136
GLOSSARY
Adjective -
A
word which describes, or adds detail to, a noun. e.g.
good, bad
. In English,
adjectives go before nouns. e.g.
a good assignment
Adverb -
A word which describes, or adds detail to, a verb. e.g.
write quickly
,
arrive late
,
get
up early
Article -
A word that goes before a noun and indicates if it is indefinite (
a/an/0
) or definite
(
the
). See the section on this website on
articles
for a fuller explanation. If you have an
adjective between the article and the noun and it needs an indefinite article, you need to choose
the indefinite article which matches the opening sound of the adjective. e.g.
an essay/a good
essay
,
a report/an early report
Aspect -
The way in which time is experienced. Aspect combines with different
tenses
:
simple -
they attend
,
they attended
,
they will attend
continuous/progressive -
they are attending
,
they were attending
,
they will be attending
perfect -
they have attended
,
they had attended
,
they will have attended
Clause
- A group of words with a
subject
and a
verb
which can be part of a sentence or
can form a whole sentence by itself.
Consonant -
b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z
. Words that start with
a
consonant sound
take
a
in the singular. e.g.
a letter
,
a book
. However, a word may start with
a consonant but have a
vowel sound
. In that case it takes an in the singular. e.g.
an
h
our
(the
letter
h
is not pronounced)
Countable
- Countable
nouns
can take
a
or
an
in the singular and can be made plural. e.g.
a
report
,
two reports
Ergative verb -
A verb which can be active, passive or in the middle (i.e. not active or passive,
but in between the two). (Please see the
passive voice
section of this website for more
information.)
Infinitive
- The part of a verb that does not change in English
and is used in dictionary
definitions. It often, but not always,
has the word
to
before it. When following a
modal
verb,
for instance, it does not have
to
. e.g.
We have to write a report. We must submit the assignment
by Friday.
Modal verb
- A kind of auxiliary verb used before an infinitive. e.g.
can, could, may, might,
must, should, will, would
. Modal verbs do not take the word to before an infinitive.
Mood -
The way a verb is used to express an action, a command or a doubt.
Indicative,
imperative
and
subjunctive
are all types of mood. e.g.
I
prepared
(= indicative mood) a
presentation
. infinitive (=imperative mood)
a presentation
!
If I
were
(=subjunctive mood) you,
I wouldn't do a presentation
. The indicative mood in English can be in any tense and is what
we see as a 'normal' verb form. The imperative in English always takes the same form as the
infinitive, without 'to'. The subjunctive mood in English is not often indicated by
a change in
the verb form.
