action verb
a verb (for example, talk, build, or write) that tells what someone or something is doing
adjective
a word or phrase that modifies—or describes—nouns or pronouns. Adjectives often tell how something or someone looks: dark, light, tall, short, large, small.
adverb
a word or phrase that modifies—or describes—adjectives, verbs, and other adverbs. Adverbs do not modify nouns. Adverbs answer the questions how (thoughtfully), when (soon), where (there), how often (always), and to what extent (very). Adverbs often, but not always, end in –ly.
clause
a group of words that contains a subject and a verb. There are two types of clauses—independent and dependent (subordinate).
common noun
a noun that names something general (for example, singer, hill, water, theater). Common nouns are usually not capitalized.
complete verb
a phrase that consists of an action or linking verb and all its helping verbs. In the sentence "I have already eaten dinner," have eaten is the complete verb.
conjunction
a word that connects words or groups of words. There are two kinds of conjunctions—coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions.
coordinating conjunction
a conjunction that connects parts of a sentence that are of equal importance or weight. The coordinating conjunctions are and, but, or, for, nor, so, and yet. In the sentence "Francisco likes art and poetry, but he plans to study psychology," the words and and but are coordinating conjunctions.
demonstrative pronoun
a pronoun that points to a specific person (or people) or a specific object (or objects). The demonstrative pronouns are this, these, that, and those.
dependent (subordinate) clause
a group of words that contains a subject and verb but does not contain a complete thought and therefore cannot stand alone as a sentence. In the sentence "Seeta plays soccer well because she practices often," because she practices often is a subordinate clause.
helping verb
a word that adds...