| compound subject | two subjects separated by a joining word such as and. Compound subjects generally take a plural verb.
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| gerund | a verbal; the -ing form of the verb used as a noun. Ex.: I love dancing.
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| indefinite pronoun | a word that refers to people and things that are not named or are not specific. Many indefinite pronouns (e.g., one, nobody, nothing, each, etc.) take a singular verb; others, such as both or few, take plural verbs.
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| infinitive | a verbal; to plus the base form of the verb. Ex.: I love to dance.
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| irregular verb | a verb that has an irregular form in the past tense and past participle. Ex.: choose, chose, chosen
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| participle | a verbal; the -ing or -ed form of the verb used as an adjective. Ex.: I love dancing bears.
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| subject | who or what a sentence speaks about; usually a noun or pronoun that acts, is acted upon, or is described. Ex: The boy cries.
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| tense | time (in grammar)
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| verb | what the sentence says about the subject; a word that show what a subject does or that helps describe the subject by linking it to an adjective. Ex.: The boy cries.
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| verb tense | the times shown by verbs (present, past, future, etc.)
| Tense | Example | | Present | I work | | Past | I worked | | Future | I will work | | Present Perfect | I have worked. | | Past perfect | I had worked. | | Future perfect | I will have worked. | | Present progressive | I am working. | | Past progressive | I was working. | | Future progressive | I will be working. | | Present perfect progressive | I have been working. | | Past perfect progressive | I had been working. | | Future perfect progressive | I will have been working. |
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| verbals | words formed from verbs that often express action: these include infinitives, gerunds, and participles
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| modal | a helping verb that does not change form to indicate tense (e.g., can, may, shall, would)
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| relative pronoun | a pronoun (who, which, and that) that refers to someone or something already mentioned in the sentence (Ex.: I met a woman who is from China.)
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| principal parts of verbs | (1) basic form (e.g., I ask); (2) past tense form (e.g., I asked); (3) present participle (e.g., I was asking); past participle (e.g., I had asked)
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| active voice | quality of a verb that describes an action performed by the subject of a sentence (e.g., My father jumped for joy.)
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| passive voice | quality of a verb that describes an action performed upon the subject of a sentence (e.g., My father was jumped by two hoodlums yesterday.)
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| nonstandard usage= | expressions such as I ain't and we has that are not accepted as appropriate in formal contexts
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