Recently Added Articles Page #54

gender

Gender is a grammatical concept, though most people today use gender when they mean sex. In other languages, various endings indicate whether a noun or pronoun is a masculine, feminine, or neuter entity. But in English, gender has pretty much disappe...

gerund

A gerund is a present participle (-ing verb) used as a noun. If the ‑ing verb acts as an adjective, it is not a gerund but a participial adjective. Thus, the expression a winning hand is not a gerund. It is simply a present participle (winning) use...

group noun

 See collective noun....

helping verb

A helping verb is an auxiliary verb.For a brief discussion, see auxiliary verb.For a thorough discussion, consult the section on Verbs in Parts of Speech on Grammar.com. Click here for the beginning of that discussion....

homograph

The following discussion from The Columbia Guide to Standard American English (1993) aptly describes homographs, homonyms, and homophones: Homographs are words spelled alike but with different meanings and usually with different pronunciations (lead,...

homonym

 See homograph....

homophone

 See homograph....

imperative mood

The mood of verbs shows how the speaker regards the utterance. The speaker might regard the utterance as a statement: that's the indicative mood. The speaker might ask a question: that's the interrogative mood. The speaker might issue a command: that...

imperative mood

The mood of verbs shows how the speaker regards the utterance. The speaker might regard the utterance as a statement: that's the indicative mood. The speaker might ask a question: that's the interrogative mood. The speaker might issue a command: that...

imperfect tense, progressive tense

The progressive tense (also called the progressive aspect) is sometimes referred to as the imperfect tense.There are six progressive tenses: present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect. Some grammarians refer to the progr...

indefinite article

We have three articles in the English language: a, an, and the. The words a and an are the indefinite articles. The word the is the definite article.Indefinite articles—a and an—are used only with singular nouns. These words denote a single unspe...

indefinite pronoun

Indefinite pronouns enable us to refer to any one, any two, several, or all in a group or class of persons or things or ideas. Examples include: all, another, anyone, each, someone, everybody, none, others. Some of the pronouns have possessive forms ...

independent clause

A clause is a group of words with a conjugated verb in it. We have two kinds of clauses: independent and dependent. An independent clause is a complete sentence. It begins with a capital letter and ends with a period or other terminal punctuation mar...

indicative mood

First, understand this: The word mood has nothing to do with frame of mind, as in happy or sad. It actually refers to mode, which is the attribute of a verb suggesting the speaker's attitude toward the action expressed.The mood of verbs shows how the...

indirect object

The indirect object is a person or thing secondarily affected by the action of the verb, the direct object being primarily affected. The indirect object appears in the sentence as a noun (or pronoun) unconnected by a preposition. It is positioned bet...

infinitive phrase

Every verb has a base infinitive form. We think of the infinitive as the verb with the preposition to in front of it, as in to have, to hold, to love, to honor, to cherish. Infinitive phrases can act as (1) nouns, (2) adjectives, or (3) adverbs. T...

initialism, acronym

An acronym is a pronounceable name made up of a series of initial letters or parts of words; for example, UNESCO for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.An initialism, on the other hand, is simply a set of initials ...

intensive pronoun

The reflexive and intensive pronouns are the “-self” words, as in myself, yourself, himself, herself, themselves, and so on. These words are used in two ways: (1) to reflect action back onto the actor in the sentence (reflexive pronoun) and (2)...

interjection

An interjection is one of the eight parts of speech. It is a word of surprise, as in wow, whoopie do, yikes. It rarely shows up in formal expository writing....

interrogative mood

First, understand this: The word mood has nothing to do with frame of mind, as in happy or sad. It actually refers to mode, which is the attribute of a verb suggesting the speaker's attitude toward the action expressed.The mood of verbs shows how the...

interrogative pronoun

We have various ways of asking questions in the English language. We can take a multiword verb form and put the subject between the auxiliary verb and the base infinitive, as in Do you mind? or Will he go? We can also use certain adverbs and ask ques...

intransitive verb

Action verbs are either transitive or intransitive. A transitive verb has the intrinsic ability to attach directly to a noun, called the direct object. But an intransitive verb cannot attach directly to a noun. To form a relationship with a noun, an ...

irregular verb

Verbs have four principal parts: (1) the infinitive, (2) the past, (3) the past participle, and (4) the present participle. A regular verb forms its past tense and past participle the same way, usually by adding “-ed.” Take the regular verb w...

infinitive verb

Every verb has a base infinitive form. We think of the infinitive as the verb with the preposition to in front of it: as in to have, to hold, to love, to honor, to cherish. Infinitives appear in the language in three ways: (1) they appear alone to s...

linking verb

A linking verb is also called a copula or copulative verb. It shows no action. Instead, it links the grammatical subject usually to an adjective, sometimes to a noun. All the verbs denoting the five senses are linking verbs: sound, look, taste, smell...