active voice n A type of sentence with a verb in the active form, which is used when the emphasis is on the subject. It stands in opposition to the passive voice.
adverbial complement n A part of a sentence which gives information about things like place (as in: ‘he lives in London’) and time (as in: ‘he arrived last night’).
advice n A communicative situation that happens when we tell other people what we think they should do.
agent n In the passive voice, the person or thing that does the action of the passive verb. It is introduced by the preposition ‘by’.
antecedent n In relative sentences, the noun or pronoun to which the relative pronoun refers. Is is placed right before the relative pronoun.
attributive use n Referring to adjectives, they have an attributive use when they go directly before the noun they refer to, as in ‘a big house’.
auxiliary verb n A type of verb which is used to form other verb tenses. The auxiliary verbs are: ‘be’, ‘have’ and ‘do’.
base form n An invariable form of the verb which has no indication of time or person. It only reflects the meaning. It is the form which appears in dictionaries.
bold type n A printing type used for emphasis in which the word is highlighted in black, as in bold type.
cardinal number n A numeral adjective that is used to indicate the quantity of a noun, like ‘one’, ‘two’, etc.
clause n A unit of meaning in a sentence, which is typically composed of a subject and a predicate. We can distinguish two types: ‘main clause’ and ‘subordinate clause’.
command n A sentence expressing, in a direct way, what you want other people to do. It is expressed with the imperative form of the verb.
comparative adj A special form taken by adjectives and adverbs when they are used to compare two things. It is normally formed by adding -er or ‘more… than’ to the adjective or adverb. There are some irregular forms.
complex sentence n A sentence composed of a main clause and a subordinate clause.
conditional sentence n A type of complex sentence in which the subordinate clause (or ‘conditional clause’) expresses a condition and the main clause expresses the result if the condition becomes true.
conjugate v To express the different forms taken by a verb.
connector n A word or phrase which is used to link different sentences or paragraphs.
countable noun n A type of noun which defines things that can be divided into units and so counted. For example: ‘one book’, ‘two books’, etc.
cultural differences n Differences in behaviour, social conventions, etc. found in people from different cultural backgrounds.
defining relative clause n A type of relative clause that defines the antecedent.
demonstrative n A word that is used to point out a noun in relation to its relative position. The determiners are: ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘these’ and ‘those’.
determiner n A small word, like an article, a possessive, a demonstrative, etc., which is placed before a noun to add some meaning to that noun.
direct object complement n The part of a sentence that receives the action of a transitive verb. Example: ‘I wrote a book’.
false friend n A type of noun which has the same or a very similar form to a noun in another language, but a different meaning. For example, actually is not “actualment” in Catalan, but “realment, de fet”.
formal style n A style of writing and speaking that is used in formal situations and is characterized by specific vocabulary and syntactical structures.
gerund n An invariable form of the verb which ends in -ing and is used in a number of structures. It is also used to change a verb into a noun to express an activity. Sometimes it is referred to as ‘present participle’.
grammar n The set of rules which tell the way in which a sentence must be organized in a language. It is sometimes called ‘syntax’.
grammatical adj Referring to the grammar rules of a language.
imperative n A form of the verb which is used to give orders and instructions.
indirect object complement n The part in a sentence which expresses the person or thing affected by the action of the transitive verb. Example: ‘I gave him some money.’
infinitive n An invariable form of the verb (the same as the base form) which is usually accompanied by to, as in: ‘I want to go’.
informal style n A style of writing and speaking that is used in informal situations (with friends and relatives). It is characterized by specific vocabulary and specific syntactical structures.
interrogative adj Referring to a sentence, one that expresses a question. It has a special structure. Interrogative sentences have a question mark at the end.
interrogative pronoun n A pronoun which is mostly used in interrogative sentences to ask about some specific information.
intonation n The way in which the voice rises and falls when we speak.
italics n A printing type used to emphasize a word, as in italics.
lexical verb n A verb that has its own meaning. Lexical verbs stand in opposition to ‘auxiliary’ and ‘modal verbs’.
long form n In a verb tense, the form that is not contracted, as in ‘he is not’.
main clause n A unit in the grammatical organization of a sentence which has a meaning of its own, that is, it does not need another clause to make sense.
