Glossary of English Terms, List English Terms, Common English Terms

Glossary of English Grammar Terms
Object:
In the active voice, a noun or its equivalent that receives the action of the verb. In the passive voice, a noun or its equivalent that does the action of the verb.
Participle:
The -ing and -ed forms of verbs. The -ing form is called the "present participle". The -ed form is called the "past participle" (for irregular verbs, this is column 3).
Part Of Speech:
One of the eight classes of word in English - noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction and interjection.
Passive Voice:
In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb (eg The President was killed). See also Active Voice.
Phrase:
A group of words not containing a subject and its verb (eg on the table, the girl in a red dress).
Predicate:
Each sentence contains (or implies) two parts: a subject and a predicate. The predicate is what is said about the subject.
Preposition:
A word like at, to, in, over etc. Prepositions usually come before a noun and give information about things like time, place and direction.
Pronoun:
A word like I, me, you, he, him, it etc. A pronoun replaces a noun.
Sentence:
A group of words that express a thought. A sentence conveys a statement, question, exclamation or command. A sentence contains or implies a subject and a predicate. In simple terms, a sentence must contain a verb and (usually) a subject. A sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop (.), question mark (?) or exclamation mark (!).
Subject:
Every sentence contains (or implies) two parts: a subject and a predicate. The subject is the main noun (or equivalent) in a sentence about which something is said.
Tense:
The form of a verb that shows us when the action or state happens (past, present or future). Note that the name of a tense is not always a guide to when the action happens. The "present continuous tense", for example, can be used to talk about the present or the future.
Verb:
A word like (to) work, (to) love, (to) begin. A verb describes an action or state.