture, cutlery, equipment
Concrete noun	apple, computer
Abstract noun	honesty, love, fear, happiness
Compound noun	bookshelf, word-processor, post office
Common noun	apple, computer
Proper noun	Linda has a house in London.
Eponym	Parkinson's (named after James Parkinson) sandwich (named after the 4th Earl of Sandwich)
Partitives, units and quantity	Partitives express a part of a whole. They also enable us to quantify uncountable nouns: two rices two bags of rice. None of the adults, some of the boys, all of the girls, both of the brothers, neither of the sisters, etc. (See also quantifiers) A box of chocolates, a carton of milk, a can of soda, a bottle of Scotch, a jar of peanut butter, a tub of ice cream, a cup of coffee, a piece of cheesecake, a bag of peanuts, a packet of chewing gum, a tube of toothpaste, a roll of film, a tin of paint, a pack of cards, a bunch of grapes, a whole bunch of paparazzi, a company of girl guides, a gang of thieves, a flock of sheep, a herd of cows, a pack of hounds, a school or shoal of fish, a set of rules, a bouquet of flowers, a swarm of mosquitoes, etc.

Pronoun
Demonstrative pronoun	This was fun. That was boring.
Indefinite pronoun	Some were good. Nobody is there. Is there any left?
Interrogative pronoun	What? Which? Who? Whom?
Personal pronoun (subjective)	I, you, he, she, it, we, you (pl.), they
Personal pronoun (objective)	me, you, him, her, it, us, you (pl.), them
Possessive pronoun	The car is mine / yours / his / hers / ours / theirs
Reflexive pronoun	Bill burned himself on the hot iron.
Emphasizing pronoun	The King himself visited the disaster victims.
Relative pronoun	The man who / that won is here. The prize which / that he won is also here.

Verb
Finite verb	A verb form the use of which which is limited by subject and tense, e.g. I go, he goes, she went, they have gone.
Infinite verb	A verb form the use of which is unrestricted by subject or tense. In English this means the infinitive, the gerund and the participles.
Infinitive	The infinitive is the basic form of a verb you'll find listed in a dictionary.
Bare infinitive:	She can drink coffee.
to-infinitive:	She stopped to drink coffee.
Gerund	She stopped drinking coffee.
Present participle	Charlie is playing golf now.
Past participle	Emmy has played already.
3rd person singular	He likes cooking. She watches TV.
Regular verb	She walks, she walked, she has walked
Irregular verb	I swim, I swam, I have swum
Auxiliary verb	I have won! He is eating. Do you smoke?
Modal auxiliary verb (+ bare infinitive)	You must (had to) go. We can (could) drive. He may (might) come. They will (would) win. I shall (should) write to the manager. You ought to complain.
Verb of perception (+ adjective)	She seems reliable, appears confident and sounds interesting. The food looks good, smells superb and tastes delicious.
Action verb	Action verbs are used in both the simple and continuous tenses: Jane plays chess. She is playing chess now.
State (or stative) verb	State verbs are generally not used in the continuous tenses: Jane belongs to the chess club. Membership costs just $20 a year. Some people dislike playing chess, while others love it.
Performative verb	Performative verbs are utterances that constitute an action: He admits he made a mistake and promises not to do it again.
Transitive verb	The company raised its prices.
Intransitive verb	Prices rose.
Passive voice	Prices were raised.
Phrasal verb	His marriage broke up when his car broke down.

Adverb
Positive adverb	Jenny works hard and carefully.
Comparative adverb	Kate works even harder and more carefully than Jenny.
Superlative adverb	Pam works (the) hardest and most carefully.
Adverb of degree	Jack is quite short but rather chubby.
Adverb of frequency	I never smoke but I sometimes drink alcohol.
Adverb of manner	Anne drives slowly but safely.
Adverb of place	He ran away. She lives abroad.
Adverb of time	Today he is still unwell.
Interrogative adverb	Why / when / where / how did he go?
Relative adverb	The town where I was born.
Sentence adverb	Hopefully she'll come. She definitely ought to.

