InitiaLit–2 Grammar

Grammar glossary

Grammar glossary
Adjective
An adjective is a word that describes a feature or quality of a noun or pronoun. Adjectives can give
information about a noun’s size, shape, age, colour, origin, material or quality (e.g., large, round, old, red,
Australian, wooden, lovely, sad).

Adverb
Adverbs are a vast and disparate category of words in English, including words that modify verbs (e.g.,
I ran fast), adjectives (e.g., He is a really good dancer), other adverbs (e.g, I ran terribly fast), as well
as whole sentences, clauses, determiners and nouns. They cover a wide range of functions, providing
information about manner, place, time, degree, frequency and certainty (e.g., softly, here, later, very,
often, probably). In InitiaLit–2, we concentrate primarily on adverbs of manner that modify verbs and take
the suffix ‘_ly’ (e.g., quickly, loudly). We also introduce three adverbs of time (now, soon, later).

Adverbial
The term adverbial (or ‘adverbial phrase’) is often used in material designed for teachers to refer to
prepositional phrases like ‘in the bathtub’ or ‘by November’ because these groups of words add
the same kind of information to sentences that adverbs do (for example, information about place or
time). In InitiaLit–2 we do not use the term adverbial (or ‘adverbial phrase’) for these groups of words
because they do not contain an adverb. Instead, we refer to them as preposition groups or prepositional
phrases because they are built around a preposition. (See also Preposition and Preposition group /
Prepositional phrase.)

Adverbial phrase
We reserve the term adverbial phrase for a group of words made up of an adverb and the words that go
with it (e.g., so awfully fast). This kind of phrase is beyond the scope of InitiaLit–2.

Article
Articles are a subset of determiners (words that ‘introduce’ a noun). There are two types of article in
English: definite (the), indefinite (a/an). The definite article is used to refer to one particular instance of
a noun (e.g., In the sentence ‘I like the cat at my mum’s place’ a specific cat is being referred to). The
indefinite article is used to refer to the general category of things named by a noun (e.g., In the sentence
‘A cat makes a good pet’ we mean any cat would make a good pet). The form ‘an’ is a variant of ‘a’,
used for ease of pronunciation when the noun following it begins with a vowel sound (e.g., an orange).
Note that it is the initial sound, not the initial letter which determines the use of ‘an’ (e.g., ‘unicorn’ takes
the article ‘a’ because the first sound in ‘unicorn’ is the consonant sound /y/). (See also Determiner.)

Conjunction
A conjunction is a word like ‘and’, ‘or’, ‘but’ or ‘if’ used to join two sentences (or clauses) together (e.g.,
I went to school and my brother stayed home; I will eat cherries if you buy some). There are two types
of conjunction: coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions. (See also Conjunction:
coordinating and Conjunction: subordinating)

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Grammar glossary

Conjunction: coordinating
Coordinating conjunctions join two sentences (or clauses) together as equals (e.g., I like cats, but my
brother likes dogs). Coordinating conjunctions can also join two elements of the same type within a
sentence. For example, ‘and’ can be used to join two embedded clauses (I think that giraffes are nice
and seals are funny), two noun groups (I like red apples and green grapes), two verbs (I laughed and
played all day) or two preposition groups (I went up the hill and down the other side). There are seven
coordinating conjunctions in English: and, or, but, so, for, nor, yet. Because the elements or clauses
joined by a coordinating conjunction have equal status, we can generally invert them and preserve the
intended meaning (e.g., I like cats, but my brother likes dogs; My brother likes dogs, but I like cats). On
the other hand, the clause introduced by a coordinating conjunction cannot be moved to the front of the
conjoined sentence along with the conjunction (e.g., We cannot say ‘But my brother likes dogs, I like
cats). In IntiaLit–2 we focus on four coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, so).

Conjunction: subordinating
Subordinating conjunctions join a dependent clause to a main clause (e.g., I went to school while my
brother stayed home). They are not used to join smaller elements within a sentence. There are many
subordinating conjunctions (e.g., before, although, if, when, because). The clause introduced by a
subordinating conjunction can appear with the conjunction either before or after the main clause (e.g.,
I missed my bus because I got up late; Because I got up late, I missed my bus). In general, however,
we cannot invert the two clauses joined by a subordinating conjunction without losing the intended
meaning (e.g., The sentence ‘I got up late because I missed my bus’ is nonsensical). In IntiaLit–2 we
introduce one subordinating conjunction (because).

