Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

S

O 

My 

father

used to play 

the 

piano

.

C 

You’re 

a good 

friend

.

Nouns can be divided into proper nouns and common nouns. Proper nouns

give names to people and things (Tony Blair, Greece, Oxfam). Nouns which are

not proper nouns are common nouns (table, boy, heat). 

Concrete nouns refer to physical entities that can be observed and measured

(cat, garage, soldier). Abstract nouns refer to abstractions that cannot be

observed and measured (competition, conscience).

Û

Collective noun

Number A grammatical distinction which contrasts singular and plural in nouns

(story–stories), pronouns (I–we), determiners (this–these) and verbs (he works

hard–they work hard

).

Object Refers to a clause element that follows the verb, and includes both direct

(bold in the examples) and indirect (in green) objects. Objects indicate the

direct and indirect recipients of actions. Objects are made up of noun phrases

(I like that restaurant. Joe gave 

me

a present.).

Orthography A term that deals with the writing system in a language: the

distinctive written symbols and their possible combinations.

Participle The non-tensed forms of verbs ending in -ing (working, joining, trying)

and -ed (worked, joined, tried) are called the -ing and -ed participles. In

irregular verbs, the -ed participles display variant forms (burnt, swollen, taught,

taken, gone

).

Particle Refers to a small group of words mostly made up of adverbs and

prepositions. They are closely linked to verbs to form multi-word verbs (sit

down, go away, go astray, look forward to, look down on). Other particles

include not, and to used with an infinitive.

Partitive A quantifying expression used before a non-count noun to specify the

units, parts and collections of things (a pair of trousers, a piece of paper, a

bunch of roses, four slices of ham).