Comp Grammer Definitions

Noun: People, places, objects, and ideas

Pronoun: Replace nouns to refer to people

Verb: Action verbs indicate specific activities while being verbs indicate states of being

Preposition: Location and time words that indicate where things are, where they’re going, or when they occurred, usually followed by nouns

Adjective: Modify nouns, pronouns, and other adjectives

Adverb: Modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, and clauses, often end in -ly

Conjunction: Transition words that indicate relationships between words, phrases, and clauses

Interjection: Exclamation words often punctuated with “!”

Simple Subjects: The main word in a complete sentence

Simple Predicates: The main word or phrase in a complete predicate

Compound Verbs: Two or more verbs in a single sentence

Verb Phrases: A main verb plus one or more helping verbs

Direct Objects: A noun or pronoun that receives the action of a verb or shows the result of the action

Indirect Object: Precedes the direct object and tells for whom or to whom the verb’s action is done

Predicate Nominative and Adjective: The noun that follows a linking verb and restates or stands for the subject

Prepositional Phrases: Begins with a preposition and usually ends with a noun or pronoun

Adjective Phrases: A prepositional phrase that acts as an adjective, answers the question “which one?”

Adverb Phrases: A prepositional phrase that acts as an adverb

Appositives: A noun or pronoun placed beside another noun or pronoun to explain or identify it

Participle: Looks like a verb but acts like an adjective

Participle Phrases: Consists of the participle, its modifiers, and other words that complete the idea, begun by the participle

Gerunds: A verbal that ends in -ing and acts as a noun

Gerund Phrase: Includes the gerund, its modifiers, and the words that complete the idea, begun by the gerund

Infinitives: A verbal consisting of the word to plus a verb

Adverb Clause: A subordinate or dependent clause that acts as an adverb and starts with a subordinating conjunction; answers the why, where, when, and how

Adjective Clause: A subordinate or dependent clause that functions as an adjective and begins with a relative pronoun; answers the who, whom, which, or that

Noun Clause: A subordinate or dependent clause that functions as a noun and does the work of a noun, can function as a S, DO, IO, OP, PN, or object complement; begins with that, what, where, when, who, whom, which, whose, how, why, and whether