Recently Added Articles Page #52

action verb

An action verb denotes physical, mental, or even emotional activity. The word run is obviously an action verb. But so is think.Every action verb is either transitive or intransitive. A transitive verb is one that can attach directly to a noun (the di...

active voice

Every transitive verb can appear in one of two voices: the active voice or the passive voice.In the active voice, the grammatical subject of the sentence is the actor. Thus, in the following sentence, the actor is the subject of the sentence. The su...

adjective

An adjective is a word or group of words that modifies or describes a noun (a little girl) or a pronoun (he is strange). Single-word adjectives usually come before the word they modify (the red wagon). But when adjectives join a preposition to form w...

adjectival clause

First, a clause is a group of words with a conjugated verb in it. Second, an adjectival clause is a clause that modifies or describes a noun or pronoun. Note these adjectival clauses: on the street where she lives the book that arrived at the store t...

adjectival phrase

First, a phrase is any multiword group without a conjugated verb. Second, an adjectival phrase is a phrase that modifies or describes a noun or pronoun. Usually, an adjectival phrase consists of an adjective and a prepositional phrase, such as free f...

adverb

An adverb is a word or group of words that modifies or describes a verb. Many one-word adverbs end in “-ly,” such as he ran quickly. Others, however, do not, such as he ran fast.Adverbs also modify or describe adjectives, such as the very tall ma...

adverbial clause

First, a clause is a group of words with a conjugated verb in it. Second, an adverbial clause is a clause that modifies or describes a verb. Note these adverbial clauses: He quit the race because he lost his energy. (Clause modifies quit.)Though he w...

adverbial phrase

Many phrases can act as adverbs and modify a verb, another adverb, or an adjective. A prepositional phrase can act as an adverb and modify a verb: In May, it often rains. A verbal phrase can act as an adverb: To scare the intruder, the homeowner bran...

antecedent

A pronoun takes the place of a noun. When writing, you'll use a pronoun and that pronoun will refer to some noun close by. That noun (the referent) is called the antecedent. The prefix ante might make you think that all antecedents come before the pr...

appositive

An appositive is a noun or noun phrase that defines or restates another noun (or pronoun). Generally, the appositive follows the word it defines, as in My friend, Susan, came to dinner. But the appositive can also precede the noun it defines. Study t...

article

We have three articles in the English language: a, an, and the. The words a and an are indefinite articles, the word is a definite article.Use an when the word modified begins with a vowel or vowel sound, as in an apple or an hour.Use a when the word...

auxiliary verb

When you conjugate a one-word verb, you can form the present tense (he decides) and the past tense (he decided) with just one verb word. But when you go beyond the present and past tenses, you need an auxiliary verb, also called a helping verb, to co...

case

We have seven kinds of pronouns in the English language (personal pronouns, reflexive and intensive pronouns, relative pronouns, interrogative pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, indefinite pronouns, and reciprocal pronouns).The personal pronouns (and ...

clause

A clause is a group of words with a conjugated verb in it. Clauses come in two types: (1) independent and (2) dependent. An independent clause is a full sentence, begins with a capital letter, and ends with a period or other full stop. A dependent ...

collective noun

A collective noun, also called a group noun, refers to a group of persons or things. Examples include group, number, majority, team, and many others.In American English, when individual members of the group noun act individually, you should use a plu...

comparative state

Modifiers—adjectives and adverbs—attribute qualities to nouns and verbs. When the modifier shows a greater quality, it appears in the comparative state.Usually, for adjectives, you form the comparative state by adding “-er” to the adjective, ...

complement

A complement is a word or group of words that completes the action or state of being expressed by the verb. A subject complement typically follows the verb to be or a linking verb (seem, appear, many others).Thus, in the sentence you're now reading, ...

complement verb

A complement verb, or phrasal verb, comprises a verb and a preposition. We have hundreds of them in the English language: dredge up, drop out, make up, mess up, screw up, and the list goes on and on.The verb-preposition combination will then be trans...

complex sentence

A complex sentence comprises one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. The dependent clause, which cannot stand by itself as a sentence, performs some grammatical function in the complex sentence. In the following example* of a comple...

compound adjective

A compound adjective comprises two or more words. The unit formed then serves as an adjective. These are also called phrasal adjectives. The vast majority of writers have no clue about spelling these structures. As a general rule, you should hyphenat...

compound predicate

A compound predicate is simply two or more main verbs attached to a single subject of the sentence. Please note: When you join just two verbs, no comma should come before the and. Only when you join three or more elements in a series do you use a com...

compound sentence

A compound sentence comprises two or more independent clauses. You may join these clauses by using one of the seven coordinating conjunctions: but, or, yet, for, and, nor, so. Or you may use a correlative conjunction: not … but, not only … but (a...

compound verb

A compound verb is a multiword verb form consisting of one or more auxiliary verbs and a main verb, as in I have seen the movie, She has gone home, We will have decided this issue sometime next week.An unfortunate—and incorrect—rule has developed...

conjugation

The process of conjugation shows the forms of a verb as it appears in all tenses. Conjugation reveals tense (when), person (who), number (how many, singular or plural), and mood (showing the way the speaker regards the statement). The major tenses in...

conjunction

We have three kinds of conjunctions: (1) coordinating, (2) correlative, and (3) subordinating. The coordinating and correlative conjunctions join elements in a series. When you join elements (two or more nouns, two or more verbs, two or more adjec...