Adjective
Correct order of adjectives	Opinion size shape age shade color pattern origin material I have a lovely large round new bright red and white striped Spanish cotton tablecloth.
Attributive adjective	The late train (= scheduled later than others) A heavy drinker (= he drank a lot of alcohol)
Predicative adjective	The train was late (= delayed). The drinker was heavy (= he weighed a lot).
Positive adjective	Dick is kind and generous.
Comparative adjective	Dan is even kinder and more generous than Dick.
Superlative adjective	Dave is (the) kindest and most generous.
Interrogative adjective	Whose party? Which restaurant? What time?
Demonstrative adjective	This / that book. These / those pens.
Distributive adjective	Each / every / either / neither girl. All / both boys.
Possessive adjective	My / your / his / her / its / our / their eyes.
Determiner	Word used to narrow the scope of a noun, such as a numeral, an article, or the demonstrative, distributive and possessive adjectives above.
Quantifier	A quantifier is either a distributive adjective or some other single word or phrase used to define quantity, e.g. "The old man had some CDs, a few DVDs, a lot of video cassettes, one hundred audio cassettes and half a ton of LP records!" (See also partitives.)
Simile	As strong as a lion, as blind as a bat, as dead as a doornail, as good as gold, as cool as a cucumber, as light as a feather, as heavy as lead, as daft as a brush, etc. Although his wife has eyes like a hawk, he ate like a horse, drank like a fish, and then slept like a log.
Synonym	big and large
Antonym	big vs. small

Preposition
Definition	A preposition governs (and usually precedes) a noun or pronoun in order to define its relationship to other words. Here below some categories and examples:
Preposition of time	For two years, since 2019, I've worked from nine to five. I've always arrived in time for work and finished by 5 o'clock. I used to work until / till midnight, but now I can relax before going to bed, at weekends after 12 noon on Saturdays, and during my long summer holiday in July.
Preposition of location	I work in an office on the 5th floor of the port authority building near the River Thames. I sit at the back by the window with a panoramic view over this important shipping lane. My boss, the oldest among us, sits in front of me. His secretary works opposite him, there's a junior clerk behind her and my colleague Dan sits next to / beside me. There's a filing cabinet between the photocopier and the coffee machine, a clock above the door and a wastepaper bin under each desk. The lunchroom is on the floor below ours.
Preposition of movement	I got into my car and drove from Wall Street through Midtown Manhattan and then along the expressway to Long Island. I got out of my car at Montvale Race Track, where I got on / onto a horse. I didn't have to get off the horse because I was thrown from the saddle!
Preposition of means	You can go to the Chinese restaurant by bus or on foot, but you'll have to eat with chopsticks!

Conjunction
Coordinating conjunction	Links two main clauses or ideas of equal value: He's big and strong but not so intelligent. She's both clever and reliable. The weather is either too wet or too windy. Frank is neither very rich nor very poor.
Subordinating conjunction	Introduces a subordinate clause, i.e. one that cannot stand alone without the support of a main clause.
of time:	when, whenever, while, as soon as, until, before, after, since
of reason:	because, as, since, so
of result:	so...that, such...that
of purpose:	so that
of condition:	if, in case, unless, as long as
of contrast or concession:	although, even though

Interjection
Examples	Oh dear! She's late again. Ah, here she is. Ouch, that hurt!

Number (Numeral)
Cardinal number or numeral	one, two, three, four, five, six...
Ordinal number or numeral	first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth...

Syntax

Letter
Small (lower case)	abc...xyz
Large (upper case)	ABC...XYZ

Morpheme	The smallest element of language that can convey meaning. For example, the word bricklayer is made up of three morphemes: brick, lay and -er.

Affix	An element added to the beginning of a word (prefix) or end of a word (suffix) to modify its meaning.
Prefix	An unusual day. A disobedient child
Suffix	The violinist played with the trumpeter.

Word	The smallest meaningful element of language. When written it stands alone with a space on either side of it. (19 words)

Phrase	A group of words forming a concept but not a sentence: in a hurry; by himself; day by day.
Binomial phrase	There are restaurants here and there where ladies and gentlemen can wine and dine their friends and pick and choose from this and that on the menu.

Clause	Part of a sentence including a subject and a predicate.
Main clause	A clause that could stand independently and still make sense on its own: He apologized because he was late.
Subordinate clause	A clause that wouldn't make much sense without an accompanying main clause: He apologized because he was late.
Relative clause
Defining relative clause:	The hotel (that / which) I stayed in was rather old.
Non-defining relative clause:	The hotel, which is quite famous, is going to close.
Antecedent:	The hotel (that / which) you stayed in was more modern.

Sentence	A sentence consists of at least one clause, i.e. a subject (which is sometimes only implied) and a predicate: I walk. Go! (= You go!)

Paragraph	A paragraph is a section in a piece of writing, usually highlighting a particular point or topic. It always begins on a new line, either after skipping a line or, as in this example, with an indentation. It consists of at least one sentence. (This piece of text constitutes a single paragraph.)

