English Grammar Glossary

A word that modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb. Adverbs express manner, frequency, degree, place, and time.

A word that describes or modifies a noun, giving information about its quality, size, colour, or type.

The three English articles — a, an, and the — which indicate whether a noun is specific, general, or used with zero article.

A helping verb that combines with a main verb to form tenses, questions, negatives, and passive constructions. Primary auxiliaries are be, have, and do; modal auxiliaries include can, will, and must.

A pair or group of words that habitually appear together, such as "make a decision" or "heavy rain". Using the right collocations makes speech sound natural.

Sentences built from an if-clause and a main clause — zero, first, second, third, and mixed conditionals — expressing facts, possibilities, and hypothetical situations.

A word that connects words, phrases, or clauses. Includes coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS), subordinating conjunctions, and correlative pairs.

Countable nouns can be counted individually and have plural forms (book, idea, child). Uncountable (mass) nouns refer to things that cannot be divided into countable units (water, advice, furniture).

The -ing form of a verb used as a noun. It can act as the subject, object, or complement of a sentence: "Swimming is fun", "She enjoys reading".

A word that sounds the same as another word but has a different spelling and a different meaning. Examples: there/their/they're, to/too/two, your/you're, its/it's.

A fixed expression whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal meanings of its individual words. For example, "break a leg" means "good luck", not a literal broken leg.

The base form of a verb. The full infinitive uses "to" (to run, to eat), while the bare infinitive appears without "to" (after modal verbs and some other verbs).

Auxiliary verbs such as can, could, must, should, might, and may that express ability, possibility, permission, or obligation.

A word that names a person, place, thing, idea, or quality. Nouns can be common or proper, countable or uncountable, and collective.

A verb form used as an adjective or in verb phrases. The present participle ends in -ing; the past participle typically ends in -ed, -en, -t, or -n.

A sentence structure, formed with be + past participle, in which the subject receives the action instead of performing it: "The cake was baked by Tom."

A verb combined with one or more particles (prepositions or adverbs) that together create a meaning different from the verb alone. Examples: give up, look after, turn on.

A word that shows the relationship between a noun (or pronoun) and another word in the sentence, expressing time, place, direction, and more.

A verb tense formed with have/has + past participle that links a past action or state to the present moment: "I have finished my homework."

A word that replaces a noun to avoid repetition. Types include personal, possessive, reflexive, relative, interrogative, and demonstrative pronouns.

A clause that gives more information about a noun, introduced by a relative pronoun such as who, which, that, or whose. Defining or non-defining.

A way of reporting what someone said without quoting their exact words, using tense backshift and changes to pronouns and time expressions.

The grammatical rule that a verb must match its subject in number: singular subjects take singular verbs; plural subjects take plural verbs.

A word that expresses an action, event, or state of being. Verbs can be regular or irregular, transitive or intransitive, finite or non-finite.