A word that takes the place of a noun or pronoun (e.g., I, he, she, it, you, they).
Pronoun
Examples of this part of speech: love, time, justice, honesty, help, truth
abstract noun
A word or phrase that expresses action or a state of being
Verb
A word that modifies or describes a verb, adverb, or adjective.
adverb
A connecting word.
conjunction
A word or phrase that modifies or describes a noun or pronoun.
adjective
One of two parts of a sentence; it is the part that says something about the subject of the sentence.
predicate
A sentence that consists of one independent clause and no subordinate clauses (e.g., The cat climbed up the tree).
Simple sentence
A word that shows the relationship of a noun or pronoun to some other word in the sentence (e.g., in, around, above, for).
Preposition
(and, but, so, for, nor, or, yet) connect two equal grammatical structures.
Coordinating conjunctions
One of two parts of a sentence; it is the part about which something is being said. It is sometimes used to refer to the simple subject, which is the main word in the subject that names the person, place, or thing being spoken about in the sentence.
Subject
A word that begins a dependent (subordinate) adverb clause and connects the dependent adverb clause to the main clause of a sentence (e.g., when, before, after, because, since OR Betty must attend tonight's performance because she is a featured soloist).
subordinating conjunction
A sentence that consists of at least two independent clauses and at least one subordinate clause (e.g., The runner did not know that the course had been changed, so she missed an important turn).
compound-complex sentence
A group of words that begins with a capital letter and ends with punctuation but is not a complete sentence because it lacks a subject or predicate or both (e.g., Playing in the snow on a winter day).
fragment
A sentence that consists of at least one independent clause and at least one subordinate (dependent) clause (e.g., When the time comes, we will know what to do).
complex sentence
a noun or a noun phrase that gives meaning to pronouns
antecedent
A sentence that consists of two or more independent clauses and no subordinate clauses (e.g., He washed the dishes, and I dried them).
compound sentence
A group of words that begins with a capital letter and ends with punctuation but is not a complete sentence because it lacks a subject or predicate or both (e.g., Playing in the snow on a winter day).
fragment
An adjective, adverb, phrase, or clause that describes/modifies other words in the sentence.
Modifer
A group of words containing a participle and any complements or modifers it may have (e.g., Traveling along its course, the airplane passed over the Bering Strait OR Found beneath layers of sediment, the ancient pottery was well preserved).
Participial phrase
The present participle (—ing) form of a verb used as a noun (e.g., RUNNING is my favorite form of exercise).
gerund
A grammatical rule stating that a pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number and person.
Pronoun-antecedent agreement
A modifier that is not clearly attached to the word or phrase it is supposed to be modifying (e.g., To learn how to drive, the summer was spent behind the wheel at the training course).
dangling modifer
A grammatical rule in which the subject of a sentence must agree with its verb in both number and tense
Subject-verb agreement
A group of words containing a participle and any complements or modifiers it may have (e.g., Traveling along its course, the airplane passed over the Bering Strait OR Found beneath layers of sediment, the ancient pottery was well preserved).
Participial phrase
A small group of related words within a sentence or a clause; a group of two or more words that expresses a single idea but does not form a complete sentence. A group of words that does not contain a subject and a predicate.
phrase
A group of words that contains a subject and predicate. An independent clause can stand as a sentence. A dependent, or subordinate, clause must be attached to an independent clause to form a sentence.
clause
A phrase that consists of a preposition and its object (e.g., around the corner, of the moment).
Prepositional phrase
A form of a verb used as an adjective, adverb, or noun; there are three verbals: infinitives, gerunds, and participles.
Verbal
A list of three or more elements that are usually arranged in parallel form (e.g., planes, trains, and automobiles).
Items in a series