English Grammar: Sentences, Fragments, Objects, and Clauses

Vocabulary flashcards covering essential sentence elements, direct/indirect objects, fragments, independent and dependent clauses, and subordinate conjunctions based on Chapter 1-8 of the lecture transcript.

Complete Sentence

A foundational grammatical structure that must contain a subject, a verb, and a complete thought.

Subject

The main focus of a sentence that performs the main action or experiences a state of being.

Verb

The part of a sentence indicating what the subject is doing or being.

Being Verbs

Verbs such as "is," "are," "was," and "were" that express a state of being and typically link the subject to a description.

Complete Thought

A required element of a complete sentence that conveys a full idea or concept that can stand by itself.

Compound Subject

A sentence structure in which two or more distinct subjects perform the action or express the state of being.

Sentence Fragment

An incomplete sentence that is missing a subject, a verb, or a complete thought.

Object

An optional sentence component that receives or is acted upon by the action of the sentence.

Direct Object

The specific noun or pronoun directly acted on by the verb in a sentence.

Indirect Object

The sentence element that receives the direct object.

Clause

A group of words containing both a subject and a verb.

Independent Clause

A group of words containing a subject, a verb, and a complete thought that can stand alone as a complete sentence.

Dependent Clause

A group of words containing a subject and a verb that lacks a complete thought and cannot stand alone as a sentence.

Subordinate Conjunction

A word (such as "because," "although," "if," or "until") that begins a dependent clause and signals relationships like cause/effect, time, or place.

Subordinate Clause

An interchangeable term for a dependent clause that typically begins with a subordinating conjunction and cannot stand on its own.