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
verb V
adjective Adj
adverb Adv
determinative D
preposition Prep
coordinating conjunction CConj
subordinating conjunction SConj
interjection Intj
pronoun NPRO
auxiliary verb VA
infinitival marker to to
Notes:
Pronouns are treated as a subclass of nouns, and auxiliary verbs as a subclass of verbs.
Central coordinating conjunctions include and, or, but, and nor. These correspond to what CamGEL calls “coordinators”.
Subordinating conjunctions are defined here as words that introduce subordinate clauses. This category includes:
Words like that, whether, interrogative if, and for (when introducing a to-infinitival clause with a subject). These correspond to what CamGEL calls “subordinators”.
Words like because, although, while, unless, conditional if, before, after, since, until, than, etc. While some of these can be prepositions or adverbs in other contexts, they are classified here as subordinating conjunctions when introducing clauses, in line with traditional grammar. (CamGEL analyzes these words as prepositions in all uses.)
Words like in, up, down, 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 label (to). (It is classified as a subordinator in CamGEL.)
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 a unit intermediate between a noun phrase and a noun.
When a noun phrase or a nominal is in the genitive case, it is labeled more specifically as NPGEN and NomGEN , respectively.
A clause is considered a special type of phrase—specifically, a phrase headed by a VP.
Subordinate clauses are finite if their verb is marked for tense or if they occur 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
Notes:
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 its grammatical function with respect to the main clause.
Adverbial clauses are defined formally here as clauses introduced by such subordinating conjunctions as because, although, unless, before, etc. (CamGEL analyzes these words as prepositions that take a content clause as their complement. So, what we call an adverbial clause here would be a preposition phrase in CamGEL.)
Comparative clauses are introduced by than or as (or sometimes informally by like), and are structurally reduced in specific ways.
For example: He ran faster [than I did].
Here, [than I did] is a comparative clause.
(In CamGEL, than is analyzed as a preposition, and I did as its complement; therefore, only I did is considered the comparative clause.)
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
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 Mkr
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, specifically 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.