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Grammar A–Z

Some grammatical terms may be familiar to you, but others can be confusing or hard to remember. Clicking on any term

below will give you a quick and clear definition. Below the categorized section you’ll find all the terms listed from A–Z,

so you can browse that way if you prefer.

Nouns

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Noun

Abstract noun

Collective noun

Common noun

Concrete noun

Countable nounGerund

Mass noun

Proper noun

Uncountable noun

Verbal noun

Verbs

Verb

Active

Agent

Auxiliary verb

Finite verbInfinitive

Intransitive

Irregular

Modal verb

Non-finite verb

Object

Participle

Passive

Phrasal verb

Regular

Split infinitive

SubjectTransitive

Adjectives

Adjective

Attributive

Classifying

Comparative

Positive

Postpositive

Predicative

QualitativeSuperlative

Pronouns

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Pronoun

Personal pronoun

Possessive pronoun

Articles

ArticleDefinite article

Indefinite article

Tenses and Moods

Aspect

Conditional

Continuous

Future

Imperative

Indicative

Interrogative

MoodPast

Perfect

Present

Progressive

Subjunctive

Tense

Sentences

Sentence

Syntax

Clauses

Clause

Conditional clause

Coordinate clause

Defining relative clauseMain clause

Non-restrictive relative clause

Relative clause

Restrictive relative clause

Subordinate clause

Speech

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Direct speech

Indirect speech

Reported speech

Other parts of speech

Part of speech

Adverb

Conjunction

Determiner

Exclamation

Interjection

Preposition

Quantifier

Word class

Other useful terms

Adjunct

Adverbial

Affirmative

Cohesion

Cohesive device

Complement

Compound

Connective

Consonant

ContractionCoordination

Corpus

Digraph

Ellipsis

Etymology

First person

Formal

Fronting/fronted

GPC

Grapheme

Grapheme-phoneme correspondences

Homograph

Homonym

Homophone

Inflection

InformalModifier

Morpheme

Morphology

Negative

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Phrase

Phoneme

Plural

Possessive

Prefix

Root Word

Schwa

Second person

Slang

Split digraph

Standard English

StressSubordination

Suffix

Syllable

Third person

Trigraph

Unstressed

Vowel

Word

Word family

abstract noun

A noun which refers to an idea, quality, or state (e.g. warmth, liberty, happiness), rather than a physical thing that can

be seen or touched. Compare with concrete noun.

active

An active verb has a subject which is performing the action of the verb, for example:

John ate the apple.

The opposite of passive. Find out more about active and passive verbs.

adjective

A word, such as heavy, red, or sweet, that is used to describe (or modify) a noun. Learn more about adjectives.

adjunct

A type of optional adverbial that adds extra information to a sentence, for instance:

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I can’t sleep at night.

Read more about adverbials and adjuncts.

adverb

A word, such as very, really or slowly, that is used to give more information about an adjective, verb, or other adverb.

Learn more about how to use adverbs.

adverbial

An adverb, phrase, or clause which changes, restricts, or adds to the meaning of a verb, for instance:

I put my bag on the floor.

Read more about adverbials.

affirmative

A word, sentence, or phrase that states that something is the case or which expresses agreement, for instance:

Whales are mammals; that’s correct.

The opposite of negative.

agent

The person or thing in a passive sentence that does or causes something (e.g. she was asked to leave). Read moreabout active and passive verbs.

article

An article belongs to the group of words called determiners. There are two types of article: the definite article and the

indefinite article.

aspect

The form of a verb that shows, for example, whether the action happens once or repeatedly, is completed or still

continuing. See continuous, perfect. Read more about verb tenses.

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attributive

An attributive adjective is used before the noun it describes (e.g. a red apple or a heavy bag). The opposite of

predicative.

auxiliary verb

Auxiliary verbs are used to form tenses or passive forms of other verbs. The main ones are be, do, and have. See also

modal verb. Learn more about auxiliary verbs.

Back to top

classifying adjective

An adjective that is used to put people or things into categories or classes (e.g. an electric oven, a presidential

candidate). Compare with qualitative adjective. Find out more about classifying and qualitative adjectives.

clause

A group of words that contains a verb and either forms part of a sentence or is a complete sentence in itself. For

example:

I went to the bank and drew out some money.

