Grammar: English Vocabulary List

the shortened form of a word, etc.

"'Dr.' is the standard abbreviation for the title 'Doctor.'"

"The abbreviation 'ASAP' is commonly used in business emails."

a verb that is used with other verbs to indicate tense, voice, etc., such as do, have, and be

"An auxiliary verb helps the main verb."

"In the sentence "she is running," the word "is" functions as an auxiliary verb helping the main verb "running"."

(grammar) a word such as and, because, but, and or that connects phrases, sentences, or words

"The conjunction joins two ideas."

"A conjunction connects words phrases or clauses such as and but or because."

(grammar) a word that comes before a noun or pronoun to indicate location, direction, time, manner, or the relationship between two objects

"On is a preposition."

"Choosing the correct preposition in English is often difficult for language learners."

(grammar) the name of a place, person, country, etc. with its first letter capitalized

"The proper noun is capitalized."

"The name "London" is a proper noun because it refers to a specific city and must be capitalized."

(grammar) a word that can replace a noun or noun phrase, such as she, it, they, etc.

"She is a pronoun."

"A pronoun helps us avoid repeating the same noun in a conversation."

(grammar) a letter or a set of letters that are added to the beginning of a word to alter its meaning and make a new word

"A prefix changes word meaning."

"The prefix 'un-' is commonly added to words to indicate negation or the opposite."

(grammar) a letter or a set of letters that are added to the end of a word to alter its meaning and make a new word

"The suffix '-ing' turns the verb 'to play' into the noun 'playing.'"

"A suffix is a meaningful unit of language attached to the end of a word to create a derivative"

(grammar) describing words that are indicating the presence of more than one person or thing

"The noun is plural."

"The plural form of the word child is children which is an irregular noun in English."

referring to a single item or entity

"He has a singular focus."

"The scientist made a singular discovery that changed the way we understand the universe and our place within it forever."

not conforming to established rules, patterns, or norms

"His heartbeat is irregular."

"His heartbeat was irregular so the doctor sent him to a specialist for further tests and a thorough examination of his heart."

(grammar) a verb that is used with the main verb of a sentence to indicate possibility, intention, etc., such as can, might, should, etc.

"The modal shows possibility."

"The modal verb "must" expresses strong obligation, as in the sentence "you must wear a seatbelt when driving"."

(grammar) describing a sentence, clause, etc. that will only be true or happen if something else is true or happens

"The sentence is conditional."

"The conditional sentence expresses what would happen if a certain condition were met in the future."

completely without mistakes or flaws, reaching the best possible standard

"The weather is perfect."

"The weather was perfect for a picnic so we packed our baskets and spent the whole afternoon at the park together."

a form of a verb that "ed", etc. is added to the end of it which is used to form passive or present tenses or adjectives

"The past participle is used here."

"The past participle of the verb "eat" is "eaten," which is used in perfect tenses like "I have eaten lunch already"."

a particular combination of words that are used together very often

"The collocation sounds natural."

"A common collocation in English is "make a decision" rather than "do a decision," which sounds unnatural to native speakers."

the way a word is pronounced

"Her pronunciation is clear."

"Her pronunciation of the word "schedule" sounded British because she said "shedyool" instead of the American "skedyool"."

(grammar) a short question added to the end of a statement that is formed form the same statement

"The tag question is easy."

"The sentence "It is a nice day, isn't it?" ends with a tag question that asks for confirmation from the listener."

the use of marks such as a period, comma, etc. in writing to divide sentences and phrases to better convey meaning

"Use punctuation correctly in writing."

"Proper punctuation is essential for making your writing clear and easy to read."

the mark ! used after a sentence to indicate excitement, surprise, etc.

"The exclamation point shows excitement."

"The writer used an exclamation point at the end of the sentence to show excitement and enthusiasm about the news."

the mark ? used at the end of a sentence to show that it is a question

"The question mark is missing."

"A question mark goes at the end of a question."

the mark , used to separate items in a list or indicate a pause in a sentence

"The comma separates ideas."

"She placed a comma after the introductory clause to separate it from the main part of the sentence for clarity."

a grammatical construction in which two negative elements are used within the same sentence, often resulting in a positive meaning

"A double negative sounds odd."

"The phrase "I don't have none" contains a double negative, which is considered grammatically incorrect in standard English."

(grammar) any type of determiner that shows whether we are referring to a particular thing or a general example of something

"A is an article."

"In English, 'a', 'an', and 'the' are the three types of article used before nouns."

(grammar) describing a verb whose subject is the one that does the action

"The verb is active."

"In active voice sentences, the subject performs the action, making the writing more direct and engaging."

(grammar) describing a verb whose subject is affected by the action of the verb

"The ball was hit."

"In English grammar, the passive voice is often used to emphasize the object of the action."

(grammar) describing adverbs or adjectives that indicate a difference in degree, quality, size, etc.

"This is a comparative adjective."

"The adjective 'bigger' is the comparative form of 'big,' indicating a greater size than something else."

(grammar) describing the highest amount or degree of an adjective or adverb

"This is the best."

"The superlative form of 'good' is 'best', indicating the highest quality."

(grammar) describing words that are indicating the presence of only one person or thing

"One cat is here."

"The noun 'child' is singular, referring to just one young human being."

following the standard rules of the grammar properly

"This is a grammatical sentence."

"This is a grammatical sentence because it follows all the rules of English syntax and punctuation."

(of verbs, nouns, or adjectives) not following standard patterns or rules

"He is irregular."

"The verb 'go' has an irregular past tense, 'went', which deviates from the standard '-ed' ending."

(grammar) indicating a completed action or state

"I have eaten lunch."

"The perfect tense in English grammar indicates an action that has been completed at some point."

(grammar) describing a verb that indicates an action in progress

"She is running now."

"The continuous aspect of a verb describes an ongoing action that is currently in progress."

(grammar) describing a form of a verb that indicates an action is continuing

"He is in progressive tense."

"The progressive tense shows that an action is ongoing and not yet finished at a specific time."

(grammar) describing nouns and pronouns that indicate ownership

"My is a possessive pronoun."

"The possessive pronoun shows ownership such as my your his her its our or their."

‌(phonetics) a speech sound produced by interfering with or stopping the flow of air through the mouth or nose

"The consonant is silent."

"The letter "b" is a consonant, and it is silent in words like "comb" and "thumb" where it appears but is not pronounced."

‌(phonetics) a speech sound produced without interfering with the flow of air coming through the mouth or nose

"A E I O U are vowels in English."

"The vowel sounds in English are represented by the letters A E I O U and sometimes Y."

(phonetics) an added force when pronouncing a syllable or word

"Say it with stress."

"The correct pronunciation of this word relies heavily on placing the stress on the first syllable."

to be the letters being put together in the correct order form a particular word

"How do you spell?"

"Could you please spell out your last name so that I can write it down accurately?"