Collins Cobuild

report structure
a structure which is used to report what someone says
or thinks, rather than repeating their exact words; eg She told me she’d
be late.
See Units
74
–
77
result  clause
 a  subordinate  clause  introduced  by  ‘so’,  ‘so…that’,  or

---

‘such…(that)’, which indicates the result of an action or situation; eg I
don’t think there’s any more news, so I’ll finish.
See Unit
98
second person
see
person
.
semi-modal
a term used by some grammars to refer to the verbs ‘dare’,
‘need’, and ‘used to’, which behave like modals in some structures.
See Units
63
,
72
,
90
sentence
 a  group  of  words  which  express  a  statement,  question,  or
command. A sentence usually has a verb and a subject, and may be a
simple sentence with one clause, or a compound or complex sentence
with two or more clauses. In writing, a sentence has a capital letter at
the beginning and a full–stop, question mark, or exclamation mark at
the end.
See Units
1
,
66
,
92
–
93
,
96
–
102
short  form
 a  form  in  which  one  or  more  letters  are  omitted  and  two
words  are  joined  together,  for  example  an  auxiliary  or  modal  and
‘not’,  or  a  subject  pronoun  and  an  auxiliary  or  modal;  eg  aren’t,
couldn’t, he’d, I’m, it’s, she’s.
See Unit
11
simple tense
a present or past tense formed without using an auxiliary
verb; eg …I wait. …she sang. See
tense
.
See Units
58
–
63
,
65
singular
the form of a count noun or verb which is used to refer to or
talk about one person or thing; eg A dog was in the car… That woman