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| 3450058545 | action verb | a verb that conveys action. Contrast with a linking verb. Note that with an action verb, there may not be movement. | 0 | |
| 3450064617 | active voice | in an active voice clause/sentence, the subject is doing the action of the verb. In other words, the subject is the agent of the action of the verb. Contrast with passive voice. | 1 | |
| 3450067416 | Adjective | One of the eight parts of speech, an adjective is a word that modifies, or describes, nouns and some pronouns. | 2 | |
| 3450069923 | Adverb | One of the eight parts of speech, an adverb is a word that modifies, or describes, verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. | 3 | |
| 3450072266 | Appositive | A noun phrase that functions as an adjective to modify the subject of a sentence. Example: "Terrence, the president of the bank, presented the check to the food bank." In this example, the *blank* phrase modifies "Terrence". | 4 | |
| 3450078115 | Article | A word that always functions as an adjective. In English, the definite article is "the", and the indefinite article is "a" or, when followed by a word that begins with a vowel sound, "an". Example: "A student considers it an honor when the principal acknowledges his/her accomplishments." | 5 | |
| 3450104875 | Clause | A word group that has a subject noun or pronoun and a verb. Contrast with a phrase. There are two types of clauses: independent and subordinate. | 6 | |
| 3450107500 | Comma splice | A comma splice occurs in a compound or compound- complex sentence. To fix a *blank*, you must take one of the three following actions: include one of the seven coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet) after the comma; replace the comma with a semicolon; or break up the two independent clauses to make two separate sentences. | 7 | |
| 3450112077 | Complex sentence | One of the four sentence structures, a *blank* sentence consists of one independent clause and at least one subordinate clause. Example: "I went to college because I wanted to learn." In this example, the subordinate clause is underlined. | 8 | |
| 3450115977 | Compound sentence | One of the four sentence structures, a *blank* sentence consists of two (and only two) independent clauses joined together by either a semicolon or a comma plus one of the seven coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet). Example: "Carl went to Wendy's for lunch, but Erica went to Burger King." | 9 | |
| 3450129533 | Compound-complex sentence | One of the four sentence structures, a *blank* consists of two (and only two) independent clauses joined together by either a semicolon or a comma plus one of the seven coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet), but it also includes at least one subordinate clause. Example: "Even though he is allergic to peanuts, Carl went on the Skippy Peanut Butter factory tour, but Erica, who is also allergic to peanuts, stayed at the hotel." In this example, the subordinate clauses are underlined. | 10 | |
| 3450309930 | Conjunction | one of the eight parts of speech, a *blank* joins together two or more words, phrases, or clauses. Example: "Tina and Dave both enjoy listening to the Beatles." In this example, the coordinating *blank* "and" joins the two parts of the compound subject, "Tina" and "Dave". There are three kinds of *blank*: coordinating, subordinating, and correlative. Conjunctive adverbs function as conjunctions as well (see Hacker 497). | 11 | |
| 3450335116 | contraction | Used with an apostrophe, a *blank* is the combination of two words for purposes of style or efficiency. Example: "You won't come over." In this example, "won't" is the contracted form of "will not". Please note that in formal academic writing, you should never use *blank*. In almost all other writing situations, *blanks* are acceptable. | 12 | |
| 3450341629 | Declarative sentence | one of the four sentence purposes, a *blank* sentence is a statement, and it has a subject/verb/object word order. Example: "The driver merged into the left lane." | 13 | |
| 3450350298 | Direct object | A *blank* object is a person, place, thing, or idea (noun) that is the receiver of a verb's action. Example: "Paul threw the ball." In this example, "the ball" is what Paul has thrown and is, therefore, the receiver of the action. | 14 | |
| 3450355053 | exclamatory sentence | one of the four sentence purposes, a *blank* sentence is an effusive statement that ends with an exclamation mark. Example: "I can't believe that I ate the whole thing!" | 15 | |
| 3450358393 | Fused sentence | This sentence problem occurs when the writer has used neither a comma nor a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet) to join the two independent clauses in a compound or compound-complex sentence. Example: "John played the guitar Paul played the bass." To fix this *blank* sentence, you would put a comma and a coordinating conjunction between the two independent clauses, put a semicolon between them, or put a period after "guitar", creating two simple sentences. | 16 | |
| 3450363067 | Gerund | A *blank* is a noun constructed from present participles (the -ing form of a verb). They always function as nouns. Example: "Surfing is more difficult than it looks." In this example, "Surfing" functions as the subject noun of the sentence. Caution: though all *blank* end in "-ing", not all words that end in "-ing" are *blanks* Verbs and adjectives sometimes end in "-ing" by using the verb's present participial form. Examples: "The squealing children are playing on the swing set." In this example, "squealing" is an adjective, modifying "children", and "playing" is the verb. | 17 | |
