Edgood's entries Page #77

noun substitute

This is not an official grammatical term. Rather, I made it up to refer to three structures in our language that can step in and perform the roles of the noun: (1) nominal clauses, (2) infini...

noun modifier

A noun can act as an adjective. When it does, we call it a noun modifier. Indeed, in the expression noun modifier, the word noun acts as a noun modifier. We have hundreds of these expressions in our...

noun clause

 See nominal clause....

noun chain

These days writers write long chains of nouns that befuddle the reader. A noun chain is a string of nouns, some acting as noun modifiers and one finally serving the noun function in the sentence. The expression noun chain is, itself, a noun ...

noun appositive

 See appositive....

noun adverb

A noun can act as an adverb. In the following examples, notice how the noun answers one of the adverbial questions (how, when, where, or why): He went h...

noun absolute

The noun absolute is a power structure that belongs in your style. All great writers routinely use noun absolutes. In fact, you won't find a great work of fiction without oodles of noun absolutes. You form a noun absolute by taking a ...

noun

A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea or emotional state. Nouns are characterized by their ability to form plurals and to take possessive endings. The noun serves a variety of roles in our sentence...

nonrestrictive clause

A nonrestrictive clause is also called a nondefining clause.A nonrestrictive clause looks to the noun modified and adds information about it. It does not single it out among others that could exist in the context....

nonparallel construction

When you write a series of elements in a sentence, each element must (1) appear in the same grammatical form and (2) perform the same grammatical function. This is the rule of parallel construction. If any element...

nondefining clause

The great grammarian Henry Fowler coined this term to refer to a nonrestrictive clause. A nondefining clause looks to the noun modified and adds information about it. It does not single it out among others that could exist in the ...

nominal clause

A nominal clause is a group of words with a conjugated verb in it that acts as a noun. Also called a noun clause, this structure can fulfill virtually all functions of a noun. A nominal clause s...

no-action verb

All main verbs divide into two broad categories: action verbs (transitive and intransitive) and no-action verbs (the ...

mood

First, understand this: The word mood has nothing to do with frame of mind, as in happy or sad. It actually refers to mode, which is the attribute of a verb suggesting the speaker's attitude toward the action expressed.The m...

modifier

Modifiers are words or groups of words that limit, enumerate, or describe and clarify the meaning of other words—called headwords. The headwords are nouns (or words acting as nouns) or verbs. Modifiers...

modal auxiliary verb

We have ten modal auxiliary verbs: can, could, may, might, must, ought to, shall, should, will, and would. We use them to express the mood of the verb, which, most often, is the indicative mood (expressing someth...

main verb

The main verb in a sentence is the verb in the main clause, also called the independent clause. This verb will appear in conjugated form, showing tense, per...

main clause

The main clause of a sentence is the independent clause—complete with subject, conjugated verb, and a third part. The third part is dictated by the verb. If the verb is ...

linking verb

A linking verb is also called a copula or copulative verb. It shows no action. Instead, it links the grammatical subject usually to an adjective, sometimes to a noun...

infinitive verb

Every verb has a base infinitive form. We think of the infinitive as the verb with the preposition to in front of it: as in to have, to hold, to love, to honor, to cherish. Infinitives appear in t...

irregular verb

Verbs have four principal parts: (1) the infinitive, (2) the past, (3) the past participle, and (4) the present participle. A ...

intransitive verb

Action verbs are either transitive or intransitive. A transitive verb has the intrinsic ability to attach directly to a noun, called the direct object. Bu...

interrogative pronoun

We have various ways of asking questions in the English language. We can take a multiword verb form and put the subject between the auxiliary verb and the base infinitive, as in ...

interrogative mood

First, understand this: The word mood has nothing to do with frame of mind, as in happy or sad. It actually refers to mode, which is the attribute of a verb suggesting the speaker's attitude toward the action expressed.The mood of ve...

interjection

An interjection is one of the eight parts of speech. It is a word of surprise, as in wow, whoopie do, yikes. It rarely shows up in formal expository writing....