German Grammar Glossary

An abstract noun refers to a concept like “time,” “life,” or “patience.” These are different from concrete nouns, which refer to things you can see, hear, smell, taste, or touch, like “cat,” “flower,” or “table.”

An action noun is a word for an event or action.

• The examination of the letter revealed nothing.

• John enjoys swimming.

• The employee's dismissal was a shock.

An action verb is a word for something someone does at some particular time (walk, sing, hit, read, say, forget), rather than a word describing how someone generally is or generally feels.

Active verbs describe an action that is performed by the subject of the verb. Active verbs are the opposite of passive verbs, whose subject undergoes the action instead.

• Lacey broke the car. → Active verb: the subject (Lacey) does the action

• The car was broken by Lacey. → Passive verb: the subject (the car) undergoes the action

Some active verbs describe a situation or link the subject to a description, rather than describing an action. For example:

• Lacey is a good driver. → Active verb: the subject (Lacey) has a trait

Adjectives are words that describe nouns (things, people, ideas, places, etc.). Most adjectives provide standard descriptive information (e.g. "tall," "sleepy," "sweet," "serious,"...) but some adjectives may provide information about ownership (e.g. "my") or quantity (e.g. "some") as well.

An adjective phrase is a group of words that describes a noun (like an adjective does).

Adverbs are words that modify (add information about) verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Adverbs can describe how, how much, when, or how often, something happened, but they can also give other kinds of information, like the degree to which a description fits. In English, many adverbs have the suffix “-ly.”

• He runs quickly.

• He ran yesterday.

• She is very clever.

• I spoke really quietly.

An adverbial phrase or adverbial is a group of words that, together, acts as an adverb. An adverbial phrase therefore modifies a verb, an adjective, an adverb, or a clause.

• I baked a cake with my friend.

• She cleans the kitchen every evening.

• He will be happy when he hears this news!

Adverbs of degree are words that are used to describe how completely or how well a description fits a situation. Some English examples: "too green," "fast enough," "almost there," "very happy," or "a little slow."

An adverb of direction is a word used to describe the direction of movement, like "forward," "left," "up," or "around." Note that unlike prepositions or direction (e.g. "to" or "from") these words are not followed by nouns.

An adverb of frequency is a word like "usually," "sometimes," or "never," that describes how often something happens.

Adverbs of manner describe how an action or situation takes place.

• He speaks loudly. → Answers the question “How does he speak?”

• I sat alone. → Answers the question “How did you sit?”

Adverbs of place describe where an action occurs.

• We were working indoors.

An adverb of time is a word that describes when something happened or when a situation was true (e.g. yesterday, soon, later, tomorrow, recently,...)

An adversative conjunction is a word like "but" that is used to link two ideas that are in opposition to each other.

In grammar, an affirmative (or positive) word, phrase, or sentence is the opposite of a negative one. For example:

• Negatives: "I didn't eat your sandwich," "nobody," "never"

• Affirmatives: "I ate your sandwich," "somebody," "always"

An affix is a letter or group of letters that is added to the beginning of a word (called a “prefix”), the end of a word (a “suffix”), or even in the middle of a word (an “infix”). Affixes generally alter the grammatical function or the meaning of the word they are added to.

• intolerable, unlikable, walked, brightest

An agent is the person or thing that performs or completes the action of a sentence.

An agent noun is a noun for a person or tool that usually performs an action. In English they usually end in -er (e.g. "driver," "wiper," "jailer,"...)

Agreement occurs when a word or phrase takes on a special form that reflects features of another word in the sentence. This shows that the two are grammatically connected.

A noun's animacy depends on whether or not it is alive. Animate nouns usually represent living, conscious beings (e.g. people, animals,...), while inanimate nouns represent non-living or unconscious things (e.g. objects, ideas, plants,...)

An antecedent is the word in a sentence which establishes the meaning for the pronoun which replaces it.

Antonyms are pairs of words that have opposite meanings. For example: “true/false,” “up/down,” “loud/quiet,” “possible/impossible” etc.

Articles are words that precede nouns and carry some information about specificity. There are definite articles, like “the,” and indefinite articles, like “a/an.”