modal verb n A type of verb that has no meaning of its own, but depends on another verb. These verbs do not express actions, but such perceptions as possibility, ability, obligation, etc.
non-defining relative clause n A type of relative sentence that adds some extra information to a noun, but does not define it. It is always written between commas.
non-verbal communication n A type of communication in which the information is not transmitted with words (as in verbal or linguistic communication), but with such features as facial expression, body position, etc.
object pronoun n A type of pronoun that has the function of complement in a sentence.
ordinal number n A numeral adjective that is used to indicate the order in which a noun appears in a series, like ‘first’, ‘second’, etc.
passive voice n A type of sentence, with a verb in the passive form, which is used when the subject is not important or is unknown. It stands in opposition to the active voice.
past participle n An invariable form of the verb which has the characteristics of an adjective. It is especially used in the perfect tenses. In regular verbs, it is formed with the ending -ed.
Phonetics n The science that describes the sounds of a language.
phrasal verb n A type of verb that is composed of a verb + a particle (typically a preposition or an adverb), as for example: get up, sit down, take off, etc.
possessive pronoun n A type of pronoun that is used to express possession. It agrees in number and gender with the name it refers to.
predicative use n Referring to adjectives, they have a predicative use when they go after certain verbs, like ‘to be’, ‘to make’, ‘to find’, as in ‘the house is big’.
prepositional verb n A verb whose direct object is always introduced by a preposition, as for example: listen to the radio, look for a job, look at the clouds, etc.
present participle n See gerund.
pronoun n A word that is used to refer to or substitute a noun. Examples are ‘he’ and ‘him.
punctuation n A system used in writing to set the pauses in a sentence and establish relationships of different kinds between the elements in the text. It includes the use of stops, commas, brackets, capital letters, etc.
quantifier n A type of determiner which indicates the quantity of the noun to which it is attached. Examples of quantifiers are: ‘some’, ‘a lot of’, ‘many’, etc.
question mark n The sign (?) that we write at the end of a sentence.
question tag n A small question added to a statement to ask the listener for confirmation. It is mostly used in oral speech.
relative pronoun n A type of pronoun used to introduce a subordinate relative clause. It refers to the antecedent of the relative sentence.
relative sentence n A sentence in which the subordinate clause is introduced by a relative pronoun and gives information about a noun.
request n A communicative function which is used when we want to ask someone to do something.
Saxon genitive n A distinctive way of expressing possession by means of an ‘s added to the possessor, as in 'John’s house’.
sentence n a set of words that are organized in accordance with the grammatical rules of a particular language. It consists of a simple clause and sometimes one or more subordinate clauses.
short form n In a verb tense, the form that is contracted, as in ‘he isn’t (=he is not)'.
simple sentence n A sentence formed only by a main clause.
skill n The knowledge required to perform certain tasks. In a language, there are four: reading, writing, listening and speaking.
spelling n The set of rules that explain how to write words correctly.
statement n A sentence which expresses an idea in speech or writing. It can be affirmative or negative.
stress n The way that a word or syllable is pronounced with greater force than other words in the same sentence (sentence stress) or other syllables in the same word (word stress).
subject n The unit in a sentence that expresses the person or thing that does the action of the verb. Example: 'My sister is an architect’.
subject complement n A part of the sentence that describes the subject. it is only used after verbs like be, seem; for example: ‘they are happy’.
subject pronoun n A type of pronoun that has the function of subject in the sentence.
subordinate clause n A unit in the grammatical organization of a sentence which has not got a meaning of its own, that is, it needs another clause to have a meaning.
suggestion n A communicative situation in which we tell other people what we or they should do.
superlative adj A special form taken by the adjectives and adverbs when they are used to compare more than two things. It is normally formed by adding -est or ‘the most’ to the adjective or adverb. There are some superlative forms.
syntactical adj Referring to the syntax (or grammar) of a language.
syntax n See grammar.
uncountable noun n A type of noun referring to things that cannot be divided into units. For example: ‘water’, ‘paper’, ‘hardware’, etc.
verb tense n Each of the forms taken by a verb to express time, person and number.
Wh- question n A type of question introduced by an interrogative pronoun and asking about specific information, like ‘who’, ‘when’, ‘where’, etc.
Yes/No question n A type of question which asks ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
zero article n A term used to refer to the occasions in which no article is used.
