Grammar

Syntax

Parts of Speech

  • categories for the role of a word in a sentence
  • such as adjective, adverb, noun, verb, etc.
  • many words can operate across or as different parts of speech
    • ex., an "attributive noun" acts as an adjective that modifies another noun ("dog food")
PARTS OF SPEECH
Part of Speech Definition Category Other
Adjective modifies nouns modifier
Adverb modifies verbs and adjectives modifier
Article identifies a known or unknown noun

("the" or "a"/"an")

modifier
Conjunction joins or contrasts words and sentence parts grammatical
Determiner identifies specificity (these), quantity (five), amount (some), possession (our), sufficiency (enough) or a noun modifier
Interjection an exclamation or abrupt remark (What?, Yes!) grammatical
Noun a person, place or thing grammatical
Preposition identifies a relationship between a noun or a verb and another noun ("on the table", "to the store") modifier
Pronoun references a noun or a person (I, you, he/she/it, we, they, etc.) grammatical
Verb indicates action or existence grammatical

Modifier

  • a word or set of words that "modify" or change, add to, qualify, or describe another word or another part of a sentence
  • some parts of speech are modifiers:
    • adjective, adverb, article, determiner, preposition
  • phrases and clauses can also act as modifiers

Sentence Parts

Subject

  • a noun
  • the actor
  • i.e., the person place or thing that does the action
  • in grammar, "subject" is in the sense of "to subject" or "to force into submission"
    • as in the "doer" of the sentence, the actor that causes the action
  • also related to the word "subjective," which means "from the perspective of"

Verb

  • word that expresses an action ("make") or existence ("be")
  • infinitive = "to" + the verb , as in "to make"
    • infinitives express the action in general but not the action itself
    • infinitives can operate as nouns or adjectives
      • as in "I want to go" ("to go" = the object of the verb "want")

Predicate

  • expresses what happens to the subject
  • i.e., = the verb + the result or outcome of an action

Object

  • the recipient of the action
    • i.e.,
  • direct object
  • indirect object

Sentence

  • a grammatically complete thought
    • contains a subject & verb/predicate

Clause

  • part of a sentence
  • has a subject & verb

Independent clause

Phrase

  • two or more words that
    • do not contain a subject & verb
    • form a distinct grammatical unit ("constituent")

Joining sentence parts

Punctuation

Colon