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Parts of Sentences – every sentence has a subject and a predicate
Subject – tells us what or whom the sentence is about; usually a noun, pronoun or gerund: The motorcycle broke the world record set by Chris
Carr and just kept going!
Predicate – tells us what happens in the sentence or what is said about the subject. Everything that follows the subject, which must include a
verb, is the predicate: The motorcycle broke the world record set by Chris Carr and just kept going!
Verb – the action or state of the subject. Every sentence has a verb: The motorcycle broke the world record set by Chris Carr and just kept going!
Direct Object – a noun or pronoun that is affected by the action of the verb and follows transitive verb: The motorcycle broke the world record set by
Chris Carr and just kept going!
Indirect Object – a noun or pronoun that is affected by the action of the transitive verb: The motorcycle broke the world record set by Chris Carr
and just kept going!
Subject Compliment – comes after a copula, or linking verb, and is usually a noun or adjective that comments on or helps define the subject: The
motorcycle broke the world record set by Chris Carr and just kept going! (verb acting as an adjective)
Nouns – words referring to people (the man), places (the beach) or things (the computer)
Countable Nouns – have both singular and plural forms and can be counted. They can be regular (cup/cups) or irregular (knife/knives orlife/lives) and have a spelling change.
Uncountable Nouns – have no plural form; freedom, money, music, water, food
Proper Nouns – are special words or names used for a specific person, place or organization, month/day of the week and are capitalized; Shikira,
Honda, Monday, December 14
Verbs – verbs refer to an action (drive, watch) or state (know, be); all sentences have at least one verb
Transitive Verbs – a verb that requires an object: Alex bought a book.
Intransitive Verbs – a verb that doesn’t need an object: We danced.
Copula/Linking Verbs – links the subject to a predicate without expressing action; be, seem, look, feel, become, appear, get, keep, go: Josh
seems nice.
Stative – describes an inactive state, yet show thought, possession, senses and emotion; know, have, see, want
Auxiliary/Helping Verbs – forms of do, have and be that always precede main verb: Do you want a ride?
Modals – helping verbs used to express possibility, intention, obligation and necessity that are followed by the bare infinitive; can, could, might,
should, would: Chris should pack the boxes. >More on Helping Verbs and Modals
Phrasal Verbs – 2 to 3 words that have a different meaning when put together; give up, run into, drop out, called off
• Separable Phrasal Verbs – phrasal verbs that can be separated and hold their "phrasal" meaning: Jim called the meeting off.
• Inseparable Phrasal Verbs - phrasal verbs that will lose their "phrasal" meaning if they are separated: Jorge ran into Sylvester at the store.
Infinitive Verbs – are verbs that show no marking for person, tense or aspect and are usually used with to: Marco wants to leave.
• A Bare Infinitive is one that is used without to: He will call.
Gerund – an -ing verb that functions as a noun: Gail is afraid of swimming.
Adjectives – a word that modifies a noun by describing the quality or state of the noun or an action that the noun refers to
Present Participle Adjective – an -ing verb that functions as an adjective: This is a boring movie.Past Participle Adjective – an -ed verb that functions as an adjective: The shocked audience.
Attributive Adjective – comes before a noun: What is the main idea?
Predicative Adjective – comes after a noun: Gabriel seems nice.
Comparative Adjective – compares two things and either ends in an -er or follows the word more: Jamie is faster than Connie. The building is
more extravagant than I thought.
Superlative Adjective – is a word that shows something’s value over something else and either ends in -est or follows the word most: Ryan is the
smartest member. She is the most talented singer.
Adverbs – a word that can modify a verb (ran quickly), adjective (more careful) or another adverb (very well)
Manner Adverbs – describes how an action was done; carefully, happily, quickly, perfectlyPlace/Location/Direction Adverbs – answer the question where; up, down, above, below, here, there
Time/Frequency Adverbs – answers when the action was done; recently, never, often, soon, today, tomorrow, always, usually, sometimes
Degree Adverbs – decreases or intensifies the verb, adjective or adverb and answers the question how much; totally, completely, almost, much,
quite, too, very
Relative Adverbs – a where, when, and why word that fulfills the function of an adverb by modifying the verb within its own clause: My favorite
restaurant is Brian’s where we ate at on my birthday.
Determiners – specialized groups of words that precede and modify nouns by making the idea or reference more specific
Articles• Definite Articles – used to specify a specific thing; the chair, the red dress
• Indefinite Articles – used as a general reference; a car, an elephant (Note: “an” is used with words that begin with vowel sounds regardless of
whether the word begins with a vowel; a university, an hour.)
Quantifiers – words that precede nouns and tell us how much or how many; a few, enough, a lot of, some a little. Choosing the correct quantifier
also depends on whether the noun is a count noun or non-count noun: several trees, a great deal of dancing.
Numbers – specify the quantity of a noun; five bananas, 106 steps. (Note: When writing, spell out a number if it is ten or under and use the
numbers if it is 11 or higher.)
Ordinals – tell the position of objects when they are placed in order; 1st/first, 2nd/second, 3rd/third … 18th/eighteenth, 19th/nineteenth,
20th/twentieth, etc.
