Grammar Terms Parts of Speech (grammatical functions of words and phrases) adjective — a word that modifies or adds more information to a noun (pretty, sad, tired, big) adverb — a word that modifies a verb, adjective, adverb or clause (slowly, silently, very) conjunction — a word that joins words, phrases, or clauses (and, but, or; after, when; while) ‘The teacher started the class and we all sat down. When she spoke, we all listened determiner ~ a word which precedes nouns and classifies, identifies, or indicates their quantity * article (a, an, the) ~ a determiner indicates that a noun will follow © indefinite article — indicates an unspecified noun (a, an) ‘definite article — indicates a specific entity which both the reader and writer recognize (the) * demonstrative adjective - a word that indicates distance in place or time (this, that, these, those) # possessive adjective - a word that indicates the owner (my, his her, your, our, their) noun ~ a word used to identify a person, place or thing, * count nouns - things which can be counted and made plural (chair/chairs, book/books, pen/pens) + noncount nouns ~ things which are not countable and are always singular (advice, water, money) proper noun - the name of a person or place (written with initial capital letters — Mary, France, UCI) preposition — a word indicating the relationship between two things which may be spatial, temporal, grammatical or metaphorical (about, above, after, against, around, at, before, behind, beside, down, during, for, from. in, into, of, to, under, up, with, within) The pen is on the table. Please sec me after class, pronoun ~a word that takes the place of a noun or noun phrase (J, you, he, she, it, we, they, me, him, her, us, them) verb —a word that shows action or state of being (go, bring, be, study) © auxiliary verb —a helping verb that is added to a main verb to indicate mood, voice, or tense (do, have, be) modal - an auxiliary verb that indicates necessity, ability, possibility, permission o obligation (can, could, will, would, shall, should, ought, might, may, must, have to) gerund ~ a verb with an -ing ending that functions as a noun (studying, thinking, going) infinitive —a verb form that is not marked for time or person (often preceded by fo —t0 go, to be, to sing) intransitive verb ~ a verb that does not take a direct abject (sleep — She slept late yesterday.) transitive verb —a verb that requires a direct object to complete its meaning (‘ell ~ Please tell me your story.) ‘* participle ~ a verb + -ing (present participle) or -ed, -en, -t (past participle) that can be part of a verb phrase or act as an adjective (going, caring, seen, tired — she is going; the caring boy; they have seen it; a tired man) tense — time of the action of the verb Table of Tenses Tense — time of the action ‘Example Simple Present Fre studies everyday. Simple Past We worked last night, Simple Future They will leave tomorrow. Present Progressive She is eating right now. Past Progressive Twes reading when you called. Future Progressive Present Perfect Twill be cooking when you arri He has seen the movie three times. Past Perfect Thad been to Asia before you went. Future Perfect ‘We will have taken the first exam before we start then next chapter. Present Perfect Progressive She has been driving for two years. Past Perfect Progressive Thad been living in New York before we moved to Florida, Future Perfect progressive We will have been exercising for an hour by the time we finish.Sentence Structure sentence ~a grammatically complete assertion that contains a subject and a verb — She came late. clause ~ any group of words that has a subject and a verb~ she went dependent clause ~ a clause that cannot stand alone - when I lived there ‘+ independent clause — a clause that can stand alone as a simple sentence ~ They've decided. + relative clause ~ a dependent clause that usually begins with a relative pronoun (who, which, that, whose) The boy who lives next door is my friend. conditional sentence ~ a hypothetical sentence with a dependent clause beginning with if, or unless — If want to pass, I'd better do more work. fragment ~ a group of words ending with a period (.) that does not constitute a complete sentence Before I decided to come. Because he loves me. phrase — a word group that acts as a single part of speech but does not have both a subject and a verb while talking on the phone looking unhappy afer the prom run-on sentence ~ independent clauses joined with commas, inappropriate conjunctions, or no punctuation Late my lunch, I polished my shoes. subject ~ the noun or noun phrase that names the doer of the action of the verb— She registered on time.