[clause] [clause]

See also main clause, subordinate clause, relative clause, conditional clause, coordinate clause and examples of clauses.

cohesion

The close relationship between the parts of a piece of writing (e.g. the clauses of a sentence or the sections of a longer

text), based on grammar or meaning. Cohesion helps to guide the reader through the ideas in a text in a logical way. See

also cohesive device.

cohesive device

A word or phrase used to link parts of a text so that the reader finds it clear to understand. Typical cohesive devices are

pronouns (to refer to earlier nouns without repeating them); prepositions, conjunctions, and adverbs (to show contrast,

addition, ordering, etc.); and ellipsis (to avoid stating words which the reader expects). See also connective.

For instance: My friend loves sailing, but he’s often too busy [ellipsis of to do this]. Apart from this, he also

enjoys swimming, while I prefer to stay in and read.

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collective noun

A noun which refers to a group of people or things, e.g. team, family, police, committee. Find out how to match verbs

to collective nouns.

common noun

Any noun which refers to a person, animal, or thing in general: woman, dog, and bed are all common nouns. Compare

with proper noun.

comparative

The comparative form of an adjective is used for comparing two people or things, to express the fact that one has a

higher degree of a quality than the other. For example:

She’s taller than me.

He’s happier today than yesterday.

They’re more popular than the Beatles.

Compare with positive and superlative. Find out more about comparing adjectives.

complement

A word or phrase, especially an adjective or a noun, that is used after linking verbs such as be, seem, and become, and

describes the subject of the verb, for example:

She became a teacher.

I was angry.

They seemed very friendly.

compound

A word made up of two or more existing words, such as credit card, left-handed, or website. Learn more about

hyphens in compound words.

concrete noun

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A noun which refers to a physical person or thing that can be seen, felt, heard, etc. For example, child, horse, and

house are all concrete nouns. Compare with abstract noun.

conditional

In grammar, conditional can mean two things. Firstly, the conditional form (mood) of a verb, which is made from

would (also should with ‘I’ and ‘we’) plus the infinitive without ‘to’:

He would see.

Should we stay or go?

Secondly, conditional is used to refer to a clause or sentence expressing the fact that something must happen before

something else can happen, for example:

If I had more money, I’d buy a bigger house.

Should you change your mind, we’d be happy to help.

See also conditional clause. Read more about the conditional and other moods of verbs.

conditional clause

A clause which describes something that is possible or probable, depending on something else happening. Such clauses

usually begin with if or unless, for example:

If it rains, the match will be cancelled.

I’m not going to the party unless she comes too.

conjunction

A word that is used to link other words or parts of a sentence, such as and, but, or if. Learn about the different types

of conjunctions.

connective

A word or phrase that links other words, phrases, clauses, or sentences, such as a conjunction, a preposition, or an

adverb. For example: My cat fell out of the tree, but she wasn't hurt. In fact, she climbed up it again! See also

cohesive device.

consonant

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A spoken sound made by completely or partially blocking the flow of air breathed out through the mouth. In English,

consonants are represented by the letters b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, and z. Compare with

vowel. See also Is the letter Y a vowel or a consonant?

continuous

A verb tense (or aspect) used to describe an action that continues for a period of time. Continuous tenses are formed

with the verb to be plus the present participle, for example:

I’m watching the TV.

It was snowing.

Also called progressive. Compare with perfect. Learn more about continuous tenses.

contraction

A shortened form of a word or group of words (e.g. they’re is a contraction of they are). Read more about

contractions.

coordinate clause

A clause that is linked to another clause by a conjunction such as and, or, or but. Coordinate clauses make separate

statements that have equal importance, for instance:

It was freezing cold but the sun was shining.

[coordinate clause] [coordinate clause]

Learn about the different types of conjunctions.

coordination

In grammar, coordination refers to a relationship between two or more words, phrases, or clauses in which both

elements have equal importance. For instance, in the sentence we visited Paris and London, the words Paris and

London are joined by the conjunction and to show that they are equally important. Compare with subordination. See

also coordinate clause.

corpus

In the context of dictionaries and linguistics, a corpus is a very large and diverse collection of written (or spoken)

material that is gathered into an electronic database and can be analysed to find out how people are really using

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language. Find out more about the Oxford English Corpus.

countable noun

Also called count noun. A noun that refers to something that can be counted and has both singular and plural forms,

such as cat/cats, woman/women, family/families. The opposite of uncountable noun. Learn more about countable

and uncountable nouns.

