Glossary of Grammar Terms
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
accusative:
The direct object case, the accusative case is used to indicate direct receivers
of an action. The accusative case also indicates “motion towards,”
can be the object of the preposition “to” and can indicate the passage
of time.
adjective:
An adjective is a word used to describe a noun. "Royal," "golden,"
"lofty," "powerful," "hardy" and "strong"
are all adjectives.
adverb:
An adverb is a word used to describe a verb or adjective. "Slowly,"
"steadily," "angrily," "powerfully" and "very"
are all adverbs. Words that indicate time, such as “then,” “when,”
“later,” and “before” are also adverbs.
analytic language:
A language in which grammatical relationships are indicated by word order (i.e.,
“the dog at the cat” means something different from “the cat
ate the dog”) is an analytic language.
article:
A word linked with a noun or nouns used to identify a word as a noun and also
indicate whether that noun is definite or indefinite. Modern English has a definite
article (“the”) and an indefinite article (“a” / “an”).
In this grammar book we classify Old English articles as demonstrative pronouns
because in Old English an article can stand on its own without a noun.
auxiliary verb:
These verbs, sometimes known as helping verbs, are combined with the main verb
in a sentence. Auxiliary verbs often give information about time, completion
of an action or probability of an action. In the sentence “Alfred had
ruled for ten years,” “had” is the auxiliary verb.
back vowel:
A vowel pronounced in the back of the mouth. In Old English a, 0, and u are
back vowels.
case agreement:
If a noun is in one case, the pronouns and adjectives grammatically related
to that noun will also be in that case. For example, if a noun is in the genitive
case, a demonstrative or adjective describing that noun would also be in the
genitive case.
case:
The endings on a noun, pronouns or adjective indicate which case it belongs
to. In turn, the case indicates what function the word is performing in the
sentence, whether it is the subject (nominative), the direct object (accusative),
the indirect object or object of a preposition (dative), or if it is a possessive
(genitive) form.
conjugating:
Verbs change form depending upon who performs an action (the
person of the verb), how many perform the action (the number of the verb), whether
the action was in the past or the present (the tense of the verb), and whether
the verb is a statement, command, or prediction (the mood of the verb). Writing
out the various forms of a verb for each of its possible grammatical uses is
called conjugating the verb.
clause:
A clause is a dependent part of a sentence that has its own subject and predicate
but still depends on the main part of the sentence (a predicate can be simply
a verb, or it can include a verb and an object).
conjunction:
a conjunction is a connecting word: "and," "but," "or,"
and "nor" are all conjunctions.
consonant:
Sounds in a language can be classified as vowels, semi-vowels (also called “liquids”)
or consonants. Consonants are characterized by the occlusion, obstruction or
diversion of the flow of air from the lungs through the mouth and nose.
dative:
The indirect object and prepositional case, the dative case is used to indicate
indirect receivers of action and objects of prepositions. The dative is also
used to indicate the location of non-moving objects (locative dative).
declension:
A list of all the possible case endings for a noun, adjective or pronoun is
called a declension.
determiner:
The definite and indefinite articles (“the” and “a”)
are also called determiners.
demonstrative:
A pronoun that ‘points to’ another word or indicates relationships
of proximity is a demonstrative. “This,” “that,” “these,”
and “those” are demonstratives. In this grammar book we treat articles
(Modern English “the,” “a,” “an”; Old English
se, seo) as demonstrative pronouns.
digraph:
Two letters used to represent one sound are called a digraph. “Th”
and “ch” in Modern English are digraphs.
direct object:
The direct object is the receiver of the action. In the sentence "Alfred
ate the cakes," "cakes" is the direct object."
dual:
One of the three possible numbers for an Old English pronoun (the others are
singular and plural). The dual form is used to indicate two closely associated
persons—two people working or fighting together, husband and wife, or
lovers.
ending:
Also called suffixes, endings or inflections are groups of letters attached
to the ends of words to indicate the grammatical relationships.
facsimile:
A photographic reproduction of a manuscript is called a facsimile.
feminine:
A grammatical gender category. Feminine words can (in the case of pronouns)
indicate the actual gender of a pronoun (i.e., we use “she” to indicate
a female agent), but they also can simply indicate the grammatical category
into which a word fits.
front vowel:
A vowel pronounced in the front of the mouth. In Old English e and i are back
vowels.