The aspect of a verb shows how an action extends over time, such as whether it is completed, ongoing, or habitual.

Auxiliary verbs are “helping verbs” that are used alongside other main verbs to form specific tenses or grammatical constructions.

Cardinal numbers (or cardinal numerals) are the numbers that are used for math, counting, etc. In English, some examples of cardinal numbers include 1 (one), 2 (two), 3 (three), 54 (fifty-four), and 367 (three hundred and seventy-six). Cardinal numbers are contrasted with ordinal numbers, which indicate the “order” or position of something in a sequence (first, second, third, etc).

We use a causative verb to show that something happened because of another action. For example:

• Sam made Lucy cry.

• The teacher had her students clean up the classroom.

• Mary's actions caused the shower to break.

A clause is a group of words that contains everything you need to make a sentence (e.g. “Josh likes cats”). This means that it contains a subject (“Josh”) and a predicate (“likes cats”). The predicate tells you about the subject (what happens to it, what it does, what it is like, etc.). Though sometimes a sentence has only one clause, other times it may have more than one clause in a sentence.

• I am happy. ← sentence with one clause

• I am happy that I am studying grammar. ← sentence with two clauses

A closed question (also called a polar question or a yes-no question) is a question that only implies a yes/no answer, like "Are you coming?" or "Is he a doctor?"

A collective noun is a noun that refers to a group.

• John went to visit his family.

• Mary went on a trip with her whole class.

Collocations are combinations of words that are frequently used together. These words form a phrase that can acquire a less-than-predictable meaning. For example: “a booming economy,” “making the bed,” or “getting hitched” (to mean getting married).

Common nouns are words for things, people, animals, ideas, and places, like “table,” “neighbor,” “dog,” or “city.” Common nouns are the opposite of proper nouns, which are the names for people, places, etc. In English, common nouns are those nouns that are not automatically capitalized.

Comparative adjectives are special forms of adjectives used to show which of two nouns (things, people, places, etc.) has a larger amount of the quality they express.

• This boy is taller than that one.

• This book is more interesting than that one.

• These papers are less important than those.

Comparative adverbs are special forms of adverbs used to show which of two actions displays a larger amount of the quality they express.

• He ran more quickly than the others.

• They woke up earlier than usual.

• I worked less than yesterday.

A complement clause is a clause (a phrase with a subject and a verb) that completes the meaning of another word. For example:

• He said that he was tired.

• She wondered where her dog had gone.

• They were glad that the weather was so nice.

The complement of an adjective (or adjective complement) completes the meaning of an adjective, as in:

• She is afraid of heights.

• I am afraid that I might lose.

A compound noun is a noun (a word for a place, person, thing, animal, idea, action, etc.) that is made of two or more words, such as “butterfly,” “haircut,” or “passerby.”

A compound tense is formed using at least two verbs. For example, the sentence "I am running" uses a compound tense, because there are two different verbs: "am" and "running."

Concrete nouns refer to someone or something you can see, hear, smell, taste, or touch: “cat,” “flower,” “table.” They are different from abstract nouns, which refer to concepts like “time,” “life,” or “patience.”

A conditional clause (or "if" clause) is the part of an if-then sentence that comes after "if" or an equivalent word. It sets the condition when something else happens.

• You can go to Bill's house if you clean your room first.

• When Paula reads, she writes in the margins.

A conditional conjunction, like "if" introduces a condition under which something else happens.

• If it rains tomorrow, I'll bring an umbrella.

The conditional mood is used to express hypothetical ideas or describe a situation in which something else will happen.

Conditional sentences are “if-then” sentences, like: “If the weather is good, (then) I’ll go to the lake this weekend.”

When we conjugate a verb, we put it into different forms in order to reflect different grammatical features of a sentence. For example, the conjugated form of a verb can tell you when the action happened, how long it happened for, or who performed the action.

The conjugated verb in a clause is the verb that is marked for tense and agrees with the subject.

• The sandwich is being eaten.

• I like to swim.

A verb’s conjugation is the pattern that it follows when we put it into different forms.