Back to top

defining relative clause

Another term for restrictive relative clause.

definite article

A term for the determiner the. See also indefinite article.

determiner

A word that introduces a noun, such as the, a, every, and this. See also definite article, indefinite article, possessivedeterminers.

digraph

A combination of two letters that represents a single speech sound (phoneme). For instance, in the word phone, the

sound /f/ is shown by the letters ‘ph’. See also split digraph.

direct speech

The actual words of a speaker quoted in writing (e.g. ‘I don’t believe you,’ said Nina). Compare with reported

speech. Learn about punctuation in direct speech.

ellipsis

The act of leaving out a word or phrase deliberately, either to avoid repeating something, or because the meaning can be

understood without it (e.g. ‘How many coffees did you drink today?’ ‘Three.’ [ellipsis of I drank...coffees today].

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etymology

The origin of a word (for instance, from a particular language) and the historical development of its meaning. You can

find the etymologies (described as ORIGIN) of many words near the end of each dictionary page on Oxford

Dictionaries Online; here is the etymology of nice.

exclamation

A sound, word, or phrase expressing an emotion or feeling such as anger, surprise, pleasure, or pain (e.g. Ow!; That’s

great!). Learn more about exclamations. Also called interjection.

finite verb

A verb form which shows a particular tense, person (first person, second person, or third person), or number (singular

or plural). For instance, am, is, was, and were are the finite forms of the verb to be. Compare with non-finite verb.

first person

The pronouns, verb forms, and determiners which are used by a speaker to identify himself or herself, or to refer to a

group including himself or herself, for instance, I, we, my, we were, I went. Compare with second person, third person.

formal

Formal speaking and writing typically has more complex grammatical structures and more conservative or technical

vocabulary than everyday English. It’s used in official communications and speeches, business reports, legal contexts,

academic books, etc. For example:

The defendant was unable to give any alternative satisfactory explanation of how he financed the

purchase, apart from unspecified loans from individuals not available to give evidence.

Compare with informal, slang.

fronting

The emphasis of a word or phrase by placing it at or near the start of a sentence, instead of beginning the sentence with

its grammatical subject. For instance, in the following sentence, this afternoon has been fronted so as to emphasize the

time that the meeting is happening: This afternoon, we’re going to meet our friends for lunch (the typical word

order would be We’re going to meet up with our friends for lunch this afternoon).

future

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A verb tense used to refer to something that has not yet happened, for example:

I shall arrive in Paris at midday.

Will it be sunny this weekend?

Learn more about verb tenses.

gerund

Another term for verbal noun.

Back to top

GPC

Abbreviation for grapheme-phoneme correspondences.

grapheme

The smallest unit (a letter or combination of letters) that has meaning in a writing system and which represents a

particular phoneme (speech sound) For example, the word sheet has 5 letters and 4 graphemes.

grapheme-phoneme correspondences

The associations between the units of a writing system (graphemes) and the speech sounds (phonemes) that they

represent. For instance, the graphemes ee, ea, ei, and e can all represent the phoneme /i:/ (sleeve; each; receive; me).

homograph

A word that is spelled the same as another word or words, but which may have a different meaning or pronunciation.

For instance: the violinist put down her bow and made a bow to the audience. See also homophone, homonym.

homonym

A word that has the same spelling or pronunciation as another word or words, but which has a different meaning and

origin. For example: I can see one can of beans on the shelf. See also homophone, homograph.

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homophone

A word that is pronounced the same as another word or words, but which has a different spelling or meaning. For

instance: She knew that she urgently needed a new car. See also homograph, homonym.

imperative

The form (or mood) of a verb that expresses a command or instruction. For example:

Come here!

Add the onions to the pan.

Find out more about the imperative and other moods of verbs.

indefinite article

A term for the determiner a (or an). See also definite article.

indicative

The form (or mood) of a verb that expresses simple statements of fact. In the sentence Jo likes coffee, the verb like is

in the indicative mood. Find out more about the indicative and other moods of verbs.

indirect speech

Another term for reported speech.

infinitive

The basic unchanged form of a verb, which usually occurs with the word ‘to’. For instance: to read; to be. See also

split infinitive.

inflection

A change in the form of a word (usually the ending) to show its grammatical function in a sentence, for example the tense

of a verb (e.g. I walked; she had) or the plural of a noun (e.g. potatoes; children). Read more about verb tenses andforming plurals of nouns.