function word:
What we are calling "function words" are prepositions and conjunctions
that don't mean anything in themselves but serve to indicate the ways other
words relate to each other. Prepositions indicate relationships, and conjunctions
join things together. In the sentences "Alfred fought with the vikings
and won the battle by the thorn tree," "with" and "by"
are prepositions that indicate relationships (where the battle was fought and
whom it was fought against) and "and" indicates that two parts of
the sentence are joined together.
genitive:
The possession case, the genitive case is used to indicate ownership.
gerund:
A verb used as a noun (in Modern English with an “–ing” ending)
is a gerund. In the sentence “Reading was Alfred’s favorite leisure
activity,” “reading” is a gerund.
gloss:
Translations, interpretations or descriptions written above a line of text are
called glosses.
helping verb:
These verbs, sometimes known as auxiliary verbs, are combined with the main
verb in a sentence. Helping verbs often give information about time, completion
of an action or probability of an action. In the sentence “Alfred had
ruled for ten years,” “had” is the helping verb.
if-clause: One of the ways Modern English handles the subjunctive mood is via the “if-clause,” which indicates possibility or conditionality rather than certainty.
imperative:
The imperative mood is used for commands: “Walk to the store!” is
in the imperative mood. In both Modern English and Old English the second-person
subject of the sentence (“you”) can be deleted in sentences in the
imperative mood.
indicative:
The indicative mood is used for statements: “I walk quickly” is
in the indicative mood.
indirect object:
The indirect object is the secondary receiver of the action. In the sentence
"Alfred carried the sword to the battle," "battle" is the
indirect object (and "sword," which is receiving the action, is the
direct object). Indirect objects are often called "objects of prepositions"
because in Modern English we use prepositions to indicate the sort of action
being secondarily received: in the phrases "to the battle," "with
the sword," "under the thorn tree," "by the river"
"battle," "sword," "tree," and "river"
are the objects of their respective prepositions.
infinitive:
These verbs indicate action that can happen at any point in time (hence, "infinitive").
In Modern English they are constructed by adding the word "to" to
the root form of the verb. In Old English the infinitive will end in an or ian.
inflected infinitive:
Some grammar books call this the "Old English Gerund," which is not
precisely correct, but gives the idea of what the inflected infinitive is communicating.
Regularly preceded by the preposition "to," the inflected infinitive
is a verb form generally used to express the idea of purpose.
inflected language:
Instead of relying on word order to indicate relationships (as do analytic languages)
inflected languages attach endings (inflections) to words to indicate grammatical
relationships.
instrumental:
The instrumental case (which, in Old English, often has the same inflections
as the dative case), is used to indicate things that are being used ("instruments").
interrogative pronoun:
A pronoun that takes the place of a personal pronoun to indicate a question.
For example, “who” takes the place of “he” or “she,”
changing statements like “He killed the Vikings” or “She fought
that battle” into the questions “Who killed the Vikings?”
and “Who found the battle?”
linking verb:
These verbs ("is," "was," "are" and other forms
of the verb "to be") are used to rename or describe a subject; one
useful way to analyze them is to think of linking verbs as being the same as
an equals sign (=) between two things.
liquid:
Also called a “semi-vowel,” a liquid falls between a vowel and a
consonant: the air flow from the lungs and through the mouth or nose is only
partially obstructed, unlike a consonant, in which the stream is obstructed,
or a vowel, in which it is not obstructed. Liquids in Modern English and OldEnglish
include “r,” “l” and “w.”
long vowel:
A long vowel is one in which the duration of its pronunciation is relatively
longer than that of a long vowel.
macron:
A horizontal bar over the top of a vowel to indicate a long vowel (à,
å, è, ì, ò, ù) is called a macron. Macrons
to indicate vowel length are not found in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts.
main verb:
These verbs express the main action of a sentence or clause
manuscript:
A hand-written document is called a manuscript. Anglo-Saxon manuscripts were
written on parchment (sheep skin) or vellum (calf skin).
masculine:
A grammatical gender category. Masculine words can (in the case of pronouns)
indicate the actual gender of a pronoun (i.e., we use “he” to indicate
a male subject), but they also can simply indicate the grammatical category
into which a word fits.
minor noun:
Nouns that do not fall into the major declensions (strong and weak) are considered
“minor declension” nouns.
modal verb:
These verbs (also known as modal auxiliaries) can be used to indicate additional
information about the verb such as probability or the completeness of an action.