| 3450398760 | Imperative (mood) | one of three moods in the English language, the *blank* mood is used to give commands or advice. Verb tense remains consistent with normal use. | 18 | |
| 3450405605 | Imperative sentence | one of the four sentence purposes, an *blank* sentence is a command. Example: "Wash the dishes." Please note that in *blank* sentences, the subject is omitted, but it is an implied "You", either singular or plural. | 19 | |
| 3450410546 | Independent clause | a word group that has both a subject (noun or pronoun) and a verb and that can stand on its own as a sentence. Example: "New Jersey sometimes smells like burning tires." In this example, "New Jersey" is the subject, and "smells" is the verb. Contrast independent and subordinate clauses. | 20 | |
| 3450412988 | Indicative (mood) | one of three moods in the English language, the *blank* mood is used to make declarative or interrogative statements. Verb tense remains consistent with normal use. | 21 | |
| 3450424171 | Indirect object | always a noun or pronoun, the *blank* object appears after a transitive verb and before its direct object. It is the person, place, thing, or idea to whom or for whom the action is being done. Example: "I threw Natalie the ball." In this example, "Natalie" is the indirect object, for she is the person to whom the ball was thrown. Note that "the ball" is the *blank* Caution: you cannot have an indirect object without a *blank* | 22 | |
| 3450432224 | Infinitive (verbal) | *blank* phrases are usually formed with the word "to" plus the base form of a verb. They function as adjectives, adverbs, and nouns in sentences. Note: they never function as verbs. Example: "Mom asked me to mow the lawn." In this example, the infinitive phrase "to mow the lawn" is functioning as a noun since it is the direct object of the sentence (Mom asked what?). "Me" is the indirect object. For more information, see Hacker 504). | 23 | |
| 3450439201 | Interjection | one of the eight parts of speech, *blank* expresses surprise or emotion and is usually followed by an exclamation mark. Note: one should never use *blank* in formal academic essays. | 24 | |
| 3450449421 | Intransitive verb | A *blank* verb does not take a direct object. 1. Often, nothing follows *blank* verbs. Example: "This hurts." 2. At other times, an adverb (or adverb phrase) will follow an intransitive verb. Examples: "She went too far." "He ran around the block." In these examples, "too far" is an adverb phrase, and "around the block", a prepositional phrase, is functioning as an adverb. 3. Quite often, a special kind of intransitive verb called a linking verb is followed by a subject complement, which is either a predicate adjective or a predicate nominative. Subject complements rename or describe the subject and function therefore as adjectives. Examples: "You are a student." "She seems nice." In these examples, the noun phrase "a student" renames the subject "you" and the adjective "nice" describes the subject "she". Note that the linking verb does not convey any kind of action but instead "links", or connects" the subject with its subject complement. | 25 | |
| 3450458412 | interrogative sentence | one of the four sentence purposes, *blank* sentences ask questions. Example: "Are you going abroad this summer?" | 26 | |
| 3450459947 | Linking verb | a special kind of intransitive verb, Blank verbs connect subjects with subject complements. See Intransitive Verb for further discussion. | 27 | |
| 3450469728 | mood | The verb form that indicates the speaker's attitude in a sentence. There are three moods in English: indicative, imperative, and subjunctive. Most developing writers have problems with the subjunctive mood, so one should use great care when writing about conditional, contrary-to-fact situations. | 28 | |
| 3450474650 | Nonrestrictive clause or phrase | A blank (or nonessential) clause or phrase provides information that is not essential to an understanding of the noun or pronoun being modified. Example: "My Uncle Greg, who fought in theViet Nam War, taught history classes for thirty years." blanks are set in commas, and if one is writing a nonrestrictive adjective clause about a place, thing, or idea, one should use the relative pronoun "which" instead of "that". Example: "Inclement weather ruined the picnic, which means that I will have to make alternate plans." Contrast with restrictive clauses and phrases. | 29 | |
| 3450479051 | Noun | people, places, things, or idea, blanks serve as the subjects of sentences, but they can also be direct objects, indirect objects, objects of prepositions, object complements, and subject complements. Example: "Firefighters threw bystanders the children who were trapped on the upper floors of the burning building. | 30 | |
| 3450485018 | Object complements | Blanks are nouns and adjectives that rename or describe direct objects. Example: "Charlie knows Tim Tebow, the new quarterback for the New York Jets." In this example, the underlined noun phrase renames the direct object, "Tim Tebow". | 31 | |