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informal

Informal speaking and writing typically has fairly simple grammatical structures, doesn't always follow strict grammatical

rules, and uses non-specialist vocabulary. It’s suitable for everyday communication with friends or other people you

know. For example:

‘Coming out tonight?’ ‘No chance, sorry!’

Compare with formal, slang.

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interjection

Another term for exclamation.

interrogative

Used to describe a word used to ask a question, or to describe a sentence in the form of a question. For instance, how,

where, and who are interrogative words, and Why don’t we meet for coffee? is an interrogative sentence (that is, a

question). The interrogative form (mood) of a verb is used to ask questions and in English it’s formed by an auxiliary

verb which is placed before the subject, for example:

Are you going on holiday this year?

Learn more about the interrogative and other moods of verbs.

intransitive

An intransitive verb is not followed by an object. In the following sentences, talk and cry are intransitive verbs:

The baby was crying.

We talked for hours.

The opposite of transitive. Read more about intransitive and transitive verbs.

irregular

An irregular word, such as a noun or verb, has inflections that do not follow the normal rules. For example, the plural of

man is the irregular form men, and the past of the verb run is ran. The opposite of regular. Learn more about regular

and irregular verbs.

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main clause

A clause that makes sense on its own, or may form part of a longer sentence. For example:

We’re waiting for the bus.

[main clause]

I went to a restaurant and I treated myself to lunch.

[main clause] [main clause]

See also clause, subordinate clause, relative clause, conditional clause, and examples of clauses.

mass noun

A noun that refers to something that can’t be counted, and which does not regularly have a plural form, for example

rain, darkness, happiness, or humour. Also called uncountable noun. The opposite of countable noun. Learn more

about countable and uncountable nouns.

modal verb

A modal verb is an auxiliary verb which is used with another verb to talk about possibility, probability, permission,

intention, etc. The main modal verbs are can, could, may, might, must, ought, shall, should, will, would. Also called

modal auxiliary verb. Find out more about auxiliary verbs.

modifier

A word or phrase that changes, restricts, or adds to the meaning of another word, often a noun or adjective used before

another noun. Adverbs can also act as modifiers, for example, in the following sentence, very [adverb], large

[adjective], and family [noun] are all being used as modifiers to give more information about the noun home:

It was a very large family home.

mood

A category or form of a verb which indicates whether the verb expresses a fact (the indicative mood), a command (the

imperative mood), a question (the interrogative mood), a condition (the conditional mood) or a wish or possibility (the

subjunctive mood). Read more about the moods of verbs.

morpheme

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The smallest unit of meaning into which a word can be divided. You cannot break a morpheme down into anything

smaller that has a meaning. For example, the word never has one morpheme, while the word nevertheless has three

morphemes (never, the, and less). Read more about morphemes. Compare with syllable.

morphology

In linguistics, morphology refers to the form of a word, or the study of the forms of words. For instance, the morphology

of the word uninterested shows that it is formed from the prefix un-, the root word interest, and the suffix -ed.

Back to top

negative

A word or phrase stating that something is not the case, such as never, nothing, no, or not. The opposite of

affirmative. See also double negatives.

non-finite verb

A verb form which does not show a particular tense, person (first person, second person, or third person), or number

(singular or plural). For instance, be, been, and being are the non-finite forms of the verb to be. Compare with finite

verb.

non-restrictive relative clause

A clause which gives extra information that could be left out of a sentence without affecting the structure or meaning.

Non-restrictive relative clauses are normally introduced by which, who, or whose (but never by that) and you should

place a comma in front of them:

He held out the small bag, which Jane snatched eagerly.

[main clause] [non-restrictive relative clause]

Also called non-defining relative clause. See also clause, main clause, subordinate clause, restrictive relative clause,

conditional clause, and examples of clauses.

noun

A word that refers to a person or thing, for example book, John, country, London, or friendship. Different types of

noun include abstract, collective, countable/uncountable, concrete, gerund/verbal, mass, and proper. Find out more

about nouns.

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object

The person or thing affected by a verb, for example:

He was eating a sandwich.

She loves animals.

Compare with subject. Read more about subjects and objects.

Back to top

part of speech

Another term for word class. Find out more about different parts of speech.

participle

The past participle is the form of a verb which is used to form:

certain past tenses, e.g. I have looked everywhere; we had decided to leave.

adjectives, e.g. broken glass; lost property.

