This glossary of English grammar terms relates to the English language. Some terms here may have additional or extended meanings when applied to other languages. For example, "case" in some languages applies to pronouns and nouns. In English, nouns do not have case and therefore no reference to nouns is made in its definition here.

Term	Definition
active voice	one of two voices in English; a direct form of expression where the subject performs or "acts" the verb; see also passive voiceeg: "Many people eat rice"
adjective	part of speech that typically describes or "modifies" a noun eg: "It was a big dog."
adjective clause	seldom-used term for relative clause
adjunct	word or phrase that adds information to a sentence and that can be removed from the sentence without making the sentence ungrammatical eg: I met John at school.
adverb	word that modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb eg: quickly, really, very
adverbial clause	dependent clause that acts like an adverb and indicates such things as time, place or reason eg: Although we are getting older, we grow more beautiful each day.
affirmative	statement that expresses (or claims to express) a truth or "yes" meaning; opposite of negative eg: The sun is hot.

affix	language unit (morpheme) that occurs before or after (or sometimes within) the root or stem of a word eg: un- in unhappy (prefix), -ness in happiness (suffix)
agreement(also known as "concord")	logical (in a grammatical sense) links between words based on tense, case ornumber eg: this phone, these phones
antecedent	word, phrase or clause that is replaced by a pronoun (or other substitute) when mentioned subsequently (in the same sentence or later) eg: "Emily is nice because she brings me flowers."
appositive	noun phrase that re-identifies or describes its neighbouring noun eg: "Canada, a multicultural country, is recognized by its maple leaf flag."
article	determiner that introduces a noun phrase as definite (the) or indefinite (a/an)

aspect	feature of some verb forms that relates to duration or completion of time; verbs can have no aspect (simple), or can have continuous or progressive aspect (expressing duration), or have perfect or perfective aspect (expressing completion)
auxiliary verb (also called "helping verb")	verb used with the main verb to help indicate something such as tense or voice eg: I do not like you. She has finished. He can swim.
bare infinitive	unmarked form of the verb (no indication of tense, mood, person, or aspect) without the particle "to"; typically used after modal auxiliary verbs; see also infinitive eg: "He should come", "I can swim"
base form	basic form of a verb before conjugation into tenses etc eg: be, speak
case	form of a pronoun based on its relationship to other words in the sentence; case can be subjective, objective or possessive eg: "I love this dog", "This dog loves me", "This is my dog"
causative verb	verb that causes things to happen such as "make", "get" and "have"; the subject does not perform the action but is indirectly responsible for it eg: "She made me go to school", "I had my nails painted"
clause	group of words containing a subject and its verb eg: "It was late when he arrived"