Whether you’re hoping to become a better writer or simply looking to clean up some grammar and spelling errors in your texts and emails, knowing the words we use to talk about words is a helpful skill. To that end, we have a mega-guide for grammatical terms everyone should know. (Hint: The links have deeper dives into the topics if you need them.)
Active/Passive Voice
When using active voice, the sentence's subject is performing the action. (Example: The dog chewed the slippers.) However, in passive voice, the sentence's subject has the action performed on it. (Example: The slippers were chewed.)
Adjective
An adjective is one of the eight parts of speech. It’s a word or phrase that modifies a noun. (Examples: beautiful, grumpy, smelly, hungry, new.)
Adverb
An adverb is one of the eight parts of speech. It’s a word that adds more information to a sentence by modifying or qualifying an adjective, verb, or other adverb. (Examples: today, rarely, slowly, softly, boldly.)
Article
Also known as determiners, these words are paired with nouns to connect the parts of a sentence. Articles come in two forms — definite article (“the”) and indefinite article (“a,” “an”).
Clause
A clause is a part of a sentence that contains both a subject and a predicate. There are independent clauses (a complete sentence by itself) and dependent clauses (which rely on the main clause to give it meaning).
Comma
This is a punctuation mark (,) with many uses. A few include indicating a pause between parts of a sentence, separating items in a list, or marking the place in large numbers.
Comparative
A comparative is an adjective or adverb that expresses a higher degree of quality but not the highest possible. It’s a step below superlative adjectives and adverbs. (Examples: larger, faster, braver, higher.)
Conjunction
These words are used to connect clauses or to coordinate words in the same clause. Remember the seven coordinating conjunctions that make up this part of speech with the acronym FANBOYS (“for,” “and,” “nor,” “but,” “or,” “yet,” “so”).
Em Dash
This long dash (—) is a punctuation mark typically used for adding drama to a sentence in place of a comma, semicolon, colon, or parenthesis. (Example: The cake — last year’s recipe contest winner — was coated with a cream cheese frosting.)
Gerund
A gerund is derived from a verb but functions as a noun. Gerunds typically end in the letters “-ing.” (Example: We’re going hiking this weekend.)
Hyphen
The hyphen punctuation mark (-) is used to join words to indicate that they have a combined meaning or are linked in the grammar of a sentence. (Examples: sister-in-law, empty-handed, runner-up, self-service.)
Infinitive
The infinitive is the basic form of a verb, without an inflection binding it to a particular subject or tense. It is typically paired with the word “to” before the main verb. (Example: Jeff wants to bake at Grandma’s house.)
Interjection
This part of speech comprises words that express surprise or exclamation. (Examples: Wow! Ah! Yikes!)
Noun
A noun is one of the eight parts of speech. It’s a word used to identify a person, place, or thing. Common nouns refer to everyday things (examples: dog, teacher, house), but proper nouns call out a specific name or title (examples: President Lincoln, France, Stanley Cup).
Object
The object of a sentence is the noun affected by a verb or preposition. Sentences can have direct objects (receives the action of the verb) or indirect objects (receives the action of the direct object).
Parentheses
The punctuation mark that looks like a curved bracket is called a parenthesis (the plural is “parentheses”). These marks are used for words, clauses, or sentences that are inserted as an explanation or afterthought, but the text is grammatically complete without it.
Preposition
A preposition is a part of speech that precedes a noun or pronoun to form a phrase that modifies another word in the sentence. These words typically indicate the position of something or someone. (Examples: on, up, under, since, over.)
Pronoun
Pronouns are a part of speech used to replace a noun in a sentence. The most common pronouns are personal pronouns (“she,” “him,” “I,” “you”) and possessive pronouns (“her,” “their,” “your,” “its”).
Superlative
These adjectives and adverbs express the highest possible degree of quality. They’re a step above comparative adjectives/adverbs. (Examples: largest, fastest, bravest, highest.)
Tense
The tense of a verb indicates the time of the action. The basic verb tenses are past, present, and future, but these can get more complex, including past perfect, future progressive, and past perfect progressive.
Verb
Another one of the eight parts of speech, verbs describe an action or state of being. Every complete sentence must have a subject and verb. (Examples: walk, think, grow, create.)
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