| 3450488710 | Objects of the preposition | A prepositional phrase consists of two parts: a preposition and its object. An blank is a noun or pronoun that follows the preposition and provides context for the spatial relationship conveyed by the preposition to whatever it is modifying. Example: "Graham crawled under the table." In this example, the prepositional phrase is "under the table", and the object of the preposition is in italics, "the table". | 32 | |
| 3450493049 | Parallelism | The expression of similar or related ideas in similar grammatical form. Example: "Derek, Julia, and Danny decided to attend Notre Dame instead of the University of Illinois." In this example, the three elements of the compound subject are all the same part of speech (nouns). Faulty parallelism occurs when elements in parallel are given incorrect or unequal grammatical form. Example: "Sheila learned that nothing ismore important than being true to oneself and to always put one's family first." This example has faulty parallelism because "being true to oneself" is a gerund phrase and "to always put one's family first" is an infinitive phrase. In paragraphs, parallelism refers to a technique in which grammatical structures are repeated in order to highlight similar or related ideas. | 33 | |
| 3450498530 | Passive voice | In blank voice, the subject is not the agent of the action conveyed by the verb. Example: "Joey was reminded by Isaiah to complete his research project by the end of the week." In this example, the subject, "Joey", is not doing the reminding. Blank voice verbs are formed using a combination of a form of "to be" as a helping verb and a past participle as the main verb ("was reminded"). To make the sentence active, identify the agent of the action (Isaiah), make the agent of the action the new subject, conjugate the verb correctly, and move the passive voice sentence's subject after the verb, making it the new direct object. Example: Isaiah reminded Joey to complete his research project." | 34 | |
| 3450505662 | Participle | The form a verb takes when it is linked to a helping verb. Verbs can take two blank orms: the present participle (-ing) and the past participle (-ed, -en, and others). | 35 | |
| 3450510104 | Participal phrase | A phrase that always functions as an adjective, a participial phrase consists of a present or past participle plus any modifying words or phrases attached to it. 1. Participial Phrases frequently appear immediately after the nouns they modify. Example: "Precious treasures buried in back yards are easy to find if you own a metal detector." In this example, "buried in back yards", which consists of the past participle "buried" and the prepositional phrase "in back yards", functions as an adjective to modify the noun "treasures". 2. Participial phrases can also appear before the nouns they modify. Example: "Feeling hungry, Chad went to the kitchen to fix himself a sandwich." In this example, the participial phrase "feeling hungry", which consists of the present participle "feeling" and the adjective "hungry", functions as an adjective to modify the noun "Chad". 3. Participial phrases may also appear at some distance from the word they modify. Example: "History is something that never happened, written by someone who was not there." In this example, the participial phrase "written by someone who was not there", consisting of the past participle "written" and the prepositional phrase "by someone who was not there" (note the adjective clause "who was not there" modifying "someone"), modifies the subject complement "something". | 36 | |
| 3450527502 | phrase | a word group that does not have (1) a subject noun or pronoun, (2) a verb, or (3) neither. Contrast phrase with clause. | 37 | |
| 3450530665 | predicate | One of two essential parts of a sentence/clause, the other being the subject. The blank consists of, at the very least, a verb and, in some cases, adverbs, but depending on whether the verb is transitive or intransitive, the blank will also include direct objects, indirect objects, object complements, and/or subject complements. | 38 | |
| 3450542923 | Predicate adjectives | One of two types of subject complements, a blank follows a linking verb and describes the subject of the sentence/clause. Example: "She is nice." | 39 | |
| 3450548127 | Predicate nominative | One of two types of subject complements, a blank (a noun phrase) follows a linking verb and renames the subject of the sentence/clause. Example: "She is a volleyball player." | 40 | |
| 3450550087 | Preposition | One of the eight parts of speech, a blank is a word that indicates a location, direction, or time. Blanks only appear in prepositional phrases, and for this reason, since prepositions are always followed by objects of the preposition in a prepositional phrase, one should never end a sentence with a blank | 41 | |
| 3450564267 | Prepositional phrase | a word group consisting of two parts: a preposition and the object of the preposition. Blanks always function as adjectives or adverbs. Example: The neighbor who lives in the green bungalow just evicted his deadbeat tenant from Ohio. In the first example, the blank "in the green bungalow" functions as an adverb to modify the verb "lives". In the second example, the blank "from Ohio" modifies the noun "tenant". | 42 | |
| 3450573222 | Pronoun | --One of the eight parts of speech, a blank is a word that takes the place of a noun. The noun replaced is called the pronoun's antecedent. There are ten different types | 43 | |
| 3450582259 | Interrogative pronouns | who, whom, whose, which, that. These pronouns are used to introduce interrogative sentences (questions). Example: "To whom should I appeal this decision?" In this example, "whom" is used as the object of the preposition in the prepositional phrase "To whom". This is, by the way, an inverted sentence. | 44 | |
