Again, as I dislike reading dictionaries, I will not be presenting an alphabetical list of terms, rather I’m going to go step by step from top to bottom explaining as I go. I will underline the new terms and give relevant definitions in parens. We’ll start with Grammar, which is nothing more than a set of rules dealing with syntax (how words are combined) and structure (how words are built up). For now, we’ll assume the top of the syntax pile is the sentence (largest standalone unit of grammar), which can be simple (contains one clause), compound (contains at least two independent clauses), complex (contains at least one independent AND one dependent clause), or compound-complex (contains two or more independent clauses and at least one dependent clause). Whew! What a mouthful, and we didn’t even mention relative clauses.
Clauses:
Each clause contains a subject (indicates what the clause is about) and a predicate (contains verbs, objects, and phrases used by the verb). Clauses are built up by combining phrases (small group of words). Words (combinations of sounds that communicate a meaning) consist of a single morpheme or a combination of morphemes. Morphemes (the smallest unit of meaning) are either free (can stand alone) or bound (have to be connected to another morpheme).
So we’ve now gone from largest to smallest and still haven’t covered the good stuff. Everyone likes to talk about the parts of speech, so here goes. There are two types of nouns (used to name or identify things): mass (can’t be counted) and countable (can be counted), and they have friends: pronouns (point to a nearby noun). Verbs (describe an action or state of being) have two types: transitive (needs a direct object) and intransitive (doesn’t have a direct object). Adjectives (modify a noun or a pronoun) and adverbs (modify other parts: verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs) round out the basic list. With all these parts, we can build simple sentences from individual clauses.
Combining clauses:
Now we get to the more involved sentences by combining clauses using conjunctions (connectors between words, phrases, and clauses). Three types here: coordinating (connecting two or more ideas with equal emphasis and importance), subordinating (connecting two or more ideas giving one less emphasis and lower importance), and correlative (pairs of words or phrases joining ideas equally). These are so important that we have entire posts dedicated to each: Coordinating, Subordinating, and Correlative.
Just a few more items to finish up with. Verbs have tense (indication of when action occurs), showing past, present, or future. Both Verbs and Nouns have number (marking quantity) showing singular or plural (only those two available in English!). Then there’s voice (manner of expression) with both active (actor of verb identified) and passive (actor of verb not identified, either implied or assumed).
Well, that covers just about an entire semester’s worth of instruction. If you need more info, two websites out there that I can recommend are the Online Writing Lab at Purdue and Grammar Girl.