Conjunctions are words or phrases that are used to link words, phrases, or clauses (sentences within sentences) together.

• I ate cheese and crackers

• He likes dogs that are either very small or very large

• Marco ate cheese but Lucy ate crackers

• Lucy likes small dogs because she likes to carry them

A conjunction of concession is a word or phrase like "even though" that introduces something that could have been an obstacle to the main action, but was not.

A conjunction of purpose is a word or phrase that introduces the goal of the main action in a sentence. For example: "I studied so that I would pass the exam."

A conjunction of time is a word or phrase that introduces a clause that describes when something happened.

• We ate dinner before we started the movie.

• When I got there, it was raining.

Consonants are speech sounds that are not vowels (a, e, i, o, u,...). Some examples of consonants: “t,” “m,” “b,” “r,” “h”…

Continuous tenses are used to express a continued action that is, was, or will be in progress at some point in time. In English, the continuous tenses look like this: "is running," "was running," "has been running,"...

Contractions are formed when two words combine into one. In English, contractions usually contain an apostrophe (‘), as in “they’re” (= “they are”) or “we’ve” (= “we have”).

Coordinating conjunctions are words and phrases that connect two words, phrases, or clauses that do the same "job" in a sentence. For example:

• Marie and Alex baked the cake. ← Links two subject nouns

• I will either bake the cake or bring a salad. ← Links two verb phrases

• I enjoyed John's cake, but it would have been better with icing. ← Links two independedent clauses

A count noun is a noun that can be counted with numbers, as compared to a “mass noun” which cannot. For example, “banana” and “word” are count nouns, but “milk” and “peace” are not.

• Randall bought 5 bananas and some milk.

• Pauline spoke a few words about peace at the beginning of the event.

A noun’s declension is the pattern that you follow when you put it into different forms.

When you decline a noun, pronoun, or adjective, you are putting it into a specific form which will usually depend on the role it (or the noun it describes) plays in a sentence.

A defining relative clause (sometimes called a "restrictive relative clause") describes a noun and is not separated out using commas. These are used to pick out a sub-group. For example, in “The athletes who were tired got on the bus,” the relative clause selects a sub-group of the athletes: those who were tired. Some athletes might not be on the bus.

A definite noun refers to something that is specific and familiar. For example, "I saw the mailman," refers to a specific mailman who is familiar to the listener.

Definite articles are used to make a noun specific. In English, “the” is the only definite article.

A demonstrative is a word that we use to point to a particular noun. Some examples: "this," "that," "these," "those," "here," "there," "now," "then."

Demonstrative adjectives are words like “that,” “this,” “these,” or “those” that point out specific nouns. Demonstrative adjectives are always used with a noun, as in “that hat.”

A demonstrative adverb is a word like "here," "there," "now," or "then" that points to the specific location, direction, or time of an action.

Demonstrative pronouns are words like “that,” “this,” “these,” or “those” that point to something specific. Demonstrative pronouns are always used instead of a noun, as in “I saw that” or “Have a look at these!”

Determiners give information about a noun's specificity and often also, proximity, possession, or quantity.

A dialect is a variety of a language. In most cases, two dialects of a language will have slightly different grammar rules, pronunciation rules, and vocabulary, but will still be "mutually comprehensible" (that is, someone speaking one dialect will understand someone speaking the other). However, this is not always the case.

Importantly, while some dialects may be considered more prestigious than others, all dialects are equally logical, expressive, and legitimate.

The diminutive form of a word is used to represent a small, cute, or insignificant version of the original word (e.g. doll vs. dolly).

A diphthong is composed of two adjacent vowels within the same syllable.

We use direct speech to represent the literal words someone said, while indirect speech (or reported speech) is used to tell someone about what someone said.

• He said, “do your homework!” ← direct speech

  He told me to do my homework. ← indirect/reported speech

The direct object of a sentence undergoes an action. In English, the direct object usually follows the verb.

• He ate an apple.

• My mother gave me a book.

Direct object pronouns are words that replace the noun that undergoes the action of the verb.

The etymology of a word is its history or the story of where it came from.