Possessive Adjective – used in front of a noun to show ownership; my, your, her, its, our, their: Raul is using her computer.
Possessive Nouns – nouns used as adjectives to show ownership of another noun. They tell you who or what the modified noun belongs to: Joy’s
address, the dog’s toy, a man’s suit. (Note: When a word ends in an “s” the apostrophe follows the word and the added “s” is eliminated:
Honduras’ government, Jesus’ apartment.)
Interrogative Adjectives – the “wh” question words (what, which, whose), when are used before a noun: Whose car is this? Which street should I
take?
Demonstrative Adjectives – show whether the location of a noun is near or far and whether it is singular or plural. There are only four
demonstratives; that, this, these and those: that house, those houses.
Indefinite Pronouns – some indefinite pronouns that precede and describe a noun can be used as determiners; one, each, either, neither, some,
any, one, all, both, few, several, many, most: Each person takes a turn. (Note: Look under the “Pronouns” category to find other uses of
indefinite pronouns.)
Pronouns – a word that is substituted for a noun
Possessive Pronouns – used to substitute a noun and show ownership; mine, yours, hers, his, its, ours, theirs: That one is mine.Interrogative Pronouns – “wh” question words when they act as a pronoun; what, which, who, whose, whom: When are you leaving? What is your
favorite?
Relative Pronouns - relate groups of words to nouns; that, which, who, whom, whomever, whoever and whose: The student who studies the hardest usually does the best.
Demonstrative Pronouns – are the same as the Demonstrative Adjectives; this, that, these and those, but they replace nouns that are understood
based on the context: This is smaller than that. These are sweeter than those.
Indefinite Pronouns – replace a noun, but don’t specify the noun they replace; singular (someone, anyone, everything, no one, nobody, each,
neither), plural (both, several, few) and both singular or plural (all, any, more, none, most, some): Someone should call him. All of the students
participated. (Note: Look under the “Determiners” category to find other uses of indefinite pronouns.)
Personal Pronouns – represent specific people or things that have already been stated. There are both subject pronouns; I, you, he, she, we, it,
they and object pronouns; him, her, me, you, it, us, them. In the example, “Lourdes is talking to Meme.” Lourdes is the subject
and Meme is the object: She is talking to him.
Reflexive Pronouns – used when the subject and object refer to the same person; myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves,
themselves: They built the house themselves.
Reciprocal Pronouns – when the same action is reciprocated or shared between two or more people; each other, one another: The businessmen
shook hands with one another. We gave each other a present.
Conjunctions – a word that connects phrases or clauses in a sentence >Study Guide >Practice
Coordinating Conjunctions – connect two independent clauses and can be remembered with the acronym FANBOYS; For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So: (Independent Clause) + (FANBOYS) + (Independent Clause)
Subordinating Conjunctions – words that introduce dependent clauses and indicates the relationship between them; before, after, since, as soon
as, because, although, even though: (Independent Clause) + (Subordinating Conjunction) + (Dependent Clause)
Correlative Conjunctions – are made up of two or more words that join and compare two sentence subjects; both/and, neither/nor, either/or, not
only/ but (also): She displayed both the pink dress and the white one.
Conjunctive Adverb – words the show the connection between ideas in two clauses; however, for example, therefore, afterwards
Prepositions – short and very common words that connect other words in a sentence; of, to, in, but, from, on, like, with, above, around, between,
during, from, near, toward
Tag Questions – questions used after a statement to seek agreement: I plan to go to the show, don’t you?
Interjection – a word added to a sentence to display emotion that is used more in speaking than writing; Ah, Hey, Hi, Um, Uh, Oh: Hey! What was
that? Uh, I didn’t know it was today?
Phrases – a group of related words that does not include a subject and a verb; if the group of words does contain a subject and a verb, it is clause
Noun Phrase – a single noun or pronoun or a group of words containing a noun that function together: The cold, dark hallway leads to her office.The dog ran away.
Prepositional Phrase – the preposition and its compliment: Jaime is sitting in the chain by the window. Kelly is on television.
Clauses – a group of related words containing a subject and a verb
Independent Clauses – a clause that can stand alone and make sense: (Pedro is coming to school), but (he will be late).Dependent Clauses – a clause than cannot stand alone as a complete thought. There are three types of dependent clauses; adverb, adjective and
noun clauses.
1) Adverb Clauses – begin with a subordinate conjunction and answers questions, such as when, where and why: When the game is over, we will
get some lunch.
2) Adjective Clauses – come after a noun, modifies it and begins with a relative pronoun. An adjective clause can be an identifying clause that is
necessary to identify the noun, or non-identifying clause that is not. Punctuation is required with a non-identifying clause. (Note: “that” can only
be used in an identifying clause because it cannot be used with a comma).
• Identifying Clause: The guy who was talking to Lourdes is on the soccer team.
• Non-Identifying Clause: Victor, who was talking to Lourdes, is on the soccer team.
3) Noun Clauses – a group of words that has the function of a noun and usually answers a question; noun clauses begin with that, where, how,
who, when, why, whether, if: Is Professor Ramos a good instructor? I think that Professor Ramos is a good instructor.
*Notes based on teachings from Semester at SDSU Coordinator Kristin Miller of the American Language Institute
