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    The Prepositional Complement in English Grammar

    Prepositional complements are defined as the word, phrase, or clause that directly follows the preposition and completes the meaning of the prepositional phrase. Prepositional complements are also called objects of prepositions and complements of prepositions. Although noun phrases most frequently function as the prepositional complement in prepositional phrases, four grammatical forms can perform the grammatical […] More

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    The Indirect Object in English Grammar

    Indirect objects are words, phrases, and clauses that follow a ditransitive verb and indicate to or for whom or what the action of the verb is performed. Sentences with indirect objects must also have direct objects. Although nouns and noun phrases most frequently function as the indirect objects of sentences, four grammatical forms can perform […] More

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    Using Pronouns as Indirect Objects

    Nouns are traditionally defined as words that refer to people, places, things, and ideas. A subcategory of nouns, pronouns are words that take the place of nouns, noun phrases, noun clauses, and other grammatical forms. A noun phrase is a phrase that consists of a noun including a pronoun plus any modifiers, complements, or determiners. […] More

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    Prepositional Verbs and Verb Phrase Complements

    Verbs are traditionally defined as “words that indicate action or state of being.” English verbs may be either transitive or intransitive. Transitive verbs require direct objects and may also take indirect objects. For example, the verb eat in the rabbit ate the lettuce is transitive because of the direct object the lettuce. Conversely, intransitive verbs […] More

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    Types of Pronouns: Personal, Indefinite, Demonstrative, Interrogative, and Relative

    Traditional grammars define pronouns as “small words that take the place of other words, phrases, and clauses.” Pronouns in English more specifically take the place of nouns, noun phrases, and noun clauses as well as some other grammatical forms. English pronouns may be further classified into more specific categories: personal pronouns, indefinite pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, […] More

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    Using Pronouns as Direct Objects

    Traditional grammars describe nouns as words that name people, places, things, and ideas. Pronouns are a subcategory of nouns that take the place of nouns, noun phrases, noun clauses, and other grammatical forms. A noun phrase consists of a noun including a pronoun plus any modifiers, complements, and determiners that provide more information about the […] More

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    Using Pronouns as Subject Complements

    Traditional grammars define nouns as naming people, places, things, and ideas. Noun phrases consist of a noun including a pronoun and any modifiers, complements, and determiners that provide more information about the noun or pronoun. A pronoun is word that takes the place of a noun, noun phrase, noun clause, or other nominal form. Pronouns […] More

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    Using Pronouns as Subjects

    The traditional definition of the noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. A noun phrase is a phrase consisting of a noun including a pronoun and any modifiers, complements, or determiners. Pronouns are a subcategory of nouns that take the place of nouns, noun phrases, noun clauses, and other forms. […] More

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    The Imperative Mood of English Verbs

    The imperative mood is one of three grammatical moods in the English language. As a grammatical mood, the imperative expresses modality, which is the grammaticalized expression of the subjective attitudes and opinions of the speaker including possibility, probability, necessity, obligation, permissibility, ability, desire, and contingency. In the English language, the imperative mood is a verb […] More

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    The Object Complement in English Grammar

    Object complements are defined as words, phrases, and clauses that directly follow and describe or complete the direct object. Object complements are grammatical constituents embedded in the predicate of a clause. Although noun phrases and adjective phrases most frequently function as the object complement of clauses, five grammatical forms can perform the grammatical function of […] More

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    English Irregular Verbs: Simple Past and Past Participles

    Irregular English verbs are verbs whose conjugations differ from the conjugation patterns of regular verbs. Many common English verbs are irregular in the simple past and the past participle. Irregular verbs are verbs in Germanic languages that express the simple past tense by means of changes to the stem vowel (ablaut). Irregular verbs are also referred […] More

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    Grammatical Functions of English Noun Clauses

    A noun clause is a dependent clause that consists of a subordinating conjunction followed by a clause and that performs a nominal function. Noun clauses perform nine grammatical functions in English grammar: Subject Subject complement Direct object Object complement Indirect object Prepositional complement Noun phrase complement Adjective phrase complement Appositive The following sections define and […] More

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    Grammatical Forms of English Noun Clauses

    Similar to the noun and noun phrase in grammatical function, a noun clause is a dependent or subordinate clause that consists of a subordinating conjunction followed by a clause and that performs a nominal function. Some grammars use the term nominal clause for noun clauses. Conjunctions are “words that link words, phrases, and clauses.” A […] More

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    Using Pronouns as Noun Phrase Heads

    Nouns are traditionally defined as words that name people, places, things, and ideas. A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. Noun phrases consist of a noun including a pronoun plus any determiners, modifiers, and complements. A pronoun may also take the place of an entire noun phrase. Pronoun is a […] More

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    The Present Perfect-Progressive of English Verbs

    All conjugated verbs in the English language express grammatical tense, grammatical aspect, grammatical voice, and grammatical mood. Tense is defined as the grammaticalized expression of time. Aspect is defined as the grammaticalized expression of temporal structure. Voice is defined as the expression of relationships between predicate and nominal functions. Mood is defined as the expression […] More

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    The Past Progressive of English Verbs

    English verbs that are conjugated express a combination of grammatical tense, grammatical aspect, grammatical voice, and grammatical mood. Tense is the grammaticalized expression of time and roughly corresponds to actual time. Aspect is the grammaticalized expression of temporal structure and corresponds to duration. Mood is the expression of modality, or the expression of possibility, necessity, […] More

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    The Present Progressive of English Verbs

    Conjugated verbs express a combination of grammatical tense, grammatical aspect, grammatical voice, and grammatical mood in English. Verb tense is defined as the grammaticalized expression of time. Verb aspect is defined as the grammaticalized expression of temporal structure. Verb mood is defined as the expression of modality. Verb voice is defined as the expression of […] More

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    The Past Perfect of English Verbs

    Conjugated verbs in English express a combination of grammatical tense, grammatical aspect, grammatical voice, and grammatical mood. Tense is defined as the grammaticalized expression of time and aspect as the grammaticalized expression of temporal structure. Mood is defined as the expression of modality and voice as the expression of relationships between predicate and nominal functions. […] More

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    A Comparative Grammatical Description of Modern English Phrasal Verbs and Old English Verb-Particle Constructions

    Verb-particle constructions are a characteristic feature of the highly periphrastic Modern English verb system (Fischer et al. 2000:180). Modern verb-particle constructions, which are most frequently termed phrasal verbs, are formed by a verb followed by at least one preposition functioning as a particle (Johnson 2008:1; Fraser 1976:1; Elenbaas 2007:9). A particle is a grammatical function […] More

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    English Phrasal Verbs

    Phrasal verbs are a common verb form in the English language. Also called verb-particle constructions, the simplest definition of phrasal verbs is a verb plus one or more p-words. Other common definitions of the English phrasal verb include the following descriptions: an English verb followed by one or more particles where the combination behaves as […] More

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