The present participle is the form of a verb, ending in –ing, that is used to form:

continuous tenses describing something that is still happening, e.g. I am thinking, she was talking.

adjectives, e.g. running water, the freezing rain.

verbal nouns, e.g. a woman of good breeding; no smoking allowed.

Read more about participles. Here is some advice on avoiding dangling participles.

passive

A passive verb has a subject which is undergoing the action of the verb, rather than carrying it out, e.g.:

The apple was eaten.

The opposite of active. Find out more about active and passive verbs.

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past

A verb tense used to refer to something that happened before the present, for example:

We went shopping last Saturday.

Did you go for a meal, too?

Learn more about verb tenses.

perfect

A verb tense (or aspect) typically used to talk about actions that are completed by the present or a particular point in

the past or future, for example:

It was the first time that I had seen an eagle.

Compare with continuous. Find out more about verb tenses.

personal pronoun

A word such as I, me, you, him, her, s, we, they, or them that is used in place of a noun that has already been

mentioned or that is already known. Compare with possessive pronoun. See when to use 'I' or 'me'.

phoneme

Any one of the set of the smallest units of speech sound in a language that distinguish one word from another. For

example, the phonemes /p/, /k/, and /b/ differentiate the words pat, cat, and bat.

phrasal verb

A verb that is made up of a main verb together with an adverb or a preposition (or both). Typically the meaning of a

phrasal verb is not obvious from the meanings of the component words, for example:

His car broke down.

The idea didn’t catch on.

You’re putting me off.

Find out more about phrasal verbs.

phrase

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A small group of words that forms a meaningful unit within a clause, for example the red dress; in the city. A phrase is

also a group of words which have a specific meaning when used together, for example to let the cat out of the bag.

Learn more about phrases.

plural

The form of a noun that is used to refer to more than one person or thing, such as books or benches. For more

guidance see plurals of nouns.

positive

The basic form of an adjective or adverb that is used to express a simple quality, for instance sad, good, fast, loudly.

Compare with comparative and superlative. Find out more about comparative and superlative adjectives.

possessive

Showing that someone or something belongs or relates to a person or thing. You can use a noun plus an apostrophe to

show possession (e.g. my father’s car; yesterday’s news), a possessive determiner (my house) or a possessive

pronoun (those shoes are mine).

possessive pronoun

A pronoun, such as mine, yours, hers, or ours, that refers to something owned by the speaker or by someone or

something previously referred to, for example:

That book is mine.

John’s eyes met hers.

Ours is a family farm.

Compare with personal pronoun.

postpositive

A postpositive adjective is placed after the word it relates to, for example galore in there were prizes galore. Learn

more about the different types of adjective.

predicative

A predicative adjective follows a verb such as be, become, grow, look, or seem. For example:

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The future looks gloomy.

They grew weary.

The opposite of attributive.

prefix

A letter or group of letters placed at the beginning of an existing word to change its meaning, such as un- (as in unable,

unlock, or unhappy) or multi- (as in multimedia, multitask, or multicultural). Compare with suffix. See examples of

prefixes and suffixes.

preposition

A word that is used in front of a noun or pronoun to show place, time, direction, or method. For example:

She ran across the street.

The restaurant is not open during the day.

We went by train.

Find out more about prepositions and guidance on ending sentences with prepositions.

present

A verb tense used to refer to something that is happening or exists now or that happens or exists regularly, for example:

I love my parents.

She goes swimming every week.

Read more about verb tenses.

progressive

Another term for continuous.

pronoun

A word such as I, he, she, it, we, hers, us, your, or they that is used instead of a noun to indicate someone or

something that has already been mentioned, especially to avoid repeating the noun. For example:

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Kate was tired so she went to bed.

Print out the leaflet and pass it round.

See when to use 'I' or 'me'. Read more about pronouns.

proper noun

A noun that identifies a particular person or thing (e.g. John, Italy, London, Monday, Windsor Castle). In written

English, proper nouns begin with capital letters. Compare with common noun. Find out about other types of noun.

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qualitative adjective

An adjective that describes the qualities of a person or thing (e.g. an expensive car, a slender woman). Compare with

classifying adjective. Read more about qualitative and classifying adjectives.

quantifier

A determiner or pronoun which is used to express quantity, for example: many, several, all, both.

regular

A regular word, such as a noun or a verb, has inflections that follow the normal rules. For instance, the noun cat has a

regular plural with -s (cats), and the verb to love forms its tenses in the normal way (loved; loving). The opposite of

irregular. Find out more about regular and irregular verbs.

relative clause

A clause which gives more information about the noun to which it refers and which is connected to a main clause by a

word such as that, which, who, whose, or where. For example:

I first saw her in Paris, where I lived in the early twenties.

