Search results for “clauses”

A modifier is a word, phrase, or clause used to provide additional information in a sentence. The information is not vital to the sentence's meaning, but it often gives details that offer readers extra clarity. Examples I love when Samantha wears that jacket. Josef waited patiently for two hours. Kathy plans to work as a …

Michael plays basketball. Jeremiah doesn't trust pirate radio stations. Hailey dances in a ballet company. You likely recognize these statements as simple, declarative sentences that include basic components of grammar—namely a singular subject and a verb that agrees. When the subject position has two or more nouns or pronouns joined by a coordinating conjunction, we …

Imagine you are driving down the road in your car. Picture the signs, lights, and symbols you see on the way to help you know where to go at which speed, as well as when to stop and go. Now envision what your route would be like if those indicators were absent or misplaced. Punctuation …

Subjects and verbs are the principal components of language. Before we can provide descriptive or informative details in a sentence, we must know the actor and the action. Subjects and verbs are so fundamental to communication in English that they can form complete thoughts alone. Examples Jon runs. You walk. Jennifer jogs. English subjects and …

English uses tense to indicate the timing of a verb's action in the present, the past, or the future. Traditional English includes twelve tenses: present X simple past progressive future perfect perfect progressive In this discussion, we'll review the present perfect progressive tense, which is also referred to as the present perfect continuous. Present Perfect …

Paulina seems optimistic. The blueberry muffins smell delightful. That essay is certain to persuade people. Most of us will be familiar with sentences such as these. We may even find ourselves using such expressions daily, as they contain a common structure for describing something in writing or speech. Each sentence includes a subject, a verb …

It's another new year, and all of us at GrammarBook.com hope yours is off to an inspired start—including looking forward to another full year of mastering American English. At the start of each new year, we review what we've explored with you during the previous twelve months of discussion and study. The 2022 master quiz …

Michelangelo was a painter. Mr. Yao is a mathematician. Her favorite gifts are roses. In each of these sentences, we have a subject, a verb (more specifically, a linking verb), and another noun. The second noun in each sentence renames or identifies the subject noun (Michelangelo = painter, Mr. Yao = mathematician, gifts = roses). …

Those who speak, write, and study English are typically familiar with how nouns are enhanced by adjectives and other nouns, such as appositives and subject complements. Examples The brown satchel belongs to the lawyer. (adjective describing the subject noun, satchel) Jenna is a lawyer. (subject complement renaming the subject noun, Jenna) My sister Jenna, a …

Mr. Burns is wiser than I. Tara knows more about football than baseball. Yama's thinking seeks truth; his writing, the expression of it. Many of us are familiar with these types of statements in English. They are elliptical sentence constructions, which omit sentence components without losing clarity. Those components can be words, phrases, or clauses. …