Sentence Structures and Grammar Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering clause types, sentence structures, relative pronouns, and grammar rules from the lecture notes.

Independent Clause

A clause containing a subject, a verb, and a complete thought ($S+V+CT$).

Dependent Clause

A clause containing a subject and a verb, but lacking a complete thought ($S+V-CT$). Its two main types are subordinate clauses and relative clauses.

Subordinate Clause

A type of dependent clause introduced by a subordinating conjunction, which removes the complete thought from the clause.

Relative Clause

A type of dependent clause that modifies a noun using relative pronouns such as who, whom, that, or which.

Relative Pronouns

Pronouns including who and whom (always used to reference people) as well as that and which (used to reference an object).

Who

A relative pronoun used to reference a subject acting on the verb (equivalent to 'I').

Whom

A relative pronoun used to reference an object or the receiver of an action (equivalent to 'me').

Phrase

A group of two or more words acting together as one of the eight parts of speech that will never contain both a subject and a verb.

Simple Sentence

A sentence consisting of one independent clause (subject + verb + complete thought) that communicates an idea in a simple way.

Complete Subject

A subject structure that includes the main noun along with all of its modifiers.

Simple Subject

A subject consisting strictly of a single noun without any modifiers.

Compound Subject

A sentence structure that contains two or more subjects.

Compound Verb

A sentence structure that contains two or more verbs associated with a subject.

Verb Phrase

A structure consisting of a main verb combined with helping verbs.

Compound Sentence

A sentence formed by joining two or more independent clauses.

Conjunctive Adverb

A word described as a comma magnet, used in a compound sentence directly between a semicolon and a comma.

Complex Sentence

A sentence consisting of one or more dependent clauses combined with only one independent clause.

Compound-Complex Sentence

A sentence structure consisting of two or more independent clauses plus one or more dependent clauses.