📄️ Abbreviations, initials and acronyms
Abbreviations and letters
📄️ Adjuncts
Adjuncts are one of the five major elements of clause structure. The other four are subject (s), verb (v), object (o) and complement (c). Adjuncts (a) are sometimes called adverbials.
📄️ Apposition
When we use two noun phrases (np) next to each other in a clause, and they refer to the same person or thing, we call this apposition:
📄️ Clause types
There are four basic types of main clause: declaratives (statements), interrogatives (questions), imperatives (orders/instructions) and exclamatives (used for exclamations).
📄️ Clauses
Clauses: introduction
📄️ Clauses and sentences
What is a clause?
📄️ Clauses: finite and non-finite
Finite clauses
📄️ Collocation
Collocation refers to how words go together or form fixed relationships.
📄️ Complements
Complements are one of the five major elements of clause structure. The other four are subject, verb, object and adjunct (complements are in bold):
📄️ Dummy subjects
English clauses which are not imperatives must have a subject. Sometimes we need to use a ‘dummy’ or ‘empty’ or ‘artificial’ subject when there is no subject attached to the verb, and where the real subject is somewhere else in the clause. It and there are the two dummy subjects used in English:
📄️ Ellipsis
Ellipsis happens when we leave out (in other words, when we don’t use) items which we would normally expect to use in a sentence if we followed the grammatical rules. The following examples show ellipsis. The items left out are in brackets \[ \]:
📄️ Fronting
The most common word order in a declarative clause is subject (s) + verb (v) + object (o) or complement:
📄️ Heads
The head is the most important word in a phrase. All the other words in a phrase depend on the head. Words which are part of the phrase and which come before the head are called the pre-head. Words which are part of the phrase and which come after the head are called the post-head.
📄️ Objects
An object is one of the five major elements of clause structure. The other four are subject, verb, adjunct and complement.
📄️ Sentences
A sentence is a unit of grammar. Typically, in writing, it begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop.
📄️ Subject complements
A subject complement gives us more information about the subject. It usually comes after linking verbs and sense verbs (including be, seem, smell, taste), and after change of state verbs (including go, get, become).
📄️ Subjects
A subject is one of the five major elements of clause structure. The other four are: verb, object, complement and adjunct. Subjects are essential in declarative, negative and interrogative clauses.
📄️ Subject–verb agreement
The person and number of the subject of the clause determine the person and number of the verb of the clause. This is called subject–verb agreement or concord:
📄️ Word classes and phrase classes
Major word classes