Grammar is the set of standards that govern how we should combine and order words, punctuation, phrases, and clauses in order to communicate with each other in recognizable ways.

Subject: The part of a sentence that names something – a person, a place, a thing, an idea, a situation – about which the predicate makes an assertion.

Compound Subject: A subject consisting of two or more nouns or pronouns linked by an and.

Predicate: The part of a sentence that begins with the main verb and indicates what the subject does (Birds fly), what happens to the subject (Birds are kept as pets), or what is said about the subject (Birds are warm-blooded).

Compound Predicate: A word group that contains two or more verbs linked by a conjunction.

Object: A person or thing affected by the action indicated by a verb.

Direct Object: The target of a verb that completes the action performed by the subject or asserted about the subject.

• I love the smell of napalm in the morning. – Apocalypse Now (1979)

Indirect object: A noun or pronoun affected by the subject’s action, usually the recipient of the direct object.

• I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse. – The Godfather (1972)

Independent Clause: A clause containing a subject and a verb that can stand alone as a sentence.

Dependent or Subordinate Clause: A clause that adds information to an independent clause but does not express a complete thought. It must be linked to an independent clause in order to exist in a grammatically complete sentence.

• Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. – Wall Street (1987)

Noun: A word that names a person, place, thing, or idea.

Noun Number: A term that classifies nouns or pronouns as singular (e.g. I, you, he, she, it, apple, child, philosophy) or plural (e.g. we, you, they, apples, children, philosophies). Nouns must match verbs in number (e.g. I study but he/she/it studies).

• My mother thanks you. My father thanks you. My sister thanks you. And I thank you. – Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Pronoun: A word that takes the place of a noun.

Personal Pronoun: A pronoun that stands for a noun that names a person (e.g. I, me, you, he, she, we, them).

• You talkin' to me? – Taxi Driver (1976)

Relative Pronouns: A pronoun that introduces a dependent clause that functions as an adjective (e.g. who, which, that, what, whom, whomever, whose).

• I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am. – On the Waterfront (1954)

Possessive Pronoun: A form of personal pronoun that shows ownership (e.g. his, our, ours, your).

• I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too! – The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Verb: A word that shows action, occurrence, or a state of being.

Auxiliary Verbs: A word that adds functional or grammatical content to the information expressed via the main verb of the construction in which it appears (e.g. be [is, am, are, was, were, being], can, could, do [did, does, doing], have [had, has, having], may, might, must, shall, should, will, would).

• Love means never having to say you're sorry. – Love Story (1970)

Transitive verb: A verb that must have an object to complete its meaning.

• Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. – Gone With the Wind (1939)

Intransitive verb: A verb that is complete in itself and needs no object.

• Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. – Wall Street (1987)

To “parse” a verb is to give its person, number, voice, tense, and mood.

Verb Person: Person indicates whether the subject is speaking (first person–I, we), is being spoken to (second person–you), or is being spoken about (third person–he, she, they, it). Person shows the writer’s point of view.

• First Person: I love; we love (the speaker, or the group he or she belongs to, is the one performing the action)
• Second Person: You love (the person being spoken to is the one performing the action)
• Third Person: He, she, or it loves; they love (a third party, i.e. not the speaker or the person being spoken to, is the one performing the action)

Verb Number: Number indicates how many people or things are performing the action.

• Singular Number: I, you, he, she, or it loves (only one person or thing is performing the action)
• Plural Number: We, you, they love (two or more persons or things are performing the action)

Verb Voice: A verb form that indicates whether a subject is active or passive. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action (E.g. “Seven plays were written”). In the active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action (e.g. “Marlowe wrote seven plays”).

• Active Voice: I love you (the subject of the verb performs the action indicated by the verb, while an object receives that action)
• Passive Voice: I am loved (the subject of the verb receives the action indicated by the verb)

Verb Tense: Verb tense expresses time; it conveys whether the action, occurrence, or state of being takes place in the past, present, or future. There are more than 30 tenses in English, but this “sequence of tenses” is key:

• Simple Present: I love (the action is currently happening)
• Present Perfect: I have loved (the action began in the past but continues to happen)
• Simple Past: I loved (the action has already happened and is no longer happening)
• Past Perfect: I had loved (the action occurred prior to the occurrence of another action that itself occurred in the past)
• Future: I will loved (the action will occur in the future)
• Future Perfect: I will have loved (the action will have been completed at a specified time in the future)

Note that, in literary studies, when talking about characters, your verbs should be present tense (“Hamlet asks”). When talking about authors, your verbs should be past tense (“Shakespeare implied”).

Verb Mood: Indicates whether the sentence states a fact or asks a question (indicative mood), gives a command or direction (imperative mood), or expresses a condition contrary to fact, a wish, or a suggestion (subjunctive mood).

• Indicative: I love you. Do you love me?
• Imperative: Love him.
• Infinitive: To love is divine.
• Subjunctive: Should I love you, I would like you to love me. I might love you.

Verbal: A word formed from a verb that does not function as a verb, i.e. that does not report an action, occurrence, or state of being. The two most common kinds of verbals are gerunds and participles.

Gerund: A verbal ending in -ing that functions as a noun.

• Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. – The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Participle: A verbal ending in -ing (the present participle) or -ed or -d (the past participle) that functions as an adjective.

• Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape. – Planet of the Apes (1968)

Preposition: A transitional word that leads into a modifying phrase.

Phrase: Two or more related words that work together but may lack a subject, a verb, or both. Phrases can appear at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence.

Prepositional phrase: A group of words that begins with a preposition and includes the object or objects of the preposition and all their modifiers

• Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine. – Casablanca (1942)

Coordinating Conjunction: A linking word that joins elements of equal or near-equal importance (e.g. for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so).

• I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore! – Network (1976)

Demonstratives: A special kind of adjective that indicates which entity or entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others (e.g. this, that, these, those).

• You're going to get back on that horse, and I'm going to be right behind you, holding on tight, and away we're gonna go, go, go! – On Golden Pond (1981)

Conjunctive Adverb: An adverb that connects two clauses by showing cause and effect, sequence, contrast, comparison, or some other relationship (e.g. accordingly, furthermore, however, likewise, meanwhile, subsequently, therefore).

• First you trade the caddilac for a microphone. Then you lie to me about the band.  Now you're gonna put me right back in the joint! – The Blues Brothers (1980)

Comparative: An adjective or adverb that compares two items.

• You’re gonna need a bigger boat. – Jaws (1975)

Superlative: An adjective or adverb that compares three or more items.

• A boy's best friend is his mother. – Psycho (1960)

Modification: A word, phrase, or clause that describes, changes, qualifies, or limits the meaning of another word or group of words in a sentence. The most common kinds of modification are apposition, the use of one noun phrase (like this one) to modify another noun or noun phrase, and the relative clause, which is a subordinate clause (like this one) that uses a relative pronoun to modify a noun or noun phrase.