“Should,” “would,” “could,” “may,”
and “might” are all modals in Modern English.
modifier:
Modifiers describe subjects, verbs and objects. In the sentence "With his
old sword, Alfred quickly killed the viking," "old" is an adjective
that modifies "sword," (it describes the condition of the sword) and
"quickly" is an adverb that modifies "killed" (it explains
how the killing was done). Adjectives describe subjects and objects; adverbs
describe verbs and adjectives. In Old English certain pronouns (demonstratives)
are used as modifiers: In the sentence "this sword belongs to that man,"
"this" describes the sword and "that" describes the man.
Likewise "a," "an," and "the," which we call articles
in Modern English, are, in Old English grammar, special pronouns (demonstratives)
that are used as modifiers: "The sword" is different from "a
sword" because the modifiers "the" and "a" are providing
different descriptions. Genitives are an important sub-set of modifiers in Old
English. Genitives are possessives: they indicate ownership. A noun with a genitive
ending, like the Modern English 's, is used as an adjective to modify another
noun. In the sentence "Alfred's sword was old," "Alfred's"
is a genitive: a noun (Alfred) has had the genitive ending ('s) added to it.
A good rule of thumb for dealing with the genitive is to translate it as "of
X" where "X" is the noun that has the genitive ending. Thus "Alfred's
sword" could be translated as "the sword of Alfred."
mood:
The mood of a verb (indicative, subjunctive, imperative) indicates whether the
verb is a fact, wish, possibility or command.
neuter:
A grammatical gender category. Neuter words do not follow either the masculine
or feminine patterns that indicate the grammatical category into which a word
fits.
nominative:
The naming case. The nominative case is used for subjects and for predicate
nominatives (words that rename the subject of the sentence).
noun:
a nouns is a naming words. "King," "Alfred," "crown,"
"kingdom" and "power" are all nouns.
noun phrase:
A noun and any associated adjectives and demonstratives make up a noun phrase.
number:
The number of the word indicates whether it is singular, plural or dual.
object of preposition:
Indirect objects are often called "objects of prepositions" because
in Modern English we use prepositions to indicate the sort of action being secondarily
received: in the phrases "to the battle," "with the sword,"
"under the thorn tree," "by the river" "battle,"
"sword," "tree," and "river" are the objects of
their respective prepositions.
Old English gerund:
Another name of the inflected infinitive, the Old English Gerund is a verb form
usually used to express the idea of purpose.
palatal g:
A “g” sound pronounced with the tongue touching the hard palate
is called palatal g. Palatal g sounds like the “y” in “yes.”
paleography:
The study of ancient writing is called paleography.
paradigm:
A paradigm is a list of all the possible grammatical forms of a word. It is
usually arranged in a table, so that you can easily look up the forms that you
need to translate.
participle:
Verbs used as adjectives are called participles. They can be either past or
present. “Alfred’s aching back” is an example of a present
participle; “Alfred’s tired eyes” is an example of a past
participle.
parts of speech:
Every word in a language can be put into one or more categories that explain
how that word is used. These categories are the “parts of speech.”
person:
The person of a verb indicates who is being spoken of. First person = speaker;
second person = person being addressed; third person = third person being spoken
about.
personal pronoun:
A word that stands in for a noun and can be used to designate the first, second
or third person is a personal pronoun (contrasted with a demonstrative pronoun,
which points out something).
possessive adjective:
When forms of the personal pronouns in the genitive are used to modify other
words, for example “his book,” “her land,” “our
meeting” they are possessive adjectives. They are declined following the
same paradigms as do other adjectives.
predicate nominative:
A noun or pronoun in the predicate of the sentence (that is, after the verb)
that renames the subject of the sentence is called a predicate nominative. In
the sentence "Alfred was king,” “king” is the predicate
nominative. Predicate nominatives are also called “subject complements.”
