Saturday, 26 April 2008

Introduction to English Clauses

A clause is an organized group of words with a subject and a verb.

A main clause is an independent clause, which can stand alone as a complete sentence.

A subordinated clause is a dependent clause and is not complete.

A sentence can have a main clause and a subordinate clause to form a complex sentence. A main clause can combine with another main clause to form compound sentences. A compound sentence can combine with another subordinate clause to form a compound-complex sentence.

Types of Clauses

1. INDEPENDENT CLAUSE

An independent or main clause has a subject, a verb and can stand alone as a sentence.

Example: Canada is a very large country.

2. SUBORDINATE CLAUSES

A subordinate clause depends on the main clause that it often modifies. A subordinate clause has a subordinator that usually introduces the clause such as subordinating conjunctions (as, since, because) or relative pronouns (who, which, that). They are sometimes called dependent clauses because they "depend" on a main clause to give them meaning. A subordinate clause does not express a complete thought, so it does not stand alone, however they normally act as single part of speech. Subordinate clauses can be identified as adjective clauses, adverbial, relative clauses, participle clauses, to-infinitive clauses, and nominal clauses.

Examples: Fred knew that I wanted a new ball.

3. ADVERBIAL CLAUSES

An adverb is a word belonging to a class of words which modify any constituent class of words other than nouns, such as verbs, adjectives, adverbs, phrases, clauses, or sentences. An adverbial clause is a clause that has an adverb-like function in modifying another clause similar to the way adverbs modify verbs. Adverbial clauses can modify an entire independent clause or another subordinate clause to which they might be attached. Adverbial clauses describe time of the event, place of the event, manner of the event, cause of the event or condition for the event. Most adverb clauses can be recognized because they are introduced by subordinating conjunctions: after, before, until, while, because, since, as, so that, in order that, if, unless, whether, though, although, even though and where.

Examples:
I haven't been skating since we all went up to Banff last winter.
He stood there as if he was frozen to the very spot.
Fred jogs where there is no traffic because he likes it.

4. RELATIVE CLAUSES

A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies nouns and sometimes indefinite pronouns. The antecedent of the relative clause can be the subject of the main clause, or its object. Relative clauses are adjectival and they occur after the modified noun. Relative clauses give essential information to define or identify the person or thing we are talking about. Relative clauses are introduced by relative pronouns “that, who, which, whom and whose” or relative adverbs "when, where, why".

Examples:
I saw the player [who hit you].
I saw the player [that hit you].
I like the park [where I jog].
I would like to know the reason [why you didn't eat the vegetables].

There are two different types of relative clause a "defining" or identifying clause, which tells us which person or thing we are talking about and a "non-defining" or non-essential clause, which gives us more information about the person or thing we are talking about.

5. NOUN CLAUSES

Nominal clauses function as nouns and may be replaced with a pronoun. Like a noun, a nominal clause names a person, place, thing, or idea. A nominal clause may function in a sentence as a subject, subjective complement, appositive, object of preposition, direct object or indirect object. Nominal clauses are subordinated by one of the following subordinating conjunctions: how, that, what, when, where, whether, which, who and why.

Examples:
[How you did it] is not my concern. (That is not my concern)

[That I wanted a ball] was irrelevant in the discussion. (It was irrelevant)

An interrogative beginning a nominal clause, has a function within the nominal clause. Nominal clauses may begin with interrogatives: who, whom, what, which, whoever, whomever, whatever, when, where, how and why.

Example: Why you did that is a mystery to us.

Original Post
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English Grammar Glossary URL
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Wednesday, 16 April 2008

English Phrases are a word or group of words used as a single value

English Phrases are a word or group of words used as a single value

An English word or group of words used as a single value (without either a subject or predicate) are called phrases. English phrases tend to be larger than individual words and are usually considered as expansions of an individual word. English phrases are smaller than clauses or sentences as they do not have subjects and predicates or subjects and verbs.

Phrase classifications are generally based on the headword, phrase function or phrase construction. We refer to the central element in an English phrase as the head of the phrase. If the head is a noun then the phrase is usually called a noun phrase.

There is some overlap when describing phrases based on either the phrase headword or phrase function. The phrase headword can usually stand alone as a one-word phrase. The headword is the only English word that cannot be omitted from a phrase.

There is some debate classifying phrases. In general these are the phrase types: Noun Phrase, Verb Phrase, Adjective Phrase, Adverb Phrase, Prepositional Phrase, Gerundive Phrase, Participial Phrase, Absolute Phrase, Infinitive Phrase and appositives.

