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- absolute phrase
- A subject and an adjective phrase (often a participial phrase) used to modify an entire clause-for example, "Her curiosity satisfied, she left the meeting." (30c-2)
- abstract noun
- A word that names an idea, emotion, quality, or other intangible concept-for example, beauty, passion, despair. (30a-1, 45a-2)
- acronym
- A pronounceable word formed from the first letters of a multiword name and usually written in uppercase letters-for example, UNESCO, ASCII, RAM. (58d)
- active form
- See active voice.
- active voice
- The form a transitive verb takes to indicate that the subject is performing the action on the direct object. Also called the active form. (30a-4, 32g)
- adjective
- A word that modifies a noun by qualifying or describing it-for example, new, interesting. (30a-3, Chapter 34). See also specific types of adjectives.
- adjective clause
- A dependent clause, usually introduced by a relative pronoun, that modifies a noun or pronoun. Also called a relative clause. (30c-3)
- adverb
- A word that modifies a verb, adjective, clause, sentence, or other adverb-for example, quickly, well. (30a-5, Chapter 34, 62d). See also specific types of adverbs.
- adverb clause
- A dependent clause that begins with a subordinating conjunction and answers the question when, where, how, or why. (30c-3)
- agreement
- The grammatical requirement that a verb and its subject have the same number (either plural or singular) and that a pronoun and its antecedent have the same number and gender. (Chapter 33)
- analogy
- A simile that extends beyond one sentence. (45g-2)
- analytical writing
- Writing that examines the whole of a work in relationship to its component parts. (17a-3)
- annotating
- Making summary notes in the margin, as well as underlining or highlighting important words and passages. (2b-3)
- antecedent
- The noun that precedes and is replaced by a pronoun. For example, in the sentence "David is proud of himself," David is the antecedent of himself. A pronoun should agree in number and gender with its antecedent. (30a-2, 33b, 37a)
- antonyms
- Two words having opposite meanings-for example, love and hate. (47c-3)
- appositive
- A special type of pronoun-noun pairing in which a pronoun is conjoined with a noun-for example, we students. Also, a noun that is placed next to the subject to give it extra characterization. See also appositive phrase. (31c)
- appositive phrase
- A noun phrase, placed next to another noun, that describes or defines the other noun and is usually set off by commas-for example, "Sammy Sosa, my favorite baseball player, may someday break the home run record." Also called an appositive. (30c-2)
- argument
- A course of reasoning that puts forth a claim and supports it with evidence. (7)
- article
- A word that precedes a noun and indicates definiteness or indefiniteness. Standard Edited English has three articles: a, an, the. (30a-3, Chapter 60)
- aspect
- See verbal aspect.
- auxiliary verb
- A verb, such as has, be, or do, that combines with a main verb to form a simple predicate-for example, "The guests have left." Also called a helping verb. (30a-4, 32c)
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- base form
- The main form of a verb, given as the headword in the dictionary-for example, run, ask, consider. Also called simple form. (30a-4, 32a)
- bibliography
- Any listing of books and articles on a particular subject. (8d)
- Boolean operators
- Specific words (AND, NOT, OR) that are combined with other words or phrases to allow you to focus your search terms during a database search. (9c-1)
- brainstorming
- Generating random ideas or fragments of thought about a topic. (3c-1)
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- case
- The form a pronoun takes to indicate its grammatical relation to other words in the sentence. (Chapter 31). See also objective case, possessive case, subjective case.
- clause
- A group of words that has a subject and a predicate. (30c-3). See also specific types of clauses.
- cliché
- An overused expression-for example, sick and tired, climbing the ladder of success. (45g-3)
- clustering
- A prewriting technique that helps a writer see relationships among ideas. (3c-4)
- cognates
- Two words, from different languages, that are similar in form and meaning-for example, the English disaster and the Spanish desastre. (63a)
- coherence
- The characteristic of writing that makes it "stick together" from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph. (5a-2)
- collective noun
- A singular word that names a group-for example, team, band, trio. (30a-1)
- collocation
- The relationship between two or more words that frequently occur together-for example, write and check. (47c-1, 63b)
- comma splice
- Two independent clauses joined only by a comma. Comma splices are not acceptable in formal English. (Chapter 36)
- common noun
- A word that names one or more persons, places, things, concepts, or qualities as a general category-for example, flowers, telephone, determination. Common nouns are lowercased. (30a-1)
- complement
- See object complement, subject complement, verb complement.
- complete predicate
- The simple predicate plus any objects, complements, or adverbial modifiers. (30b-2)
- complete subject
- The simple subject of a sentence, plus all modifiers. (30b-1)
- complex compound
- A word made up of three or more words. (59b)
- complex sentence
- A sentence that has a single independent clause and one or more dependent clauses. (30d-2, 44b)
- complex series
- A series in which individual items contain internal commas, necessitating the use of semicolons to separate the items. (52c)
- compound
- A word made up of two smaller words. (59a)
- compound antecedent
- A noun phrase consisting of two or more terms joined by and-for example, Kim and her brother. It is usually considered plural; therefore, if it is referred to later by a pronoun, the pronoun should be plural. (33b)
- compound-complex sentence
- A sentence that has two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses. (30d-2, 44b)
- compound predicate
- A predicate containing two or more verbs with the same subject. (30b-1)
- compound sentence
- A sentence that has two or more independent clauses and no dependent clauses. (30d-2, 44b)
- compound subject
- A sentence subject consisting of two or more simple subjects. (30b-1)
- concrete noun
- A word that names something that can be touched, seen, heard, smelled, or tasted-for example, automobile, music, cloud. (30a-1, 45a-2)
- conditional sentence
- A sentence composed of a subordinate clause (usually beginning with if ) and a main clause-for example, "If I'm late, please start the meeting without me." (61i-k)
- conjunction
- A word that joins two sentences, clauses, phrases, or words-for example, and, or, but. (30a-7). See also specific types of conjunctions.
- conjunctive adverb
- An adverb that modifies an entire sentence or clause while linking it to the preceding sentence or clause-for example, however, therefore. (30a-5, 51f)
- connotation
- Extra meaning that a word has, beyond its basic meaning. (45b, 47b)
- contraction
- A reduced form of a word or pair of words-for example, can't for cannot, I'll for I will. (45c-2)
- coordinate adjectives
- A series of adjectives, separated by commas, that could be arranged in any order-for example, a rusty, dented, broken-down car. (51d)
- coordinating conjunction
- A conjunction used to connect sentences, clauses, phrases, or words that are parallel in meaning-for example, and, but, or, nor, yet. (30a-7)
- coordination
- The pairing of equivalent sentences or sentence elements by putting them in the same grammatical form and linking them via a coordinating conjunction, conjunctive adverb, or semicolon. (41b)
- correlative conjunctions
- Conjunctions that are used in pairs-for example, both/and, either/or, neither/nor. The two elements connected by such conjunctions should be in parallel grammatical form. (30a-7)
- count noun
- A word that names something that can be counted and pluralized-for example, a book, some friends, three dollars. (30a-1, 60a)
- cumulative adjectives
- A series of adjectives, each one modifying those following it-for example, a small new Italian luxury car. These adjectives must follow a certain order, and commas are not used to separate them. (51j)
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