Determiner
Determiners are words that are used in front of the noun in a noun group to ‘introduce’ the noun.
Determiners include demonstrative pronouns (e.g., this, that), possessive pronouns (e.g., my, your),
articles (e.g., the, a) and quantifiers (e.g., some, every). The determiner expresses the reference of the
noun in context. Singular nouns require a determiner in English in order to be used in a sentence (e.g.,
My cat purrs). Plural nouns (and ‘mass’ nouns, e.g., rice, milk) may be used in a sentence without a
determiner (e.g., Cats purr). Note that determiners are not equivalent to adjectives. English allows the
use of multiple adjectives before a noun (e.g., big, fat, hairy ogres), but a noun can only ever take one
determiner (e.g., we cannot say ‘this my hat’). Noun groups can be made up of one determiner, optional
adjectives and a noun. (See also Plural, Irregular plural and Noun group.)

Grammar
A grammar is the system of rules that governs the structure of words and sentences in a language. The
term ‘grammar’ can extend to the rules governing the sound or meaning system of a language, but
we will use it in a more restricted sense to refer only to rules governing word and sentence structure.
Grammars are largely implicit bodies of knowledge. As native speakers of a language, we come to know
‘what sounds right’ without being taught the grammar of our language, and without being consciously
aware that we are following any rules as we form sentences. Teaching grammar involves making explicit
a small portion of this implicit body of knowledge.

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Grammar glossary

Irregular plural
An irregular plural is a plural noun that does not follow the regular rule for forming the plural by adding
the suffix ‘_s’ or ‘_es’ to a singular noun (e.g., people, sheep, mice, teeth, feet, children). Note that only
‘count nouns’, which denote objects that can be readily counted, can be given a plural form. ‘Mass
nouns’, which denote entities that cannot be readily counted (e.g., rice, grass, milk), do not have a plural
form, unless the intention is to talk about different types of the mass noun (e.g., My supermarket sells
seven different milks).

Irregular verb
An irregular verb is a verb that does not follow the regular rule for forming the past tense (or past
participle) by adding the suffix ‘_ed’ (e.g., go-went, buy-bought, fly-flew, say-said). There are many
different irregular past tense patterns, normally involving a vowel change, which derive historically from
Old English (e.g., /i/ changing to /u/ as in dig-dug, cling-clung, hang-hung; /ee/ changing to /e/ as in
bleed-bled, creep-crept, sleep-slept). Irregular verbs can also have a different irregular form for the past
participle (e.g., begin-began-has begun etc). (See also Regular verb.)

Noun
A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, event or quality (e.g., girl, beach, plate, ceremony,
beauty). A proper noun is the name of a person, organisation, location, day of the week, month of the
year or any other name spelled with an initial capital letter. All other nouns, spelled with a lower-case
letter, are common nouns.

Noun group / Noun phrase

A noun group (or noun phrase) is a group of words made up of a noun and the words that go with it.
Noun groups are functioning parts of sentences. Noun groups may act as the subject of a sentence
(e.g., The little boy with a red hat ate a big slice of pizza; Max kicked the ball), as the object of a
sentence (e.g., He ate a big slice of pizza; Max kicked the ball), or as the object of a prepositional
phrase (e.g., with a red hat, of pizza). Every noun in a sentence is actually part of a noun group, even if
that noun group is only made up of a single noun or pronoun (e.g., pizza, Max, he). Noun groups can be
made up of many words, including embedded relative clauses or prepositional phrases (e.g., the little
boy with a red hat), however in InitiaLit–2, we focus only on noun groups like ‘the little boy’ made up of a
determiner (e.g., the, this, that, a, an, the), any number of adjectives and a noun. (See also Determiner
and Preposition group / Prepositional phrase.)

Part of speech
A term used to refer to the grammatical categories of words, such as noun, verb, adjective and adverb.

Plural
A word or form that denotes more than one, e.g., dogs, brushes, people, days. (See also Irregular Plural.)

