The grammatical analysis presented on this website is primarily based on The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (CamGEL), a reference work widely regarded by linguists as the most comprehensive and authoritative descriptive grammar of contemporary English currently available.
If you’re unfamiliar with the framework of CamGEL, I suggest reading A Short Overview of English Syntax by Rodney Huddleston, which offers a concise and accessible introduction.
I personally find CamGEL’s analysis elegant and convincing—and that’s why I’ve adopted it as the foundation of this site. At the same time, my main goal is to make this modern approach to English grammar accessible to learners. To that end, I sometimes adapt or simplify the framework. When I do, it’s usually for one of two key reasons:
To aid understanding: Some concepts in CamGEL are quite intricate. For learning purposes, I sometimes simplify these explanations or analyses to make them easier to understand, accepting that this might mean sacrificing some technical detail or analytical depth found in the original.
To bridge with tradition: CamGEL’s modern approach sometimes differs sharply from traditional grammar. Because learners often rely on dictionaries for word meanings, part-of-speech labels, and usage patterns—and most dictionaries still employ traditional classifications—sticking rigidly to newer terminology could cause confusion. Therefore, to bridge this gap and offer a practical compromise for learners using these common resources, I may use more familiar terminology or explanations in these instances.
In the sections that follow, I outline the major grammatical categories (forms) and functions used in the sentence analyses on this site. I also point out where my analyses differ from those in CamGEL, often by presenting the CamGEL analysis in rust-colored text within parentheses.
Below is a list of the word categories (also known as “parts of speech”) used on this website, along with their abbreviated labels:
Category Label
noun N
↳ pronoun NPRO (subcategory of N)
verb V
↳ auxiliary verb VAUX (subcategory of V)
adjective Adj
adverb Adv
determinative D
preposition Prep
coordinating conjunction CConj
subordinating conjunction SConj
interjection Intj
infinitival marker to to
Notes:
Determinatives are words like a(n), the, this, that, some, any, every, few, etc. They can function as determiners in noun phrases, but they may also occur in other functions.
Central coordinating conjunctions include and, or, but, and nor. (These correspond to “coordinators” in CamGEL.)
Subordinating conjunctions fall into two classes:
Class I: that, whether, interrogative if, and for (when introducing a to-infinitival clause with an overt subject).
These words function as markers of subordination: they have little meaning and serve only to mark a clause as subordinate.
(These correspond to “subordinators” in CamGEL.)
Class II: because, although, while, unless, conditional if, before, after, since, until, than, as, etc.
These items express a meaningful relationship (e.g., cause, time, condition, concession, comparison). We take them to be heads of the subordinate clauses they introduce. Note that some of these items can also occur as prepositions (when they take a noun phrase as complement) or as adverbs (when they have no complement; see Note 4 below).
(CamGEL treats all Class II items as prepositions in all uses.)
Words like in, on, up, down, over, around, before, since, etc., when occurring without a complement (as in He came in, She looked up), are treated as adverbs on this website. The same applies to place/time words like here, ashore, abroad, now, then, etc. This classification aligns with traditional grammar. (CamGEL analyzes these words as “intransitive prepositions”.)
The infinitival marker to is assigned its own distinct label (to). (CamGEL classifies this to as a subordinator.)
A phrase is a group of one or more words that functions as a single unit (a constituent) within the structure of a sentence. It is typically built around a main word (the head), with additional words providing detail or completing the head word’s meaning.
The phrasal categories used on this website are listed below:
Category Label
noun phrase NP
verb phrase VP
adjective phrase AdjP
adverb phrase AdvP
preposition phrase PP
determinative phrase DP
nominal Nom
clause Clause
Notes:
A nominal is an intermediate layer of structure: it is smaller than a full noun phrase but larger than a single noun. For example, in the phrase a nice guy:
a nice guy is a noun phrase,
nice guy is a nominal,
guy is the head noun.
A noun phrase or a nominal may be marked for the genitive (“possessive”) case. For example:
In my sister’s boots, my sister’s is a genitive noun phrase (labeled NPGEN).
In an old people’s home, old people’s is a genitive nominal (labeled NomGEN).
A clause is a special type of phrase.
The five major clause types are illustrated below:
Clause type Example
declarative You are strong.
closed interrogative Are you strong?
open interrogative How strong are you?
exclamative How strong you are!
imperative Be strong.