An exclamation (a.k.a. exclamative or exclamatory sentence) is something you say to express your emotions about an event. In English, they almost always end in an exclamation point. For example:

• What a lovely cat!

• How terrible!

• Happy birthday!

The first person is a grammatical category used to refer to the speaker (e.g. “I”) or the speaker and some others in the same group (e.g. “we”).

The genitive case is the form classically given to a noun or pronoun that "has" or "possesses" something else.

Homonyms are two or more words that have the same spelling (called “homographs”) or the same pronunciation (called “homophones”) or both. For example: “bank” (financial institution) vs. “bank” (the side of the river).

Idioms or set phrases are phrases that have a well-known non-literal meaning. For example, when you “burn bridges” in English, you are doing irreparable damage to a relationship, not literally setting bridges on fire. A phrase that has a non-literal meaning is sometimes said to have an “idiomatic meaning.”

The imperative is a verb form that’s used to give an order. A positive imperative tells someone to do something (“Wash the dishes!”) and a negative imperative tells someone not to do something (“Don’t come any closer!”)

An impersonal pronoun is a word that stands for a non-specific noun. In English "one" or "you."

An impersonal sentence or impersonal expression has a meaningless and sometimes missing subject.

An indefinite noun refers to something that is either generic (= nonspecific) or unfamiliar. For example:

• I want some cheese. → generic cheese, nothing specific

• She bought a house. → it is a specific, but unfamiliar house

Indefinite adjectives are words or phrases that are used before generic or unfamiliar nouns and generally provide a little information about quantity, like "some," "many," or "a few."

Indefinite articles are used with generic or nonspecific nouns. In English, “a/an” is the indefinite article (a book / an egg)

Indefinite pronouns are words or phrases that replace a noun and give general information about its quantity. For example:

• There were 20 children in the room, and some / three / a few / none were asleep.

An independent clause is a clause that contains a complete idea all by itself. A sentence can have one independent clause, or several independent clauses joined by words like “and,” “or,” or “but.”

• I love studying grammar.

• I love studying grammar, and Mary likes to nap.

The indicative mood is the form of a verb or sentence we use for giving facts (e.g. I am happy). An indicative sentence is also called a declarative sentence.

An indirect object is affected by the action of the verb, but does not directly undergo the action. Usually this means that the indirect object receives something, benefits from the action, or (occasionally) is negatively affected by the action.

Indirect object pronouns are words that replace a noun that receives something, is benefited by the action, or is harmed by the action.

An infinitive is a verb in its basic form. This is usually the form you will see in the dictionary. For example: “to run,” “to eat,” “to be.”

An infinitive clause is a phrase that is built around an infinitive verb (e.g. "to eat") and has a subject or an implied subject. For example in "I want John to eat his breakfast." implied subject of "to eat" is John.

An infinitive phrase is an infinitive verb (e.g. "to eat") and some associated words. For example, "to eat breakfast at ten" or "to have eaten slowly."

An interjection is a little word that expresses an emotion, like “oh!” or “wow!”

An interrogative or interrogative sentence is a question.

Interrogative pronouns are words like “who” or “what” that replace the noun that you are asking a question about:

• I ate pizza → What did you eat?

• She ate pizza with Kevin. → Who did she eat pizza with?

Interrogative words or wh-words are words like “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” “why,” and “how,” that we use to ask questions.

Intransitive verbs are verbs that do not need a direct object.

• John sneezed.

• All of the water evaporated.

In grammar, inversion happens when the position of two words in the sentence is reversed to change the meaning, as when “I am tall” becomes “Am I tall?” to create a question.

Irregular is a word we use in grammar to describe a word form that isn’t formed according to the usual grammar rules. For example, the verb “swim” has an irregular past tense (“swam”) because it doesn’t follow the usual rule of adding “-ed” (ex: “*swimmed”)

Linking verbs (or copular verbs) connect a noun with something that describes that noun. The classic copular verb, sometimes just called “the copula,” is the verb “to be,” as in “Jordan is in class.” But other linking verbs carry a little more meaning, for example, “seem,” “get,” and “look” can also be linking verbs in sentences like these:

• The table seemed very heavy.

• The baby got sleepy.