Noun phrases perform the work of a noun in the sentence as subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, complements or objects of prepositions.

The widest definition for verb phrases states their function as predicates of sentences. A narrower definition of 'verb phrase' is the verbal elements: a main verb as the head, auxiliaries, infinitive markers and other verbal particles.

Adjectival phrases are composed of the adjectives and the elements that modify the adjectives. Adjectival phrases can occur inside noun phrases perform as modifiers to a noun phrase or act as complements.

Adverbial phrases of one or more adverbs can modify a verb, adjective, verb phrase, an adjectival phrase or an entire clause.

Prepositional phrases are used either adjectivally to modify nouns or noun phrases that can act as the object or adverbially to modify verbs, adjectives, or clauses.

Gerundive phrases can perform most of the functions of a gerund or verbal noun as subjects, objects, objects of a preposition, or even as adjectives.

Participial phrases always function as adjectives and contains the participle and the object of the participle and any words modified by or related to the participle.

Absolute phrases modify an entire sentence and usually consist of a subject noun phrase, a participial and any modifiers.

The infinitive phrase can perform three functions as a noun, adjective or adverb.

An appositive phrase renames, means the same thing as or further explains another noun or pronoun and are usually placed beside what they rename.

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English Grammar Glossary URL
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Wednesday, 9 April 2008

English words are classified into Eight Parts of Speech

English words are classified into Eight Parts of Speech

All English words are classified. The term we use to name these classifications is "Parts of Speech". All English words are classified into eight parts of speech: the verb, the noun, the pronoun, the adjective, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, and the interjection.

The parts of speech are the building blocks of the English language.

Each English part of speech explains what the word is, how the word is used and the function the word performs. The same English word can perform as a noun in one sentence and a verb or adjective in the next sentence.

The verb is perhaps the most important part of the sentence. A verb or compound verb states something about the subject of the sentence. The verb depicts actions, events, or states of being.

A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, or abstract concepts. A noun can function in a sentence as a subject, a direct object, an indirect object, a subject complement, an object complement, an appositive, an adjective or an adverb.

Pronouns as a part of speech can replace a noun, another pronoun, noun phrases and perform most of the functions of a noun.

An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun by describing, identifying, or quantifying words. Many consider articles: "the, a, an" to be adjectives.

An adverb can modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a phrase, or a complete clause by indicating manner, time, place, cause, or degree.

A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence.

Conjunctions link words, phrases, and clauses.

An interjection is a part of speech used to show or express emotion or illustrate an exclamation.

English grammar rules are the blueprint for constructing English phrases, clauses and sentences.

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English Grammar Glossary URL
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Thursday, 3 April 2008

An abbreviation is a shortened form of an English word

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or expression. Abbreviation is a word created from the Latin word brevis for "short". Usually an abbreviation consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase.

As an example, the word "abbreviation" can itself be represented by the abbreviation "abbr"

For the sake of convenience, many British publications have completely done away with the use of periods in all abbreviations.

Publications based in the U.S. tend to follow three different style guides. Some two-word abbreviations, like "United Nations" U.N., are abbreviated with uppercase letters and periods, and others, like "personal computer" PC, and "compact disc" CD, are not.

In general if the original word was capitalized, then the first letter of its abbreviation should retain the capital, for example Ont. for Ontario. When abbreviating words spelled with lower case letters usually there is no need for capitalization.

Example abbreviations of grammatical terms:

a. = adjective;

adv. = adverb;

imp. = imperfect;

n. = noun;

pass. = passive;

p.p. = past participle;

p.pr. = present participle;

pref. = prefix;

prep. = preposition;

pres. = present;

subj. = subjunctive;

v.i. = intransitive verb;

v.t. = transitive verb.

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English Grammar Glossary URL
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Welcome to English Grammar Glossary

Glossary is an English term.

A glossary is a list of words or phrases used in a particular field with their definitions. Glossaries are often found in texts, journals and academic books as an appendix to the text.

An English grammar glossary is a list of English language linguistic and grammatical terms, grammar definitions, explanations, context examples and cross-references to other relevant English grammar terms.

An English dictionary is an alphabetical list of English words giving their definitions, examples and grammatical classification and usually includes phonetic symbols indicating the pronunciation. An English dictionary can also be organized with an alphabetical list with definitions of the key words from a profession or industry like a dictionary of medicine or computing.

An English thesaurus is an English reference book that organizes English words by categories and concepts, so synonyms, near-synonyms and the opposites antonyms will be grouped together.

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English Grammar Glossary URL
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