Grammatical terms for ELA

Antecedent

The noun a pronoun refers to. Example: Sarah lost her phone, where "Sarah" is the antecedent of "her."

Appositive

A noun or phrase that renames another noun. Example: John, my older brother, plays soccer, where "my older brother" renames John.

Clause

A group of words containing a subject and verb. Example: "She ran home" is a clause because "she" is the subject and "ran" is the verb.

Compound Sentence

A sentence with two or more independent clauses. Example: I studied, and I passed the test, joining two complete thoughts.

Complex Sentence

A sentence with an independent and at least one dependent clause. Example: Because it rained, I stayed home, combining a dependent and independent clause.

Coordination

Joining grammatically equal parts of a sentence. Example: I was tired, but I kept working, connecting two independent clauses.

Cumulative Sentence

A sentence that begins with the main idea and builds on it with details. Example: He ran home, sweating heavily, carrying his bag, and gasping for air, adding details after the main idea.

Declarative Sentence

A sentence that makes a statement. Example: The test is tomorrow, stating a fact.

Elliptical Sentence

A sentence that omits understood words. Example: I ordered pizza; she, pasta, omitting "ordered" because it is understood.

Freight Train Sentence

Three or more short independent clauses joined by conjunctions. Example: I woke up, and I ate, and I ran, and I left, connecting several short clauses.

Imperative Sentence

A sentence that gives a command or request. Example: Close the door, commanding someone to perform an action.

Inversion

Reversing normal sentence word order. Example: Into the room walked John, placing the verb before the subject.

Loose Sentence

A sentence with the main clause first, followed by additional information. Example: I passed the test, which made me happy, adding information after the main idea.

Modifier

A word, phrase, or clause that describes another word. Example: The bright red car sped away, where "bright red" describes the car.

Nominalization

Turning a verb or adjective into a noun. Example: "They decided" becomes "They made a decision," changing "decided" into "decision."

Periodic Sentence

A sentence that delays its main clause until the end. Example: After hours of studying and preparing, I finally passed the test, placing the main idea last.

Phrase

A group of related words without a complete subject-verb pair. Example: "Under the bed" is a phrase because it lacks a subject and verb.

Simple Sentence

A sentence containing one independent clause. Example: The dog barked, expressing one complete thought.

Syntactic Fluency

The smooth use of varied sentence structures and lengths. Example: The sun rose. Birds sang, and the city slowly awakened, demonstrating sentence variety.

Syntactic Permutation

Using unusually complex or involved sentence structures. Example: The boy, who, despite his exhaustion, had continued running through the storm, finally arrived, using multiple embedded phrases and clauses.

Syntax

The arrangement of words to form sentences. Example: The dog chased the cat, where word order determines who chased whom.

Subject Complement

A word or phrase following a linking verb that renames or describes the subject. Example: She is happy, where "happy" describes "she."

Subordinate Clause

A dependent clause that cannot stand alone as a sentence. Example: Although I was tired, I finished my homework, where "although I was tired" is dependent.

Transition

A word or phrase that connects ideas. Example: I studied all night; therefore, I passed the test, using "therefore" to show a result.