Grammar

Learn more about the building blocks that make up speech and writing.

present perfect	tense that connects the past and the present, typically used to express experience, change or a continuing situation; formed with HAVE + VERB-ed eg: "I have worked there", "John has broken his leg", "How long have you beenin Canada?"
present perfect continuous	tense used to describe an action that has recently stopped or an action continuing up to now; formed with HAVE + BEEN + VERB-ing eg: "I'm tired because I've been running", "He has been living in Canada for two years"
progressive	another term for continuous
pronoun	word that replaces a noun or noun phrase; there are several types including personal pronouns, relative pronouns and indefinite pronouns eg: you, he, him; who, which; somebody, anything
proper noun	noun that is capitalized at all times and is the name of a person, place or thing eg: Shakespeare, Tokyo,http://freeengvid.blogspot.com/
punctuation	standard marks such as commas, periods and question marks within a sentence eg: , . ? ! - ; :
quantifier	determiner or pronoun that indicates quantity eg: some, many, all
question tag	final part of a tag question; mini-question at end of a tag question eg: "Snow isn't black, is it?"
question word	another term for WH-word
reciprocal pronoun	pronoun that indicates that two or more subjects are acting mutually; there are two in English - each other, one another eg: "John and Mary were shouting at each other", "The students accused one another of cheating"
reduced relative clause (also called "participial relative clause")	construction similar to a relative clause, but containing a participle instead of a finite verb; this construction is possible only under certain circumstances eg: "The woman sitting on the bench is my sister", "The people arrested by the police have been released"
reflexive pronoun	pronoun ending in -self or -selves, used when the subject and object are the same, or when the subject needs emphasis eg: "She drove herself", "I'll phone her myself"
regular verb see regular verbs list	verb that has "-ed" as the ending for past tense and past participle forms; see alsoirregular verb eg: work, worked, worked
relative adverb	adverb that introduces a relative clause; there are four in English: where, when,wherever, whenever; see also relative pronoun
relative clause	dependent clause that usually starts with a relative pronoun such as who or which, or relative adverb such as where eg: "The person who finishes first can leave early" (defining), "Texas, where my brother lives, is big" (non-defining)
relative pronoun	pronoun that starts a relative clause; there are five in English: who, whom, whose,which, that; see also relative adverb
reported speech	another term for indirect speech
restrictive relative clause	another term for defining relative clause
second conditional	"if-then" conditional structure used to talk about an unlikely possibility in the future eg: "If we won the lottery we would buy a car"
sentence	largest grammatical unit; a sentence must always include a subject (except forimperatives) and predicate; a written sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop/period (.), question mark (?) or exclamation mark (!); a sentence contains a complete thought such as a statement, question, request or command eg: "Stop!", "Do you like coffee?", "I work."
series	list of items in a sentence eg: "The children ate popsicles, popcorn and chips"
singular	of a noun or form indicating exactly one person or thing; singular nouns are usually the simplest form of the noun (as found in a dictionary); see also plural, number eg: banana, spoon, tree
split infinitive	situation where a word or phrase comes between the particle "to" and the verb in an infinitive; considered poor construction by some eg: "He promised to never lie again"
Standard English (S.E.)	"normal" spelling, pronunciation and grammar that is used by educated native speakers of English