Definition of Comma Splice A comma splice is known as a grammatical error, or a misuse of commas. It occurs in a sentence when an author inserts a comma incorrectly between two main (independent) clauses to separate them. Two main…
Category: Grammatical Terms
Suffix
Definition of Suffix In semantics, a suffix is a letter or a group of the letters that is attached at the end of a root or a base word to change its meaning or tense. It serves to create new…
Prefix
Definition of Prefix In semantics, a prefix is a single letter or a group of letters, which adds to the meaning of a word when placed at the beginning. It has been derived from the Latin word praefixus, which is…
Affix
An affix is one or more than one syllable or letter added at the beginning or at the end of a root word, to change its meaning. Simply, it is an attachment to the root word that creates a new…
Present Perfect
Definition of Present Perfect Present perfect is the form of a present tense that expresses an action having started in the past and completed recently, or an action that continues in the present. It is also known as “present perfective…
Phoneme
Definition of Phoneme A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word that makes a difference in its pronunciation, as well as its meaning, from another word. For instance, the /s/ in ‘soar’ distinguishes it from /r/ in…
Object
Definition of Object In grammar, an object is a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase on which a verb performs an action. It falls at the end of a sentence, and is governed by a verb or a preposition. For example,…
Morpheme
Definition of Morpheme A morpheme is the smallest syntactical and meaningful linguistic unit that contains a word, or an element of the word such as the use of –s whereas this unit is not divisible further into smaller syntactical parts.…
Infinitive
Definition of Infinitive An infinitive is a form of verb that appears in its basic form. It is preceded by a particle “to,” and can serve as an adjective, an adverb, or a noun. The infinitive phrase is a combination…
Hyphen
A hyphen is a small horizontal line, such as given in these brackets (-), which is used between parts of a compound name or word, or between syllables of words at the end of a sentence or line. Hyphens serve…
Present Participle
Definition of Present Participle Present participle is a form of verb that uses “-ing” with the base of the word. Most of the times, it performs the function of an adjective, though it also works as a verb or a…
Gerund
A gerund is a type of verb that ends in “-ing,” but in a sentence, it functions as a noun. In fact, a gerund is a type of verbal noun in -ing form. As a gerund functions as a noun,…
Direct Object
A direct object in English grammar is a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase that shows who or what receives the action of a verb, performed by a subject specified at the start of the sentence. A direct object may appear…
Semicolon
A semicolon is a punctuation mark that separates independent clauses, or to repair a comma splice. As it suggests a close link between two clauses, it appears mostly in academic writing. However, is not popularly used in informal prose writing.…
Proper Noun
A proper noun belongs to a class of words that refers to specific persons, things, places, ideas, or events. It is opposite to a common noun. All nouns are mostly divided into one of these two categories – proper nouns…
Subject
A subject in grammar is the first part in a sentence about which the second part, the predicate, tells something. The subject performs an action, or indicates what or whom the sentence is about. In a declarative sentence, the subject…
Verb
Definition of Verb A verb is an important part of a sentence that describes an occurrence, a mental/physical action, or existence of a condition or a state (to exist, to be). It originated from the Latin word verbum, which means…
Past Tense
Definition of Past Tense In grammar, past tense refers to a verb-tense combination whose sole purpose is to state an action to have happened in the time that has passed. It is second to present tense, in which the action…
Past Participle
Definition of Past Participle Past participle is the third form of a verb. In regular verbs, it is the same as the original verb. However, in irregular verbs, a past participle is a word that uses “-ed,” “-d,” and sometimes…
Antonym
Definition of Antonym An antonym is a semantic term for words that have opposite meanings or definitions. To simply put it, an antonym is an opposite of another word. The term “antonym” has been derived from a Greek word antonumia,…
