How Well Do You Know English Grammar?

Articles are used with nouns in phrases and clauses. In the English language, articles such as "the," "a" or "an" definitely or indefinitely define an object. "Some" is occasionally used as an article in "some" cases.

An ellipses is represented by three dots, like this: "...". This punctuation is meant to signify an omission of one or more words in a sentence whose meaning is easily understood. In modern contexts, the ellipses is sometimes used to express a pause in thought.

A morpheme is the smallest grammatical form that a unit of English can take. In this example, "-ing" is a component of "relaxing" that cannot be reduced any further without losing its grammatical function. The other component of the word "relaxing" is "relax."

In standard grammar, the basic components of a complete sentence are the subject and the predicate. A predicate completes the idea of a sentence and usually defines the subject mentioned. In this example, "Peter" is the subject, and the predicate describes or defines his action of having studied for his physics exam.

Determiners refer to a noun or a noun phrase and establishes how defined -- definite or indefinite -- the noun or noun phrase is in a phrase or clause. In the sentence, "This woman is a member," the word "this" defines a particular woman, and the word "a" defines the member as a single (as in one) member.

An infinitive of an English verb is its basic form. "Rest" and "to rest" are both infinitives; "rest" is called a bare infinitive and "to rest" is called a full infinitive.

Gerunds are verbs that function as nouns, and they always end in "ing." Gerunds can function in many ways in a sentence. For example, the gerund "chirping" used as a direct object can be: "Birds like chirping."

Indirect objects are affected by the action of the verb in a sentence. In this example, Carter receives the action, having been slipped the secret note. Indirect objects answer the questions: for whom?, to whom?, for what?, to what?

An adjective clause modifies a pronoun or noun. Only a subordinate conjunction (where and when) or a relative pronoun (that, whom, which, who and whose) can begin an adjective clause. "Your" is a possessive pronoun.

Prepositions begin a prepositional phrase and express time or spatial correlations. In the question referenced here, the preposition "in" tells us that the "preposition" is found "in this question," the prepositional phrase.

Possessives are used as adjectives to describe nouns, but they do not always accompany nouns. Examples of possessives include "your," "yours," "his" and "my."

Pronouns refer to antecedents, which usually come before the pronouns that replace them. Antecedents can be other pronouns, nouns and noun phrases. In the sentence, "Carol cleaned the silverware, but tarnished them," "silverware" is the antecedent and "them" is the pronoun that refers to it.

An interjection is a word or a group of words that express surprise or some other strong emotion. Comma punctuation (as used in the case here) follows interjections that express mild emotion, while exclamation points follow interjections that express strong emotion.

Superlatives compare two or more persons or things in quantity, quality or degree. A superlative is an adjective or adverb that expresses the highest degree.

Many languages use gender as a way to systematize their mechanics, matching male or female "gendered" nouns to other aspects of language, like articles and pronouns. In English, gender is identified by pronouns "he" and "she," both of which can be used to express generalizations.

Past participles are verbs that often end in "-ed" but they can be formed irregularly, as is the case with the word "eaten." "Hit" is an irregular past participle form of "hit."

An attributive adjective comes before the noun it describes. In the phrase "the boring book," "boring" is attributive to the noun "book." But in the sentence, "This book is boring," "boring" is not attributive.

"Several" does not refer to a particular quantity like the other options do. An indefinite word or phrase does not determine the thing or person it refers to.

One or more words are omitted in an elliptical clause to avoid repetition, but the meaning can be implied. In the example here, the phrase "than I am" implies the more expressive clause: "Sharon is taller than I am tall."

A compound noun consists of two or more words that form one entity. Hyphenated compound nouns separate the words with hyphens. "Cold-blooded" includes a hyphen, but is a compound adjective.

Qualifiers are adverbs that either grant vagueness or certainty to the words they modify. The sentence "Barry is attentive in class" presents more conviction in tone.

An appositive is one or more words that distinguish the noun or pronouns that the appositive follows. Felicia identifies "sister" in this example.

Participial phrases include a participle and accompanying complements, like modifiers, nouns and pronouns. Commas usually follow participial phrases that start a sentence, such as, "Placed between his sister and cousin on the comfortable couch, the baby slept for the duration of the movie."

Adverbs answer the questions "when?," "where?," "how?," "how much?" and "why?". Adverbs that answer when, where, how and why modify verbs. Adverbs that answer "how much" modify other adverbs or adjectives.

Pronouns replace a noun or a group of words that function as nouns. Many words, including mine, each, herself and which, are pronouns that can be used to substitute nouns in a sentence.

Passive or active voice transitive verbs have objects or subjects that receive action. In the example here, "wrote" is the active transitive verb and "letter" receives the action. In the example, "The letter was written by Karen," "letter" receives the action, but the verb "written" is passive transitive, with "was" as an auxiliary or helping verb.

Noun adjuncts answer the questions "what kind?" or "whose?". Noun adjuncts are also referred to as attributive nouns. In the phrase "chicken soup," "chicken" is the noun adjunct because it modifies "soup."

Exclamatory sentences exhibit strong emotion. Any type of sentence, such as interrogative, imperative or exclamatory, can be made exclamatory with exclamation point punctuation.

Auxiliaries precede the main verbs that they "help." Auxiliaries determine passive tonality, tense and mode of expression. Auxiliaries are involved in the construction of compound verbs, for example, as in the phrase "can read," where "can" is the auxiliary for the main verb "read."

Subordinate conjunctions connect a dependent clause (which is a clause that cannot stand alone as a sentence) to an independent clause (which is a clause that can stand alone as a sentence). "Although," "after" and "if" are examples of subordinate conjunctions. Adverb clauses are dependent clauses that modify adjectives, adverbs or (usually) verbs.

Syntax primarily involves word arrangement and punctuation in order to achieve coherent sentences. Syntax is governed by a set of grammatical rules with few exceptions.

All main verbs show one of three tenses: past, present or future. Verb tenses follow specific conjugation patterns with the exception of irregular cases that typically arise in past tense forms. The ending "-ed" is typical for past tense verbs; however, in the example presented here, "took" is the correct past tense form of the present verb "take."

The four demonstrative pronouns in the English language signal out something. Singular forms are "this" and "that," and plural forms are "these" and "those."

A single paragraph usually explains one concept or idea. The main idea of the paragraph is usually presented in the first few sentences (or sometimes at the very end), while the supporting sentences of the premise make up the balance of the paragraph.

Sentences exhibit either the passive voice or the active voice. In a passive sentence, the subject is being acted upon; in an active sentence, the subject is the agent executing the action of the sentence.