[main clause] [relative clause]

See also examples of clauses. Learn more about relative clauses.

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reported speech

The reporting of a speaker’s words, rather than quoting them directly (e.g. Nina said that she didn’t believe him).

Compare with direct speech. Also called indirect speech.

restrictive relative clause

A clause which gives essential information about a noun that comes before it. Restrictive relative clauses can be

introduced by that, which, who, or whose. You should not place a comma in front of them. For example:

It reminded him of the house that/which he used to live in.

[main clause] [restrictive relative clause]

He's going out with a girl who used to go to my school.

[main clause] [restrictive relative clause]

Also called defining relative clause. See clause and compare with non-restrictive relative clause.

root word

A word or part of a word that has the main meaning and on which its other forms are based; a word that other words

are formed from, for example by adding prefixes, suffixes, etc. For instance, look is the root word of looks, looking,

looked, outlook, etc.

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schwa

A vowel sound in parts of words that are not stressed, shown by the symbol /ə/ in the International Phonetic Alphabet

and represented by different letters in English. For instance, there is a schwa sound at the start of ago, at the end of

moment, and in the middle of information.

second person

The pronouns, verb forms, and determiners which are used to speak to someone, for instance, you, your, you slept.

Compare with first person, third person.

sentence

A sentence is a group of words that makes complete sense, contains a main verb, begins with a capital letter, and ends

with a full stop, exclamation mark, or question mark. For example:

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Paul flew to New York last Monday.

Whose turn is it to do the washing up?

Read more on sentences.

slang

Very informal words and expressions that are mainly found in speaking rather than writing. Slang is often used by a

particular group, such as young people or the armed forces. For example, in British teenage slang, bare means ‘very’ or

‘a lot of’ (I was bare tired), while in military slang, a bandit is an enemy aircraft. Compare with formal, informal.

split digraph

A digraph in which the two letters representing one speech sound are separated by other letters. For example, the

sound /aI/ in mine is shown by the split digraph i-e,

split infinitive

A split infinitive happens when an adverb is placed between to and a verb (e.g. She seems to really like him). Some

people object strongly to split infinitives. Although there’s no real grammatical justification for this view, it’s best to avoid

them in formal writing. More on split infinitives.

standard English

The type of English that is suitable for use in every type of written or spoken situation (as opposed to informal languageor slang).

stress

The extra emphasis used when pronouncing a particular word or syllable. For instance, in the word category, the first

syllable (cat-) is stressed. Compare with unstressed.

subject

The subject of a sentence is generally the person or thing that the sentence is about, often the person or thing that

performs the action of a verb. For example:

The restaurant was packed.

He was eating a sandwich.

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Compare with object. Here's some help on matching subjects with verbs.

subjunctive

A special form (or mood) of a verb that expresses a wish or possibility instead of a fact. In the following sentences the

verbs face and were are in the subjunctive mood (the ordinary indicative forms would be faces and was):

The report recommends that he face a tribunal.

I wish I were more organized.

Read more about the subjunctive and other moods of verbs.

subordinate clause

A clause which depends on a main clause for its meaning. Together with a main clause, a subordinate clause forms part

of a longer sentence. A sentence may contain more than one subordinate clause. There are two main types of

subordinate clause: the relative clause and the conditional clause.

subordination

In grammar, subordination refers to a relationship between words, phrases, or clauses in which one element is less

important but which gives us more information about the main element that it is linked to. For instance, in the phrase a

difficult question, the adjective difficult is subordinate to the noun question and tells us more about it. In the same

way, a subject or object is subordinate to a verb, as in the following sentence: He cleaned the floor. Compare with

coordination. See also subordinate clause.

suffix

A group of letters placed at the end of an existing word to change its meaning, such as –ish (as in childish or feverish)

or –able (as in likeable or breakable). The opposite of prefix. See examples of prefixes and suffixes.

superlative

The superlative form of an adjective is used for comparing one person or thing with every other member of their group,

to express the fact that they have the highest or a very high degree of a quality. For example:

She’s the tallest girl in the class.

