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About Help Subscribe Log in English Spanish French German Italian About Help Subscribe Log in English Spanish French German Italian English Dictionary Synonyms Grammar Spelling Common misspellings British and American spellings More rules and tips Punctuation How to use commas How to punctuate abbreviations More punctuation guidance Usage Commonly confused words British and American terms More English usage help from Oxford Writing help Writing job applications Putting together an impressive CV More practical writing help Grammar A-Z Brush up on your grammar using our handy glossary Go to Grammar A-Z Professional reference works New Hart’s Rules: The Oxford Style Guide New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors Garner’s Dictionary of Legal Usage Pocket Fowler’s Modern English Usage More Explore OxfordWords blog 10 medical words you thought you knew A day in the life of an OED researcher Elephants in the English language More blog articles Wordlists Two-letter words Weird and wonderful words More wordlists Your language questions How many words are there in the English language? What is the longest English word? More language questions Games and quizzes The Oxford Dictionaries Apostrophe Challenge Which Charles Dickens character are you? Can you identify these classic last lines? More games and quizzes Word origins What is the origin of the word ‘snob’? What is the origin of the word ‘quiz’? Pirate phrases and their origins More word origins Get premium Spanish Dictionary Grammar Writing in Spanish How to use punctuation Advice on spelling When to use capitals and lower-case letters More help with writing in Spanish Improve your Spanish Useful Spanish phrases Learn about the Spanish language More Spanish usage help from Oxford Grammar A-Z Brush up on your Spanish grammar using our handy A-Z in English Or find out about English grammar using our A-Z written in Spanish Go to Grammar A-Z in English On the OxfordWords blog Habla usted Spanglish? Spanish internet terms More blog articles Get premium French Dictionary Get premium German Dictionary Get premium Italian Dictionary Get premium Dictionary Synonyms Grammar Explore Get premium Spelling Common misspellings British and American spellings More rules and tips Punctuation How to use commas How to punctuate abbreviations More punctuation guidance Usage Commonly confused words British and American terms More English usage help from Oxford Writing help Writing job applications Putting together an impressive CV More practical writing help Grammar A-Z Brush up on your grammar using our handy glossary Go to Grammar A-Z Professional reference works New Hart’s Rules: The Oxford Style Guide New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors Garner’s Dictionary of Legal Usage Pocket Fowler’s Modern English Usage More OxfordWords blog 10 medical words you thought you knew A day in the life of an OED researcher Elephants in the English language More blog articles Wordlists Two-letter words Weird and wonderful words More wordlists Your language questions How many words are there in the English language? What is the longest English word? More language questions Games and quizzes The Oxford Dictionaries Apostrophe Challenge Which Charles Dickens character are you? Can you identify these classic last lines? More games and quizzes Word origins What is the origin of the word ‘snob’? What is the origin of the word ‘quiz’? Pirate phrases and their origins More word origins Grammar à á â ä ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ñ ò ó ô ö ù ú û ü æ œ ß Type a word or phrase Search Home Grammar and usage Grammar Grammar A-Z 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 Noun Abstract noun Collective noun Common noun Concrete noun Countable noun Gerund Mass noun Proper noun Uncountable noun Verbal noun Verbs Verb Active Auxiliary verb Infinitive Intransitive Irregular Modal verb Participle Passive Phrasal verb Regular Split infinitive Transitive Adjectives Adjective Attributive Comparative Postpositive Predicative Superlative Pronouns Pronoun Personal pronoun Possessive pronoun Articles Definite article Indefinite article Tenses and Moods Conditional Continuous Future Imperative Indicative Interrogative Mood Past Present Progressive Subjunctive Tense Sentences Sentence Object Subject Syntax Clauses Clause Conditional clause Coordinate clause Defining relative clause Main clause Non-restrictive relative clause Relative clause Restrictive relative clause Subordinate clause Speech 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 Affirmative Complement Compound Consonant Contraction Corpus First person Formal Inflection Informal Modifier Morpheme Negative Phrase Plural Prefix Second person Slang Standard English Suffix Syllable Third person Vowel 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 verbs. 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. adjective A word, such as heavy, red, or sweet, that is used to describe (or modify) a noun. Learn more about adjectives. 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. 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. 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 verbs. Back to top 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. 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 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 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. 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. consonant 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 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. 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.
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