These examples show clause types in main clauses, but the same system of clause type—except for the imperative—also applies to subordinate clauses, specifically content clauses. (See the next section for details on subordinate clauses.)
A subordinate clause is finite if its verb is marked for tense or if it occurs in a subjunctive construction. This website distinguishes four main classes of finite subordinate clause:
Category Label
content clause ClauseCNT
adverbial clause ClauseADVL
relative clause ClauseREL
comparative clause ClauseCPV
The classification above is based primarily on the form of the subordinate clause—particularly the type of word that introduces it and its internal structure—rather than on its grammatical function. In the examples below, subordinate clauses are enclosed in brackets.
Content clauses can be divided into four types: declarative, closed interrogative, open interrogative, and exclamative.
Declarative content clauses are introduced by the subordinating conjunction that (often omissible):
I believe [(that) you are strong].
Closed interrogative content clauses are introduced by interrogative if or whether:
I doubt [if/whether you are really strong].
Open interrogative content clauses are introduced by an interrogative phrase such as who, what, which one, how, etc., normally without subject–auxiliary inversion:
I don’t know [how strong you are].
Exclamative content clauses are marked by exclamative what or how, and are generally identical in form to main clause exclamatives:
I can’t believe [how strong you are].
Adverbial clauses are defined formally here as clauses headed by Class II subordinating conjunctions such as because, although, unless, before, etc. (with the exception of comparative than and as). They usually function as adjuncts in clause structure, as in:
I admire him [because he is so independent].
They can also function as complements, as in:
All this fuss is [because Carol is having a bad hair day]. (Source)
(In CamGEL, the items we classify as Class II subordinating conjunctions are analyzed as prepositions. Under that analysis, the bracketed structures above are preposition phrases with a clausal complement, not adverbial clauses.)
Relative clauses can be divided into three formal types: wh relatives, that relatives, and bare relatives.
Wh relatives contain one of the relative words who, whom, whose, which, where, etc.:
The book [which I borrowed from the library] is overdue.
That relatives are introduced by the subordinating conjunction that:
The book [that I borrowed from the library] is overdue.
Bare relatives have no introductory word:
The book [I borrowed from the library] is overdue.
Comparative clauses are headed by the subordinating conjunctions than or as (or sometimes informally by like). They are characteristically reduced or elliptical. For example:
He ran faster [than I did].
(In CamGEL, than and as are analyzed as prepositions. Under that analysis, the comparative clause is just the string I did, which functions as complement of the preposition than.)
Non-finite clauses are identified by the form of their head verb. Infinitival clauses are headed by a plain form verb (with or without to), gerund-participial clauses by a gerund-participle (i.e., an -ing form), and past-participial clauses by a past participle (i.e., an -en form). Verbless clauses contain no verb at all.
Category Label
infinitival clause ClauseINF
gerund-participial clause Clause-ing
past-participial clause Clause-en
verbless clause ClauseVL
Examples
Notes
Our treatment of non-finite clauses generally follows CamGEL. A key difference concerns the analysis of structures following auxiliary verbs. In most cases, we analyze auxiliary verbs as taking VP complements, whereas CamGEL treats them as taking non-finite clause complements. For example, in the sentence She was [taking a shower], we consider the bracketed part a VP complement of was, while CamGEL analyzes it as a non-finite clause complement, within which the VP taking a shower functions as the predicate.
Every constituent has a specific function within a larger structure. The grammatical functions used on this website are listed below:
Function Label
head Head
complement Comp
modifier Mod
determiner Det
coordinate Coord
supplement Supplement
subject Subj
predicate Pred
object Obj
direct object Od
indirect object Oi
predicative complement PredComp
predeterminer modifier Predet
peripheral modifier PeriphMod
vocative Voc
marker Marker
nucleus Nucleus
prenucleus Prenucleus
postnucleus Postnucleus
Some functions are subtypes of others. For example:
An object is a type of complement.
A predicative complement is also a type of complement.
A predeterminer modifier is a type of modifier.
A peripheral modifier is also a type of modifier.
A predicate is a special case of the head function: it is the head of a clause.
References
Huddleston, R., & Pullum, G. K. (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Huddleston, R., Pullum, G. K., & Reynolds, B. (2005). A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Huddleston, R., Pullum, G. K., & Reynolds, B. (2021). A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.