• My dog looks very scary.

A loan word or borrowed word is a word that historically came from another language. In English, some examples might be "taco," "garage," or "algebra."

The main clause of the sentence contains the central action or situation being described.

• I will clean my room after I finish my computer game.

• Joey thinks he is studying grammar.

• If I am studying grammar, I am happy.

The main verb is the verb in a compound tense that carries the meaning (e.g. "am running" "was being eaten"). This term is also sometimes used for the most central verb in a complex sentence ("I thought it was raining.")

A mass noun (also called an uncountable noun or non-count noun), is a noun that cannot be counted with numbers. These nouns are usually measured with countable words, like “piece,” “cup,” “kilo/pound” etc.

• Fred is listening to music.

• John bought 8 pieces of furniture.

• Mary ate 2 sticks of celery.

A modal verb is a verb that indicates possibility, ability, obligation, necessity, permission, and sometimes desire. Often they are used with another verb, but not always.

The mood of a verb or clause tells you about its intended purpose (e.g. to give commands, express a wish, state a fact, etc.). The mood impacts how you form the verb and will sometimes impact other things, like the word order you should use.

A negative adverb (or "adverb of negation") is a word like "not" or "never" that can turn a positive sentence negative. For example: "I am cooking dinner." vs. "I am not cooking dinner."

A negative clause is a phrase with a subject and a negative verb. For example:

• I didn't go.

• He found his keys in a place where he never goes.

A negative question is a question that includes a negative word. Some examples in English:

The nominative case is the form of a noun, adjective, or pronoun that you will find in the dictionary. We usually use the nominative case to talk about the subject (or central topic) of a sentence. In English, the subject is usually before the verb.

• John bought a bottle of soda.

• He drank it before arriving home.

Non-defining relative clauses are clauses that describe a noun, but are separated out using commas. These are clauses that give us additional, but non-essential, information about a group that has already been “defined.”

For example, if we leave out the relative clause in “the athletes, who were tired, got on the bus,” the athletes we are talking about do not change, so the information is non-essential.

Non-finite verbs are verb forms that aren’t marked for number or person.

Nouns are words that represent people, things, animals, ideas, or actions, such as “man,” “table,” “tiger,” “generosity,” or “running.”

A noun clause is a phrase with a subject and a verb that acts like a noun in a sentence, as in "You can buy whatever you want."

A noun phrase is a noun plus other words or phrases that describe or add information about that noun.

• I saw my very intelligent cousin last week.

• The French teacher with long hair was late to class.

• Miranda likes to listen to that singer who tripped on the red carpet last month.

The number of a word tells you about its quantity, usually whether it is singular (just one) or plural (for more than one).

The object of a preposition is the phrase that immediately follows a preposition. Recall that prepositions are small words and phrases like “in,” “around,” or “on behalf of”)

• I put it in the cabinet.

• Sandro wrote the poem for her.

• We sent the letter to Patrick’s new pen pal from Sweden.

An object of a verb (sometimes just called an “object”) is what is affected by or undergoes the action of the verb. Sometimes a verb can have more than one object.

• Lucy ate an apple.

• Paul made Anne two birthday cards.

(Note that the subject of a sentence cannot also be an object, even if it is affected by or undergoes the action of a verb.)

An open question (a.k.a. wh- question or content question) asks for more information than just a “yes” or “no.” For example, “What’s that?” or “Where are you going?” or “How do you know?”

Ordinal numbers (or ordinal numerals) are the numbers we use to put things in order, like “first,” “second,” “third,” “fiftieth,” or “one hundred and sixty-first.”

A participle is a form of a verb that can be used to form certain compound verb forms, but can also be used to describe a noun (like an adjective).

A participle phrase is a participle (e.g. "eating" or "eaten") and some associated words. For example, "eating a cake" or "eaten with enthusiasm."

A partitive noun is a word or phrase used to indicate a part or quantity of something. For example: a glass of water, a piece of cheese.

A word's part of speech describes its basic grammatical category and function, like "noun," "verb," or "adjective."

A passive infinitive is a verb with an infinitive form that is used with the grammatical structure of a passive verb. For example, while “to cook” is a regular (active) infinitive, “to be cooked” is a passive infinitive.