| 3450588040 | Demonstrative pronouns | this, that, these, those. blank pronouns are used to refer to something specific. These are often accompanied in speech by a pointing gesture to the demonstrated noun. Example: "This chicken tastes terrible, but those vegetables at the end of the table smell delicious." Blank function as adjectives. | 45 | |
| 3450594304 | Indefinite pronouns | These refer to nonspecific people, places, things, and ideas. They function as nouns and adjectives. Included are the pronouns all, another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, both, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, few, many, neither, nobody, one, no one, nothing, one, several, some, somebody, someone, something | 46 | |
| 3450597739 | Reciprocal pronouns | These refer to individual parts of a plural antecedent. Example 1: "Sandy and Jace helped each other with their projects." In this example, the antecedent of "each other" is "Sandy and Jace". Example 2: "All three students helped one another with their projects." In this example, the antecedent of "one another" is "All three students". Note: one should use "each other" when the plural antecedent consists of two parties; one should use "one another" when the plural antecedent consists of three or more parties. | 47 | |
| 3450604960 | Restrictive clause | a midsentence clause that presents information essential to the meaning of a passage. Example: "The people who vandalized the school will eventually pay the price for their crime." In this example, the blank limits the subject to only those people who vandalized the school. Without this blank, the sentence would suggest that all people committed a crime and will pay for it. Contrast this with nonrestrictive clauses. | 48 | |
| 3450613234 | Run on sentence | A coordination problem that occurs with compound and compound-complex sentences when a comma is not put at the end of the first independent clause. One has three options for fixing a run-on sentence: inserting a comma at the end of the first independent clause; inserting a semicolon at the end of the first independent clause and deleting the coordinating conjunction; or inserting a period at the end of the first independent clause and deleting the coordinating conjunction. | 49 | |
| 3450623418 | Periodic sentences | sentences that are structured so that subordinate clauses, phrases, and other elements appear at the beginning of the sentence, delaying the sentence's main clause. Example: "Whenever I go to Publix, particularly the one on Summerlin and Colonial in Fort Myers, I buy ice cream." | 50 | |
| 3450626139 | Cumulative sentences | Sentences that are structured so that the main clause appears first and is then followed by subordinate elements. Example: "I buy ice cream whenever I go to Publix, particularly the one on Summerlin and Colonial in Fort Myers." | 51 | |
| 3450632717 | Inverted sentences | Sentences that are structured in such a way that the normal Subject/Verb/Object word order is changed. Example: "Happy are those of us who bought Apple stock back in the 1980s." In this example, "Happy" is a predicate adjective modifying the subject, "those of us who bought Apple stock back in the 1980s". | 52 | |
| 3450635363 | Simple sentence | one of four sentence structures, a blank sentence consists of one independent clause with no subordinate clauses. Example: "I took the train to the airport." Please note that some simple sentences can be quite ong and ornate. Identify the subject and verb(s) to ensure that the sentence, regardless of its length, is indeed blank | 53 | |
| 3450641531 | subject | In a sentence, the blank is the "doer" or the thing talked about. In most cases, the blank will be the first noun/noun phrase and will be followed by the sentence's verb. Note that subject pronouns can function as blank. the complete subject. | 54 | |
| 3450649250 | subject complements | Following linking verbs, blank rename or describe the subject of a sentence. There two types of subject complements: predicate adjectives, which are adjectives that describe the subject and appear after the linking verb (in the predicate); and predicate nominatives, which are noun phrases that rename the subject and appear after the linking verb. | 55 | |
| 3450654397 | subjunctive (mood) | one of three moods in the English language, the blank is used to express wishes, requests, or conditions contrary to fact. | 56 | |
| 3450659933 | Transitive verb | a verb that takes a direct object. Example: "I drove the car." In this example, "drove" is a blank verb because we have an answer to the question "You drove what?" "The car" is the direct object. Contrast transitive and intransitive verbs. | 57 | |
| 3450662541 | verb | One of the eight parts of speech, a blank is the word in a sentence that indicates the action that has occurred, is occurring, or will occur. One should know the difference between: an action verb and a linking verb; active voice and passive voice; and a transitive verb and an intransitive verb. One should also know the five principal parts of any blank: base, simple past, past participle, present participle, and "-s" form. | 58 | |
| 3450671657 | Verbal (gerund, infinitive, participle) | verbs or parts of verb phrases that are used to function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. | 59 |
