The other day I read a tweet that made some claims about adverbs: “The -s in “unawares,” as in “they were caught unawares,” is completely distinct from the pluralizing -s. It’s an adverb suffix, and it’s also in “always” and “nowadays,” and in “nights,” “weekends,” etc., as in “they work nights/weekends.” #FunWithMorphology” The -s in […] More
Are the words yesterday, today, and tomorrow adverbs or nouns? Oxford Living Dictionaries identifies all three words as an adverb first and a noun second. Etymonline lists yesterday as a noun and adverb but today and tomorrow as only adverbs. Wiktionary defines today and tomorrow as adverbs first and nouns second but yesterday as a […] More
Notional grammars define adjectives as “words that describe nouns.” Big, cute, green, small, and wonky are prototypical adjectives. In big bully, The baby is cute, and I painted the wall green, each adjective describes a noun. Big describes the noun bully, cute describes the noun baby, and green describes the noun wall. However, stating that […] More
Traditional grammars define verbs as “action or state of being words.” Main verbs, or principal verbs, fall into five categories in English grammar. Copular verbs are English verbs that link the subject complement in the predicate to the grammatical subject. Copular verbs are similar to intransitive verbs and thus cannot occur within passive constructions. Some […] More
Notional grammars define verbs as “action or state of being words.” Main verbs, or principal verbs, fall into five categories in English grammar. Intransitive verbs are English verbs that cannot or do not take objects. Intransitive verbs cannot occur within passive constructions. Some common intransitive English verbs include the following: collapse cough cry die disappear […] More
Noun clauses are independent, or subordinate, clauses that perform nominal functions. Clauses are grammatical structures that contain a subject and a predicate. Grammatical Forms Grammatical Forms of English Noun Clauses explains the internal structure of noun clauses in English. Forming Noun Clauses from Questions explains the formation of noun clauses from interrogative constructions. Grammatical Functions […] More
Notional grammars define pronouns as “small words that take the place of nouns and other grammatical forms.” Pronoun is a subcategory of the larger category of noun. A pronoun phrase, which is a type of noun phrase, consists of a pronoun plus any modifiers. Grammatical Forms Types of Pronouns: Personal, Indefinite, Demonstrative, Interrogative, and Relative […] More
Predicate nominatives, or predicate nouns, are defined as nominal grammatical forms that perform the grammatical function of subject complement. Subject complements are words, phrases, and clauses that follow a copular, or linking, verb and refer back to modify, describe, or complete the grammatical subject of the clause. Subject complements are grammatical constituents embedded in the […] More
Clauses are grammatical structures that consist of a subject and a predicate. Dependent or subordinate clauses are clauses that cannot function independently as complete sentences but that must appear with another independent or main clause. Noun clauses are a type of dependent clause that perform nominal functions. In grammar, a subject complement is a word, […] More
Traditional grammars define nouns as naming people, places, things, and ideas. Noun phrases consist of a noun including a pronoun and any modifiers, complements, and determiners that provide more information about the noun or pronoun. A pronoun is word that takes the place of a noun, noun phrase, noun clause, or other nominal form. Pronouns […] More
A noun clause is a dependent clause that consists of a subordinating conjunction followed by a clause and that performs a nominal function. Noun clauses perform nine grammatical functions in English grammar: Subject Subject complement Direct object Object complement Indirect object Prepositional complement Noun phrase complement Adjective phrase complement Appositive The following sections define and […] More
Verbs are traditionally defined as “action or state of being words.” In the English language, main or principal verbs may be classified into five categories: Copular Intransitive Transitive Ditransitive Ambitransitive Copular Verbs The first type of verb in English is the copular verb. Copular verbs are English verbs that link the subject complement in the […] More
