Glossary

A word that describes a noun or pronoun.

A word that describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.

A dependent clause that acts as an adverb in a sentence, describing or relating to a part of the independent clause to which it is attached.

A morpheme attached to the beginning or end of a base to modify its meaning. Affixes are bound morphemes; they cannot stand alone. Prefixes and suffixes are both affixes. See also prefix, suffix.

A word opposite in meaning to another word (e.g., hot/cold).

Apostrophes are punctuation marks used to show possession, or in the place of letters that have been left out.

Examples:
The song's lyrics don't sound repetitive.

A type of adjective used before a noun to indicate whether the identity of the noun is known (definite article) or unknown (indefinite article).

A structural element that forms the foundation of a written word; any unit of a word to which affixes can be added. (e.g., act is the base of acted, action, activity, activate, react). Types of bases include:

bound base. A base that requires an affix to form a word (e.g., -ject in inject and project).
free base. A base that forms a word on its own (e.g., eat, date, weak).

The use of a capital letter to begin a sentence; to indicate a proper noun, a personal title, an acronym, or an initialism; and to set off important words in titles and headings.

In a sentence, a clause is a group of words with a subject and a predicate.

See independent, dependent, subordinate clause.

A comma splice is a type of run-on sentence, wherein two independent clauses are wrongly joined with a comma, rather than with appropriate end punctuation. A common fix is to put a period at the end of each clause; or to join the two clauses with a semi-colon if the ideas expressed are linked.

A sentence made up of one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.

A sentence made up of two or more independent clauses joined by a semicolon or coordinating conjunction, usually preceded by a comma.

A word made from two or more words (e.g., sunshine, snowball, football).

A sentence made up of two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.

A word or phrase that connects other words, phrases, or sentences, clauses.

A word or phrase that connects other words, phrases, or sentences, clauses.

See also Coordinate conjunction and Subordinate Conjunction

Joins words, phrases, or clauses that are similar or equal to each other. FANBOYS is a common acronym to remember seven coordinating conjunctions: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So.

A sentence that makes a statement.

See also punctuation.

A clause that does not express a complete thought and cannot stand on its own as a sentence. Also called a subordinate clause.

A derived form, or derivation, is the new word that is created from a base or a base word.

Example:
From the base -ject, we can create derivations, including inject, reject, dejection, etc.

A sentence that expresses strong emotion or feelings and ends in an exclamation mark.

See also punctuation.

The types or categories into which texts are grouped. For example, literary genres include: novel, short story, essay, poetry, and drama.

Homophones refer to two or more words having the same pronunciation but different meanings, origins, or spelling.

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A sentence that makes a request or gives a command or instruction.

See also punctuation.

A clause that expresses a complete thought and can stand on its own as a simple sentence.

A word or phrase that expresses emotion. It has no grammatical connection with the sentence in which it is used.

A sentence that asks a question.

See also punctuation.

A mentor text is used as an example of effective writing and expression in a given genre or text form.

The smallest unit of meaning within words. A morpheme can be either a prefix, a suffix, or a base. Words are made up of one or more morphemes.

The study of word structures and the patterns (e.g., prefixes, roots, and suffixes) of how words are formed, and how words are related to each other in the same language.

A word that refers to people, places, things, and ideas.

In a clause, the word or phrase on the "receiving end" of the verb.  Answers the question "what" or "whom" in relation to what the subject is doing.

For example:

She returns the book to the library.  What is she returning? The subject "She" is returning the book.

In a prepositional phrase, answers the question "what" "where" or "whom" the preposition is referencing.

For example:

She returns the book to the library. Where is she returning the book? She is returning the book to (preposition) the library.

A direct object is the word or phrase on the receiving end of the verb. It answers the questions "what" or "whom".

Example: The teacher gave the students homework.

What did the teacher give? The teacher gave homework. Homework is the direct object.

An indirect object receives the direct object and answers the question "to what" or "to whom".

Example: The teacher gave the students homework.

To whom did the teach give the homework? The teacher gave the students homework. Students is the indirect object.

A word formed by a verb to describe a noun. Often seen as having the -ing ending of a verb.

For example: the sleeping cat

Categories of words sorted by their grammatical and semantic functions within sentences. English contains the following common parts of speech:

noun. A word that refers to people, places, things, and ideas.
pronoun. A word that replaces a noun.
verb. A word that expresses an action, occurrence, or state of being.
adjective. A word that describes a noun or pronoun.
adverb. A word that describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
preposition. A word that connects nouns, pronouns, and phrases.
conjunction. A word or phrase that connects other words, phrases, or sentences, clauses.
interjection. A word or phrase that expresses emotion. It has no grammatical connection with the sentence in which it is used.
article. A type of adjective used before a noun to indicate whether the identity of the noun is known (definite article) or unknown (indefinite article).

The smallest unit of sound in spoken words.

A group of words. Differs from a clause in that it does not contain both a subject and a predicate.

A verb being used by the subject in a clause.

A morpheme that precedes a base to form a different word (e.g., trans- before form or act).  See also affix, suffix.

A word that connects nouns, pronouns, and phrases.

A phrase containing a preposition and acting as an adjective or adverb.

A word that replaces a noun.

A noun with a capital letter that names a specific person, place or thing.

The use of symbols (e.g., periods, commas, semicolons) to distinguish elements within a sentence or to separate sentences. Punctuation marks create and clarify meaning in a written text and help the reader understand how text sounds when it is read aloud. See also parts of speech, sentence types.

A dependent clause that acts as an adjective in a sentence, describing or relating to a part of the independent clause to which it is attached. Can also be referred to as an adjectival clause.

A run-on sentence contains multiple independent clauses but does not have punctuation to indicate where one thought is complete before starting the next one.

A vowel that is unstressed, toneless, and neutral, occurring in unstressed syllables (e.g., a in about or o in synonym). Schwa sounds are the most common vowel sounds in the English language. They are often transcribed using an upside down e symbol (Ə).

English has four main sentence forms:

simple. A sentence consisting of one independent clause.
compound. A sentence made up of two or more independent clauses joined by a semicolon or coordinating conjunction, usually preceded by a comma.
complex. A sentence made up of one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.
compound-complex. A sentence made up of two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.

A sentence fragment does not have both a subject and a predicate; as such it does not express a complete thought.

English has four main sentence types:

declarative. A sentence that makes a statement.
imperative. A sentence that makes a request or gives a command or instruction.
interrogative. A sentence that asks a question.
exclamatory. A sentence that expresses strong emotion or feelings and ends in an exclamation mark.

See also punctuation.

A sentence consisting of one independent clause.

In a clause, the subject is the noun or pronoun that is "doing" the verb.

A clause that does not express a complete thought and cannot stand on its own as a sentence. Also called a dependent clause.

A conjunction that shows a time or place relationship between two clauses. The clause that contains the conjunction is called a subordinate (or dependent) clause. Common subordinating conjunctions include: while, when, whenever, where, wherever, before, and after.

A morpheme that is added to the end of a base to create a different word. See also affix, prefix.

A suffix is a morpheme (one or more letters) that is added to a base word to form a derivative ( a new word from the base word that changes its grammatical form)

Example: The base word excite can become excites, exciting, excitable by adding the suffix -s, -ing, -able.

A word that has the same or almost the same meaning as another word (e.g., clean/pure).

A word that expresses an action, occurrence, or state of being.