A predicate nominative will be the same case (the nominative) as the noun it
renames.
preposition:
A preposition is a short explanatory word that indicates things such as location,
direction and possession: "with," "to," "under,"
"over," "by" and "for" are all prepositions.
preterite:
The past tense is called, in some grammar books, the preterite.
principal parts:
The four parts of an Anglo-Saxon strong verb that must be known in order to
construct the verb’s paradigm. They are the infinitive, the 3rd person
singular past tense, the past tense for all plurals, and the past participle.
pronoun:
A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. "He," "she,"
"it," "who," "whom," "that," "which,"
"we," "they" and "us" are all pronouns. This grammar
book groups words like "this," "that," "these,"
and "those," as well as "a," "an" and "the"
with the pronouns and calls these words demonstrative pronouns, although grammarians
would probably call some of them articles, and linguists would identify them
as determiners.
r-declension:
The r-declension is one of the minor noun declensions; it includes the "family
words" such as "mother" and "father."
radical-consonant
declension: Radical consonant declension nouns are
nouns where vowels change in the noun stem (the way that Modern English "foot"
changes to "feet" in the plural) either in addition to, or in place
of, adding an ending to the stem.
relative clause:
A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or a pronoun elsewhere in
the sentence.
relative pronoun:
A relative pronoun is the subject of a relative clause.
rune:
A letter in a Germanic / Scandinavian alphabet. Runes were angular, rather than
rounded, because they were designed to be cut or scratch onto surfaces.
semi-vowel:
Also called a “liquid,” a semi-vowel falls between a vowel and a
consonant: the air flow from the lungs and through the mouth or nose is only
partially obstructed, unlike a consonant, in which the stream is obstructed,
or a vowel, in which it is not obstructed. Semi-vowels in Modern English and
Old English include “r,” “l” and “w.”
short vowel:
A short vowel is one in which the duration of its pronunciation is relatively
shorter than that of a long vowel.
stem The stem of a word
includes only those elements of the word that are unchanged regardless of the
word's grammatical function. It is the part of the word onto which endings are
attached. The stem is also often called the “root” of the word.
strong adjective:
An adjective that is not preceded by a demonstrative is called a strong adjective.
strong noun:
Nouns that end with a consonant are usually considered to be strong noun; they
follow the strong noun (masculine, feminine, neuter; or first, second and third)
declensions.
strong verb:
Verbs in which a vowel inside the verb is changed to indicate different tenses
are considered strong verbs.
subject complement:
A noun or pronoun in the predicate of the sentence (that is, after the verb)
that renames the subject of the sentence is called a subject complement. In
the sentence "Alfred was king,” “king” is the subject
complement. Subject complements are also called “predicate nominatives.”
A subject complement will be the same case (the nominative) as the noun it renames.
subject:
The subject is the "doer" or "actor" in a sentence. In the
sentence "Alfred ate the cakes," Alfred is the subject. Nouns and
pronouns are used for subjects.
subjunctive:
The mood of the verb that indicates possibility, conditionality or probability
is called the subjunctive. In Old English it is characterized by the appearance
of e or en in the suffix.
syntax:
The rules by which we arrange words to convey meaning are called syntax.
tense:
The tense of a verb indicates whether an action occurrs in the past, present
or future.
u-declension:
The u-declension is one of the minor noun declensions. Most u-declension nouns
end in u, although the u-declension does contain some other nouns that end in
consonants but nevertheless follow the same paradigm as those that end in u.
Not all nouns that end in u fall into the u-declension; some are 3rd-declension
nouns such as giefu
unvoiced:
Consonants in which the vocal cords do not vibrate are considered voiced. “T,”
“p,” and “f” are all unvoiced.
velar g:
A “g” sound pronounced with the tongue touching the velum, or soft
palate is called velar g. The “g” in “good” is a velar
g.
verb:
A verb is an action word. "Ruled," "wears," "carries,"
"to wander" and "fought" are all verbs. The verb is the
action being done. In the sentence "Alfred ate the cakes," "ate"
is the verb.
voiced:
Consonants in which the vocal cords vibrate are considered voiced. “D,”
“b” and “v” are all voiced.
vowel length:
The duration of the pronunciation of a vowel is called vowel length. Vowels
can be long or short.
weak adjective:
Adjectives that are supported by a demonstrative (rather than standing on their
own, as does a strong adjective) are considered weak adjectives.
weak noun:
Nouns that end in a vowel and follow the weak nouns paradigm for declensions
are considered weak nouns.
weak verb: Verbs which add an ending to a verb stem (without the vowel in the stem changing) to indicate person, number, tense, and mood are considered weak verbs.