A passive verb is a verb whose subject is undergoing the action. Passive verbs have a special form that is used to mark them as different from “active verbs,” where the subject is doing the action instead. For example, “cleaned” (active) → “was cleaned” (passive).

• The ball was hit by Mary.

• The moose was spotted yesterday.

Notice also that the do-er of a passive sentence is either left unmentioned or is marked in some special way (in English, with the word “by”).

In English, a perfect tense is formed by combining a form of the verb "to have" with the past participle of the main verb. For example: "has eaten" or "had watched." Generally, actions in a perfect tense took place (or at least started) before the main action in the sentence or story.

Person is a grammatical category used to distinguish between the speaker, the listener, or the person / thing talked about (can be any number of them). For example:

Personal pronouns are a type of pronoun (meant to replace a noun) that are used to refer back to ourselves (“I,” “me” or “we,” “us”), to the listener(s) (“you”) or to other people and entities (“he,” “him,” “they,” “them,” “she,” “it” etc.)

A phrase is a group of words that form a unit that acts together, but is usually not a complete sentence: “in a car,” “very tall,” “last night’s dinner,” “how to clean the sink,” etc.

The plural form of a word is the form a word has when it stands for more than one of something (e.g. “cars,” “birds,” “people,” “children”).

Possessive adjectives are words like "my" or "his" that are used with a noun to express possession or ownership.

A possessive noun in English is a noun that is marked with the possessive -'s, for example: "Patrick's" or "the door's."

Possessive pronouns are words that replace a noun and also tell you something about who owns that noun.

The predicate is the part of the sentence that describes the subject or describes something that happens to the subject.

• Maria ate an apple.

• Maria is a teacher.

• Maria seemed tired.

A prefix is a letter or group of letters added to the beginning of a word that somehow changes its meaning or grammatical function. The underlined portions of the following words are prefixes: “untie,” “discourage,” “devalue.”

Prepositions are words like “in,” “at,” “to,” “around,” or “of,” that come before other words and indicate whether those words describe a location (“John is in the house”), a direction (“I am going to the airport”), a time (“Let’s meet at ten”), etc.

A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition (a word like “at,” “from,” “in, “with,” etc.) and a noun or pronoun:

• behind the hotel

• in the blue house

• with me

Prepositions of movement, also known as prepositions of direction, are used to in phrases that describe which way something is moving. In these phrases, the preposition describes how something moves in relation to a particular noun. For example:

• She walked toward the house.

• I drove over the bridge.

A preposition of place is a word like "at" or "in," that introduces something's location.

A preposition of time is a word that works with a noun or time to create a description of when something happens (e.g. at noon, after the party,...)

Pronouns are words that replace nouns:

Proper nouns are particular places, persons, and things. In English, they always start with a capital letter.

• France

• Marie

• the Eiffel Tower

Quantity words (a.k.a. quantifiers or quantifying adjectives) describe “how much” or “how many” without being specific. For example “some,” “a few,” or “a little” describe small quantities, while “a lot of,” “many,” or “all” describe large quantities.

A reason clause or causal clause is a subordinate clause (containing a verb) that describes what caused some situation to arise. As in, "because I forgot my umbrella."

Reciprocal pronouns are used when a mutual action is expressed.

A reciprocal verb expresses an action that two people do to each other. E.g. "We met (each other) yesterday."

Reflexive pronouns are used with verbs in which the action is both done by and done to the subject.

Reflexive verbs are verbs for an action that is done both by and to the subject.

The word register refers to which style of language we use depending on whether we are talking to friends, to superiors, to a child, in court, etc. Written language is usually a more formal register than everyday spoken language.

The word regular is used in grammar to describe a word form that you can guess just by following the general rule. For example, the verb “want” has a regular past tense form, because it is formed by adding “-ed” (“wanted”).

A relative clause is a clause (sentence within a sentence) that describes a noun. e.g. "The book that has a yellow cover"

A relative pronoun is a word that introduces a relative clause (a clause that describes someone or something). e.g. "The book that has a yellow cover"

A reporting verb is a word like "said" or "asked," that we use to show that someone spoke or otherwise communicated certain words.

