ACT English Grammar terms

Subject

The subject of a sentence is who or what the sentence is about. It performs the action or is described by the predicate.

Predicate

The predicate tells what the subject does or what happens to the subject. It usually includes the verb and everything that follows it.

Verb

A verb expresses an action, occurrence, or state of being.

Object

The object of a sentence is the noun or pronoun that receives the action of the verb.

Direct Object

A direct object is a noun or pronoun that receives the action of the verb directly.

Indirect Object

An indirect object is the noun or pronoun that indirectly receives the action of the verb, usually indicating to whom or for whom the action is done.

Pronoun

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun.

Adjective

An adjective modifies or describes a noun or pronoun, adding detail.

Adverb

An adverb modifies or describes a verb, adjective, or another adverb. It often answers questions like "How?", "When?", or "Where?"

Clause

A clause is a group of words that contains both a subject and a verb. A clause can be independent (stand-alone sentence) or dependent (part of a sentence).

Independent Clause

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

Dependent Clause

A group of words that cannot stand alone as a sentence. It has a subject and a verb, but it needs to be connected to an independent clause to form a complete sentence.

Conjunction

A conjunction connects words, phrases, or clauses in a sentence.

Preposition

A preposition shows the relationship between a noun (or pronoun) and another word in the sentence.

Interjection

An interjection is a word or phrase that expresses strong feeling or reaction. It’s often followed by an exclamation mark.

Gerund

A gerund is a verb form ending in "-ing" that functions as a noun.

Infinitive

An infinitive is the base form of a verb, usually preceded by "to."

Participle

A participle is a verb form that functions as an adjective, often ending in "-ing" or "-ed."