He’s the happiest person I know.

They’re the most popular band in the world.

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Compare with postive and comparative. See more examples of comparative and superlative adjectives.

syllable

A word or part of a word that contains one vowel sound, and usually one or more consonants before or after the vowel

sound. For example, speak has one syllable and speaker has two syllables (speak and -er). Compare with morpheme.

syntax

Syntax is the way in which words and phrases are put together to create well-formed sentences in a language. For

example, 'I went to the shops today' is correct English syntax, whereas 'Shops I went today the to' is not.

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tense

The form that a verb takes to show when a person did something, or when something existed or happened. In English

the main tenses are: present, past, and future. Learn more about verb tenses.

third person

The pronouns, verb forms, and determiners which are used by a speaker to refer to other people or things, for instance,

he, she, it, their, it has, they were. Compare with first person, second person.

transitive

A transitive verb is one that is used with an object. In the following sentences, admire and follow are transitive verbs:

I admire your courage.

They followed him back to his house.

The opposite of intransitive. See examples of transitive and intransitive verbs.

trigraph

A kind of grapheme in which three letters represent one speech sound (phoneme). For example, catch or sigh.

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uncountable noun

Another term for mass noun. Opposite of countable noun. Find out about other types of noun.

unstressed

Used to refer to a syllable that is not pronounced with a stress (e.g. in the word admire, the first syllable, ad-, is

unstressed).

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verb

A word that describes what a person or thing does, or what happens, for example run, sing, grow, occur, seem. Learn

more about verbs.

verbal noun

The present participle of a verb when it’s used as a noun (e.g. 'smoking' in smoking is strictly forbidden). Also called

gerund. Find out more about participles.

vowel

A spoken sound made with the mouth open and without the tongue touching the roof of the mouth, teeth, etc. In English,

vowels are represented by the letters a, e, i, o, and u. Compare with consonant. See also Is the letter Y a vowel or a

consonant?

word

A single unit of language, which has meaning and which can be spoken or written, typically shown with a space on either

side when written or printed. Some words may consist of two or more elements (e.g. credit card; bed and breakfast;

out-of-town), but in terms of grammar and meaning, they are treated as a single unit.

word class

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Word classes are the categories to which words belong according to the part they play in a sentence, e.g. (noun, verb,

adjective, adverb, or pronoun). Also called part of speech.

word family

A group of words that are related to each other, typically by meaning, form, and grammar. For example, the words

therapy, therapist, therapeutic, therapeutical, and therapeutically all form a word family.

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Grammar and usage

Grammar

Grammar tips

Compound subjects

Double negatives

Dangling participles

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Ending sentences with prepositions

Matching subjects and verbs

Matching verbs to collective nouns

Personal pronouns

Plurals of English nouns taken from Latin or Greek

Singular nouns treated as plural

Split infinitives

The comma splice

Verbs from nouns

Verbs with two different past tense forms

Grammar A-Z

Word classes (or parts of speech)

Adjectives

Comparative and superlative adjectives

Gradable and non-gradable adjectives

Qualitative and classifying adjectives Adverbs

Sentence adverbs

Adverbials and adjuncts

Conjunctions

Determiners

Exclamations

Nouns

Countable and uncountable nouns

Prepositions

Pronouns

Verbs

Verb tenses

Regular and irregular verbs

Subjects and objects

Transitive and intransitive verbs

Participles

Active and passive verbs

Moods

Phrasal verbs

Auxiliary verbs

Sentences, clauses, and phrases

Sentences

Clauses

Relative clauses

Phrases

Spelling

Adding endings to words that end in -our

Adding endings to words that end in -y

Adding endings to words that end in a double ‘l’

Abbreviations

Acronyms

Contractions

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Initialisms

Shortenings

Adding -ful or -fully

Adding -ly

Ante- or anti-?

Common misspellings

Endings beginning with vowels

Words ending in -ance and -ence

Words ending in -ancy and -ency

Words spelled with -ae/-oe

Words ending in -ary, -ory, and -ery

Words ending in -ant and -ent

Words ending in -efy and -ify

Words ending in -ence/-ense

Nouns ending in -er, -or, and -ar

Words ending in -ious and -eous

Words ending in -ogue/-og

-ize, -ise, or -yse?

Words ending in -able or -ible

Nouns ending in -acy and -asy

English spelling changes

fore- or for-?