Preposition
A preposition is a word like ‘in’, ‘on’, over’, ‘at’, ‘to’ or ‘from’ which directly precedes a noun group (or
noun phrase) and expresses a relationship between that noun group and another word or element in
the sentence. For example, in the sentence ‘Henry sat on the chair’, the preposition ‘on’ expresses a
relationship between ‘the chair’ and ‘Henry’. Note that many words typically thought of as prepositions

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Grammar glossary

can also be used as adverbs or conjunctions (e.g., The balloon floated up; Heat the oil before you
add the onions). However, it is easy to know when a word is being used as a preposition because
prepositions always take a noun group object (e.g., up the stairs; before noon). Prepositions may appear
not to have an object when they appear at the end of questions (e.g., What did you do that for?), but
in these cases the preposition group (e.g., for what) has been split and the noun group object (e.g.,
what) is present, but has been moved to the beginning of the sentence. (See also Preposition group /
Prepositional phrase).

Preposition Group / Prepositional Phrase

A preposition group (or prepositional phrase) is a group of words made up of a preposition and the
noun group that follows it (prepositions are called prepositions because they are pre-positioned; they
appear before a noun group). Preposition groups are not obligatory parts of sentences, but can be used
to add many different kinds of extra information to a sentence. They may give information about where
something is (e.g. on the chair), when something is happening (e.g., at 6 o’clock), who did something
(e.g. by John Steinbeck), how something is done (e.g., with a hammer), or why something is done
(e.g., for a party). The preposition ‘of’ is also used in a wide range of ways, for example, to denote
part-whole relationships (e.g., the roof of the church). The type of information expressed is not a feature
of individual prepositions, but depends on the preposition group as a whole. For example, the same
preposition can be used in two different preposition groups to give ‘where’ or ‘when’ information (e.g.,
He came home from school; You can watch television from 5 o’clock). In InitiaLit–2 we focus only on
preposition groups that give ‘where’ and ‘when’ information.

Pronoun
A pronoun is a word that can function as a noun group (or noun phrase) in a sentence. Pronouns are
used to refer to a person or thing that has already been named in the context or to refer to the speakers
involved in a conversation (the speaker or group of people including the speaker ‘I/we’, and the person
or people being addressed ‘you’). English makes a distinction between pronouns used in subject
position (e.g., He will arrive today) and in object position (e.g., Sally gave him a book). The subject
pronouns are: I, you, he, she, it, we, they (‘you’ is used to refer both to a single person and a group of
people). The object pronouns are: me, you, him, her, it, us, them (again ‘you’ is used to refer both to a
single person and a group of people). Note that the pronouns ‘you’ and ‘it’ are identical in subject and
object position. There are various other types of pronoun (e.g., possessive pronouns: my, mine, your,
yours etc; reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself etc). In InitiaLit–2 we focus only on the subject and object
pronouns. (See also Noun group / Noun phrase.)

Regular verb
A regular verb in English takes the suffix ‘_ed’ to form both the past tense and past participle (e.g., walk,
walked, has/have walked; skip, skipped, has/have skipped). (See also Irregular verb.)

Tense
The main verb in a sentence (or clause) is always assigned a tense. The tense identifies the time at
which an event is taking place. Tense can also be used to show a relationship between two time periods.
The three basic simple tenses are: past, present, future. Verbs in past tense describe events that have
already occurred (before the present moment) and that are completely finished (e.g., I walked to school
yesterday; I ate sushi yesterday). Verbs in present tense describe events occurring now. Present tense

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is also used in English to express states of being that hold true in general over time (e.g., I walk to
school every day; Elephants are large animals). Verbs in future tense describe events that have not
yet happened, but that will occur (e.g., I will walk to school tomorrow). Present tense should not be
conflated with progressive aspect (indicated by the suffix ‘_ing’). Progressive aspect indicates that an
action is in the process of occurring and is a natural way to talk about the present moment in English
(e.g., I am jumping on my trampoline). However, it is also possible to talk about progressive actions in
the past (e.g., I was jumping on my trampoline) or the future (e.g., I will be jumping on my trampoline
soon). In these cases, tense information is carried by the auxiliary verb (e.g., am, was, will be), while the
progressive suffix contributes information about the fact that the action is ongoing. (See also Regular
verb and Irregular verb.)

Time connective
A term encompassing a range of different grammatical elements such as adverbs (e.g., now, then, next,
later), prepositional phrases (e.g., after that, in a little while) and noun groups (e.g., one morning, every
day), that can be used to order events in a text.

Verb
A verb is a word that expresses an action (e.g., jump, spin, run), occurrence (e.g., become, develop)
or state of being (e.g., is, are, smells, raining). A verb is the grammatical centre of a sentence: every
sentence must have a verb.

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