English Structure Terms

Front 1

subject/predicate

Back 1

[S] [P]
She heard a cough

Front 2

direct object

Back 2

thing or person that receives the action

Alex plays the PIANO

Front 3

transitive/intransitive verb

Back 3

T: (may have direct objects)
My uncle drives a Porsche

I: The book is lying on the table

Front 4

S-V-O pattern

Back 4

[S] [V] [O]
A chicken laid an egg

Front 5

predicate noun/adjective (subjective complements)

Back 5

(operates with the verb "to be")

Kim is an ACCOUNTANT
The sky is BLUE

Front 6

predicate nominative

Back 6

(is -- equal to)

Kim is an ACCOUNTANT
Greg is an excellent STUDENT

Front 7

copulative

Back 7

to be -- copulative verb/equative verb/linking verb

Front 8

adverbials

Back 8

[-ly] words. (quickly, nicely, etc.)

Front 9

intensifiers

Back 9

very, totally, extremely

Front 10

sentence adverbial

Back 10

modify the whole sentence, generally at the beginning

ex. hopefully, unfortunately

Front 11

adverbial complement

Back 11

tells where, when, how (usually at the end of a sentence)

I saw John swimming IN THE OCEAN

Front 12

infinitive

Back 12

to V (to sing, to play)

Front 13

weak/strong/suppletive verbs

Back 13

weak: add [-ed]
strong: sing/sang/sung
suppletive: be/was/been

Front 14

historical present tense

Back 14

using present tense to tell about something in the past

ex. "so he comes around the corner, and I say"

Front 15

modals

Back 15

subclass of helping verbs

ex. can, could, shall, should, will, would, must

(can't add [s])

Front 16

progressive verbs

Back 16

(In the process of)
always have to have "to be" and present participle

I AM RUNNING
WAS RUNNING
WILL BE RUNNING

Front 17

present/past participle

Back 17

present: add [-ing]

past: add [-ed]

Front 18

perfect tenses

Back 18

present perfect: "have" and past participle

ex. i HAVE PLAYED soccer

past perfect

ex. i HAD PLAYED soccer
past perfect:

Front 19

"fronted"

Back 19

(wh-) words that ask questions

ex. WHAT are you doing?

Front 20

expletive

Back 20

unnecessary words often at the beginning of a sentence

ex. There are students in this room

Front 21

passive/active (voice)

Back 21

passive: Huckleberry Finn was written by mark Twain
(uses form of "to be" + past participle)

Active voice: Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn
(often uses action verb)

Front 22

appositive

Back 22

(a renaming or restating)

ex. Sue, my aunt, is a great singer

Front 23

objective complement

Back 23

additional invormation following the noun

ex. I saw a duck SWIMMING IN THE LAKE

Front 24

definate/indefinate article

Back 24

definate: the

indefinate: a/an

Front 25

demonstratives

Back 25

(used to point things out)

"this" and "that"

Front 26

posessives (inflected/periphrastic)

Back 26

inflected: (adding ['s])
periphrastic: That hat of the women
(as opposed to "That woman's hat")

Front 27

coordinate adjectives

Back 27

(designates a subset of a group)

ex. RED car, SMALL house

Front 28

compounds

Back 28

green + house = (greenhouse)

Front 29

relative clause

Back 29

begins a new clause (which, that ,who,whom)

ex. Did you see the man WHO robbed the store

Front 30

relative pronoun

Back 30

THAT or WHICH

Front 31

participal phrase

Back 31

phrases with [-ing]

Front 32

restrictive/nonrestrictive modifier

Back 32

restrictive: that

nonrestrictive: which

Front 33

conjunction

Back 33

coordinate: and,but,or (join like phrases)

subordinate: although,... (reasons or excuses)

Front 34

gerund phrase

Back 34

[-ing] form used as a noun in a phrase

ex. SINGING IN THE SHOWER is fun

Front 35

absolute phrase

Back 35

Just needs 1 subject and 1 verb

ex. I went to the store

Front 36

dangling modifier

Back 36

I lost my dog, But then one day my dad found him driving to work

Front 37

simple/compound/complex sentence

Back 37

simple: I went to the store

I went to the store AND bought a fish (compund)(with a coordinate conjunction)

I went to the store and bought a fish, although I didn't buy anything (complex) (with a subordiate conjunction)

Front 38

coorelatives

Back 38

ex. not only, but also, either

Front 39

conjunctive adverb

Back 39

ex. hopefully, unfortunately

Front 40

faulty parallelism

Back 40

ex. I like to sleep and eating.

Front 41

antecedent

Back 41

...whom I haven't seen in years.

antecedent: (who? [BOB])

Front 42

intensive/reflexive modifier

Back 42

(ends in self [himself, myself])

Front 43

nominative/objective/posessive cases

Back 43

nominative: subject(I,you,he,she,it)

objective:not subject (saw [me,you,us,him])

posessive (my, your, his, her, its, our)

Front 44

embedment

Back 44

The woman, WHOM YOU SAW YESTERDAY, was my aunt