Subject	He likes her. Going on vacation is fun. Pamela paints landscapes. John lives in a house by the river.

Predicate	He likes her. Going on vacation is fun. Pamela paints landscapes. John lives in a house by the river.

Object	She likes him although she thinks that he's crazy.
Direct object	They gave Tommy a present on his birthday.
Indirect object	They gave Tommy a present on his birthday.

Complement	He is a scientist. She seems amused. We became tired.

Speech
Direct speech	"My job is tough," she said.
Reported speech	She said (that) her job was tough.

Question
Direct question	What's your name?
Indirect question	Ask him what his name is!
Tag question	"You keep fit, don't you?" "You don't smoke, do you?"
Rhetorical question	This kind of question is used to make a statement rather than get an answer: "Who cares?" (= Nobody cares.) "Why bother?" (= It's a waste of time.)

The Moods

Indicative mood	The earth is round (a simple statement of fact).

Imperative mood	Save $200 a year on haircuts. Shave your head!

Subjunctive mood
Old phrases and clichés still in common use	Come what may... Be that as it may... God forbid! Woe betide... Till death do us part.
Jussive subjunctive	In British English, the optional inclusion of should helps to clarify the jussive subjunctive: AmE I suggested that she go early. She insisted that something be done about his snoring. BrE I suggested that she (should) go early. She insisted that something (should) be done about his snoring.
Hypothetical subjunctive	If I were you, I would see a doctor. (See type 2 conditional below!)
as if / as though + past subjunctive	He acts as if he owned the company. She speaks as though she knew everything.
it is time + past subjunctive (unreal past)	It is time we were leaving.

Conditional mood
Type 1: probable (real) conditional	If I'm late I'll call you.
Type 2: improbable (unreal) conditional	If I had the time, I'd write a novel.
Type 3: hypothetical conditional	If I hadn't stayed in Las Vegas, I wouldn't have lost a fortune.
Type 4: zero conditional	If she has a cold she goes to bed.

The Tenses

Future simple	She will sleep soon.
Future continuous	She will be sleeping at 11 PM.
Future perfect	At 7 AM she will have slept for 8 hours.
Future perfect continuous	By 5 AM she will have been sleeping for 6 hours.
Present simple	She sleeps well.
Present continuous	She is sleeping right now.
Present perfect	She has slept well since she was a child.
Present perfect continuous	Tonight she has been sleeping soundly for two hours.
Past simple	She slept for ten hours last night.
Past continuous	She was sleeping when her husband came home.
Past perfect	This morning he said she had slept all night long.
Past perfect continuous	She had been sleeping when the alarm clock rang.

Pronunciation

Standards
Received pronunciation (RP)	The clearly articulated standard of British English that is prevalent among educated speakers in southern England.
General American (GA)	The standard, non-regional form of U.S. English

Phonetics	The written classification of spoken sounds.
Phonetic symbol	A symbol representing one particular sound.
Phoneme	The smallest phonetic element of language that can convey a distinction in meaning, e.g. the 'l' in late, the 'd' in date and the 'g' in gate.
Vowel	a e i o u
Consonant	b c d f g h j k l m n p q r s t v w x y z
Syllable	Canada has three syllables.
Monophthong	For example, the single vowel sound /æ/ in "hat".
Diphthong	For example, the double vowel sound /eɪ/ in "hate".
Homonym	A word with the same sound (a homophone) or spelling (a homograph) as another but with a different meaning.
Homophone:	I'll check if the Czech paid by cheque.
Homograph:	Everyone at the fair had fair hair. It's not fair!
Intonation	The rising and falling of your voice as you speak, especially when this conveys added meaning.
Stress	The accentuation of one particular word or syllable.
Word stress:	She's an English English teacher.
Syllable stress:	He's a photographer.

Style

Formal style	Your children must be collected from school.
Informal style	You have to pick your kids up from school.
Idiom	The taxi driver took me for a ride (= tricked me).
Slang	The cops are coming! (= police officers)
Dialect	The language variant spoken in a particular area, e.g. Cockney in London's East End or Geordie on Tyneside.
Vernacular	A widely-spoken, non-formal regional language variant, such as the Estuary English of South-East England.
Jargon	I had to reboot my computer after it crashed.
Terminology	He held her software on his hard drive.
Simile	He was as emotionless as a robot. She worked like a robot.
Metaphor	He is a puppet of the regime. Her writing was rubbish.