Main Clause
A main clause is a clause capable of making a complete sentence by itself. A sentence always contains at least one main clause, and a simple sentence consists only of a single main clause....
Author: Manjusha Nambiar
When To Put The Auxiliary Verb Before The Subject?
We put an auxiliary verb before the subject of a clause in several different structures. This is called inversion. Consider the statement She is coming with us, in which the subject she precedes the...
Intransitive Verbs
Intransitive is a label applied to a verb that does not take a direct object. Some English verbs are always intransitive and can never take an object. Examples are: sleep, come, go, die, fall,...
Infinitive
Infinitives are forms like (to) write and (to) read. Infinitives are generally used with the marker to. Note that this to is not a preposition; after the preposition to we use –ing forms. I...
Direct And Indirect Object
The term object refers to a noun or pronoun that comes after the verb, in an active clause. Jane wrote a story. He bought a car. Many verbs can be followed by two objects...
Articles
A, an and the are called the articles. A/an is called the indefinite article; the is called the definite article. We use the before a noun when our listener/reader knows (or can work out)...
Homograph And Homophone
Homograph One of two or more words of different meaning which are spelled in the same way, regardless of whether they are pronounced the same or differently. For example, bear (an animal) and bear...
Imperative
In sentences like Come here, Be quite, and Get me a drink, the verb forms come, be and get are called imperatives. Affirmative imperatives have the same form as the infinitive without to. Negative...
Gerund
When -ing forms are used like nouns, they are called gerunds. A gerund can be the subject, object or complement of a verb. Flying (subject) makes me sick. Trespassing (subject) is prohibited. Smoking (subject)...
Full Stop
Full stop The punctuation mark full stop (.) is used to close sentences. A new sentence that follows a full stop has a capital letter. Full stops are also used in writing abbreviations. This...