Forming adverbs

Forming comparative and superlative adjectives

How words are built

i before e except after c

Plurals of nouns

Prefixes and suffixes

Spelling differences and changes

Minuscule or miniscule?

Currying favour

Old and new forms

One word or two?

British and American spelling

Spelling rules and tips

Tracking the changes

Using capital letters

Verb tenses: adding -ed and -ing

Words containing the letter q

Words ending in a vowel plus ‘l’

Words ending in -cede, -ceed, and -sede

Words ending in -ch and -tch

Words ending in -re/-er

Words ending in -sion, -tion, and -cion

Words with misleading beginnings

Punctuation

Full stop (.)

Comma (,)

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Semicolon (;)

Colon (:)

Apostrophe (’)

Hyphen (-)

Dash (–)

Brackets ( ) [ ]

Inverted commas

Exclamation mark (!)

Question mark (?)

Bullet points

Punctuation in direct speech

Punctuation in lists

Punctuation in abbreviations

Writing help

Top writing tips

Top tips for better writing

Top tips for word choice

Top tips for CV writing

Top tips for writing a cover letter

Top tips for better business writing

Top tips for writing better essays

Top tips for writing a personal statement

Top tips for online writing

Top tips for creative writing

Top tips for writing a successful speech

Top tips for writing a review

Building a piece of writing

Structure

Cohesion

Clichés and redundant expressions

Avoiding clichés

Avoiding redundant expressions

Applying for a jobWriting a CV/résumé

Writing job applications

Letters and invitations

How to lay out a letter

Letter formats: block, modified block, and semi-block

Choose the right greeting and sign off

Invitations and RSVPs

Insurance claims

Letters of complaint

Letters of condolence

Business letters

Writing a business email

Business email dos and don'ts

Email mistakes to avoid

Writing reports

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The language of gender

The language of mental or physical disability

Usage

‘A historic event’ or ‘an historic event’?

‘Adverse’ or ‘averse’?

‘Affect’ or ‘effect’?

‘All right’ or ‘alright’?

‘Allude’ or ‘elude’?

‘Alternate’ or ‘alternative’?

‘Among’ or ‘amongst’?‘Amoral’ or ‘immoral’?

‘Assume’ or ‘presume’?

‘Appraise’ or ‘apprise’?

‘Bare’ or ‘bear’?

Between you and me

Bored by, of, or with?

‘Bring’ or ‘take’?

British and American terms

‘Can’ or ‘may’?

‘Cannot’ or ‘can not’?

‘Censure’ or ‘censor’?

‘Cite’, ‘site’, or ‘sight’?

‘Climactic’ or ‘climatic’?

Commonly confused words

‘Complement’ or ‘compliment’?

‘Continual’ or ‘continuous’?

‘Could of’ or ‘could have’?

‘Denote’ or ‘connote’?

Dialect

Different from, than, or to?

‘Diffuse’ or ‘defuse’?

‘Discreet’ or ‘discrete’?

‘Disinterested’ or ‘uninterested’?

‘Elicit’ or ‘illicit’?

‘Enquire’ or ‘inquire’?

‘Ensure’ or ‘insure’?

‘Especially’ or ‘specially’?

‘Farther’ or ‘further’?

‘Flair’ or ‘flare’?

‘Flaunt’ or ‘flout’?

Formal language

‘Grizzly’ or ‘grisly’?

‘He or she’ versus ‘they’

‘Historic’ or ‘historical’?

Hopefully

‘I’ or ‘me’?

‘i.e.’ or ‘e.g.’?

‘Imply’ or ‘infer’?

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Informal language

Irregardless

‘Its’ or ‘it’s’?

‘Laid’ or ‘lain’?

‘Learnt’ or ‘learned’?

‘Less’ or ‘fewer’?

Like

Literally

Literary language

‘Loose’ or ‘lose’?

‘May’ or ‘might’?

‘Neither’ and ‘nor’

Old-fashioned language

‘Onto’ or ‘on to’?

‘Phenomenon’ or ‘phenomena’?

‘Principal’ or ‘principle’?

‘Shall’ or ‘will’?

Slang

Standard English

Thankfully

‘That’ or ‘which’?

‘Themselves’ or 'themself’?

‘These’ or ‘those’?

‘To’ or ‘too’?

‘Who’ or ‘whom’?

‘Tortuous’ or ‘torturous’?

English (UK)

English (UK)

© 2015 Oxford University Press

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