The second person is the "you" form: a grammatical category for the person or people that are being addressed.

A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought. A sentence must have at least these two parts: a subject (what the sentence is “about”) and a predicate (that tells you “about” the subject: what the subject does, where it is, etc.). For example, in the sentence “We bought milk,” the subject is “we” and the predicate is “bought milk," which tells you what “we” did.

Simple tenses are formed using just one verb. They are different from compound tenses, which require more than one verb. For example, the verb runs is in a simple tense, but the verb is running is in a compound tense.

A singular word refers to one entity.

A stative verb or non-action verb describes the way someone or something is, feels, or remains rather than describing something dynamic that is accomplished at a particular time. (e.g. is, seems, loves, believes, stays,...). A stative verb is generally something that is not done on purpose and continues for some time without change.

The stem is the core of the verb, without any special endings or prefixes to mark the tense or the subject. So the stem of “runs” is “run” and the stem of “catching” is “catch.”

The stress in a word is the part of that word that is emphasized in regular pronunciation. For example the stress in "coward" falls on the first part (COW-ard) but the stress in "reply" falls on the second part (re-PLY)

The subject of a sentence is the noun that a sentence is about. In English, this is the noun that comes before the verb. Most often, the subject does the action, but sometimes it is described or it is experiencing the action.

Subject pronouns are words we use instead of a noun as the subject of a verb.

• "Joey took me to the deli. He bought me a sandwich, and I bought him a pickle."

A subordinate clause (or dependent clause) is a sentence within a sentence that adds information about the main action or situation. It might describe the situation (its time, reason, purpose, etc.) or it might complete its meaning (e.g. by describing what someone said/thought).

• When I woke up, I made some coffee.

• I didn’t go out because I was tired.

• Marianne said that she was tired.

A subordinating conjunction is a word or phrase that introduces a subordinate clause (a sentence within a sentence). For example:

• He saved his money so that he could go to Paris.

• Sandra didn't know when her sister would arrive.

A suffix is a letter or group of letters that is added to the end of a word and somehow changes its meaning or grammatical function. The highlighted portions of the following words are suffixes: “tallest,” “runs,” “fastener,” “replacement.”

Relative superlative adjectives (usually just called superlative adjectives) are used to compare more than two items and express which has the quality it describes in the highest or lowest degree.

• This boy is the tallest.

• This book is the most interesting.

• These papers are the least important of all.

Superlative adverbs are used to compare more than two actions and express which is performed to the highest or lowest degree.

• He ran the quickest of all.

• Yesterday I woke up the earliest.

• I worked the least of all days.

A syllable is a unit of pronunciation that contains at least one vowel (a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y). This vowel may be surrounded by consonants. For example “bed” has one vowel (e) with two adjacent consonants (b and d) that create one unit of sound — they are pronounced together. The word “father” has two vowels (a and e) and is a two-syllable word.

Synonyms are pairs of words that have basically the same meaning. For example: “big/large,” “person/human,” “walk/stroll,” etc.

A tag question is a short question added to the end of a statement. It is meant to express a level of uncertainty or request corroboration from the recipient.

Tense, in grammar, references time. The main tenses found in many languages include past, present, and future. Tense is usually reflected in the form of the verb.

A third person form of a word is a "he," "she," "it," or "they" form of a word, used to reference entities (objects, people, ideas,...) that are being talked about, rather than people involved in the conversation directly.

Verbs are words used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, like “to run,” “to exist,” “to happen.”

A verb phrase is a verb plus other words that describe or add information about that verb.

• John ran.

• John ran towards his house.

• John saw his friend together with his mother.

• Seeing his friend together with his mother, John ran again.

Voicing refers to whether or not your vocal cords are buzzing when you make a sound. A voiced sound (d, z, w, a...), uses vocal cords but an unvoiced sound (t, s, f,...) does not.

You can feel the difference by putting your fingers on your throat as you make a sound. If you feel a buzzing, it's voiced, otherwise it's not.

Vowels are speech sounds that are not consonants.