Grammar

Grammar is the way in which words are put together to form proper sentences. Do you want a quick answer to a specific point, such as whether it's wrong to split an infinitive or to end a sentence with a preposition such as on? If so, go straight to our quick-reference top tips section.
If you want more detailed advice on, for example, types of pronouns or how to build well-formed sentences, browse through the headings below and explore the different sections:

multi-word verb	verb that consists of a basic verb + another word or words (preposition and/or adverb) eg: get up (phrasal verb), believe in (prepositional verb), get on with (phrasal-prepositional verb)
negative	form which changes a "yes" meaning to a "no" meaning; opposite of affirmative eg: "She will not come", "I have never seen her"
nominative case	another term for subjective case
non-defining relative clause (also called "non-restrictive relative clause")	relative clause that adds information but is not completely necessary; set off from the sentence with a comma or commas; see defining relative clause eg: "The boy, who had a chocolate bar in his hand, was still hungry"
non-gradable adjective	adjective that has a fixed quality or intensity and cannot be paired with a grading adverb; see also gradable adjective eg: freezing, boiling, dead
non-restrictive relative clause	another term for non-defining relative clause
noun	part of speech that names a person, place, thing, quality, quantity or concept; see also proper noun and compound noun eg: "The man is waiting", "I was born in London", "Is that your car?", "Do you likemusic?"
noun clause	clause that takes the place of a noun and cannot stand on its own; often introduced with words such as "that, who or whoever" eg: "What the president said was surprising"
noun phrase (NP)	any word or group of words based on a noun or pronoun that can function in a sentence as a subject, object or prepositional object; can be one word or many words; can be very simple or very complex eg: "She is nice", "When is the meeting?", "The car over there beside the lampost is mine"
number	change of word form indicating one person or thing (singular) or more than one person or thing (plural) eg: one dog/three dogs, she/they
object	thing or person affected by the verb; see also direct object and indirect object eg: "The boy kicked the ball", "We chose the house with the red door"
objective case	case form of a pronoun indicating an object eg: "John married her", "I gave it to him"
part of speech	one of the classes into which words are divided according to their function in a sentence eg: verb, noun, adjective
participle	verb form that can be used as an adjective or a noun; see past participle, present participle
passive voice	one of two voices in English; an indirect form of expression in which the subject receives the action; see also active voice eg: "Rice is eaten by many people"
past tense (also called "simple past")	tense used to talk about an action, event or situation that occurred and was completed in the past eg: "I lived in Paris for 10 years", "Yesterday we saw a snake"