Edgood's entries Page #80

complement verb

A complement verb, or phrasal verb, comprises a verb and a preposition. We have hundreds of them in the English language: dredge up, drop out, make up, mess up, screw up, and the list goes on and ...

complement

A complement is a word or group of words that completes the action or state of being expressed by the verb. A subject complement typically follows the verb to be ...

comparative state

Modifiers—adjectives and adverbs—attribute qualities to nouns and verbs. When the modifier shows a greater quality, it appears in the comparative state.Usually, for adjectives, you form ...

collective noun

A collective noun, also called a group noun, refers to a group of persons or things. Examples include group, number, majority, team, and many others.In American English, when individual members of ...

clause

A clause is a group of words with a conjugated verb in it. Clauses come in two types: (1) independent and (2) dependent. An independent clause is a full sent...

case

We have seven kinds of pronouns in the English language (personal pronouns, reflexive and intensive pronouns, relative pron...

auxiliary verb

When you conjugate a one-word verb, you can form the present tense (he decides) and the past tense (he decided) with just one verb word. But when yo...

article

We have three articles in the English language: a, an, and the. The words a and an are indefinite articles, the word is a definite art...

appositive

An appositive is a noun or noun phrase that defines or restates another noun (or pronoun). Generally, the appositive follows the word it defines, as in My friend, Susan...

antecedent

A pronoun takes the place of a noun. When writing, you'll use a pronoun and that pronoun will refer to some noun close by. That noun (the referent) is called the antecedent. The prefix ante...

adverbial phrase

Many phrases can act as adverbs and modify a verb, another adverb, or an adjective. A prepositional phrase can act as an ad...

adverbial clause

First, a clause is a group of words with a conjugated verb in it. Second, an adverbial clause is a clause that modifies or describes a verb. Note these adverbial clauses: He quit the race...

adverb

An adverb is a word or group of words that modifies or describes a verb. Many one-word adverbs end in “-ly,” such as he ran quickly. Others, however, do not, such as he ran ...

adjectival phrase

First, a phrase is any multiword group without a conjugated verb. Second, an adjectival phrase is a phrase that modifies or describes a noun or pronoun. Usually, an adjectival phra...

adjectival clause

First, a clause is a group of words with a conjugated verb in it. Second, an adjectival clause is a clause that modifies or describes a noun or pronoun. Note these adjectival claus...

adjective

An adjective is a word or group of words that modifies or describes a noun (a little girl) or a pronoun (he is ...

active voice

Every transitive verb can appear in one of two voices: the active voice or the passive voice.In the active voice, the grammatical subject of the sentence is the actor. Thus, in the ...

action verb

An action verb denotes physical, mental, or even emotional activity. The word run is obviously an action verb. But so is think.Every action verb is either transitive or ...

acronym, initialism

An acronym is a pronounceable name made up of a series of initial letters or parts of words; for example, UNESCO for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.An initialism, on the other hand, is simply a ...

Glossary of Grammatical Terms

Here’s the Glossary of Grammatical Terms. Click any word for a complete definition along with examples. acronym, initialism...

Conclusion to the Section on Punctuation

We hope you have enjoyed, and profited from, this discussion on the rules of punctuation. If you have, we hope you’ll tell your friends about Grammar.com.We hope you’ll use o...

Exclamation Point Goes Outside

Sometimes the exclamation point goes outside the closing quotations marks. When 911 took the call, the operator said, "I'm on a break now"! (Exclamation point showing the writer's exclamation goes outside the ending q...

Exclamation Point Goes Inside

Sometimes the exclamation point goes inside the closing quotations marks. The man cried out: "Fire! There's a fire! Call 911!" (Exclamation point that's part of the quotation goes inside. Notice that no additional pun...

Question Mark Goes Outside

Sometimes the question mark goes outside the closing quotations marks. Did the board really say, "We will consider the rules on charitable contributions"? (Question mark showing the writer's question goes outside.)...

Question Mark Goes Inside

Sometimes the question mark goes inside the closing quotations marks. The committee asked, rather rhetorically, "Does this rule actually apply?" (Question mark that's part of the quotation goes inside. No ad...