-ed participle a verb form such as walked or played, which is used to make perfect forms and passives, or in some cases an adjective. Irregular participles such as given and broken are also called -ed participles because they behave like regular -ed participles. Also called past participle.
ellipsis when you leave out words because they are obvious from the context.
emphasizing adjective an adjective such as complete, utter or total which stresses how strongly you feel about something; e.g. I feel a complete fool.
ergative verb a verb that can be either transitive or intransitive in the same meaning. To use the verb intransitively, you use the object of the transitive verb as the subject of the intransitive verb; e.g. He had boiled a kettle… The kettle had boiled.
exclamation a word or sentence spoken suddenly and loudly in order to express surprise, anger, and so on; e.g. Oh gosh!
finite a finite verb is inflected according to person or tense rather than being an infinitive or a participle.
first person see person.
focusing adverb a sentence adverb that indicates the most relevant thing involved; e.g. only, mainly, especially.
future the use of will or shall with the base form of the verb to refer to future events; e.g. She will come tomorrow.
future progressive the use of will be or shall be and an -ing participle to refer to future events; e.g. She will be going soon. Also called future continuous.
future perfect the use of will have or shall have and an -ed participle to refer to future events; e.g. I shall have finished tomorrow.
future perfect progressive the use of will or shall with have been and an -ing participle to refer to future events; e.g. I will have been walking for three hours by then. Also called future perfect continuous.
gender a grammatical term referring to the difference between masculine and feminine words such as he and she.
generic pronoun one of a group of pronouns including you and they which are used to refer to people in general.
gerund another name for -ing noun.
gradable a gradable adjective can be used with a word such as very to say that the person or thing referred to has more or less of a quality; e.g. very boring, less helpful.
idiom a group of two or more words with a meaning that cannot be understood by taking the meaning of each individual word; e.g. to kick the bucket, to run wild.
if-clause a conditional clause; or a clause used to report a yes/no-question.
imperative a clause in the imperative has the base form of the verb without a subject, e.g. Come here… Take two tablets every four hours… Enjoy yourself.
impersonal it it is an impersonal subject when it is used to introduce a fact, or when it is used in a split sentence; e.g. It’s raining… It was you who asked.
indefinite article the determiners a and an.
indefinite determiner one of a group of determiners including a, many and several which you use to refer to someone or something of a particular type, without saying which person or thing you mean; e.g. an old man, several suggestions.
indefinite place adverb one of a group of adverbs including anywhere and somewhere which are used to indicate position or location in a general or vague way.
indefinite pronoun one of a group of pronouns including someone and anything which are used to refer to a person or thing in a general way.
indicative another name for declarative.
indirect object a second object used with a transitive verb to indicate who or what benefits from an action, or gets something as a result of it; e.g. She gave me a rose.
indirect question another name for reported question.
indirect speech another name for reported speech.
infinitive the base form of a verb. It is often used with to in front of it; e.g. (to) take, (to) see, (to) bring.
infinitive without to the infinitive form without to in front of it, used with modals and certain other verbs; e.g. You must go… Let me think.
inflection the variation in the form of a word to show differences in tense, number, case, and degree.
-ing adjective an adjective that has the same form as the -ing participle of a verb; e.g. … a smiling face… a winning streak.
-ing participle a verb form ending in -ing that is used to make verb forms, and as an adjective. Also called the present participle.
-ing noun a noun that has the same form as the -ing participle of a verb; e.g. Swimming is good for you.
interjection another name for exclamation.
interrogative adverb one of the adverbs how, when, where, and why when they are used to ask questions.
interrogative a clause in the interrogative form has part or all of the verb phrase in front of the subject. Most questions are asked in the interrogative form.