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Grammar Terminology — Glossary

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Grammar Terminology — Glossary

A lot of grammar terms (preterite, participle, clitic, subjunctive) sound like jargon because they’re borrowed straight from Latin descriptions of Latin grammar, then reused for English and Spanish without translation. Knowing where a term comes from usually makes it click — “preterite” just means “gone past,” so of course it’s a past tense.

This page defines every term used elsewhere in this wiki, grouped by part of speech, with the origin of each word and a folded example block. Click ▶ Examples to expand.

How to use this page: don’t read it front to back. Land here from a link in another page when a term is unfamiliar, or skim the Quick Index below.

Quick index

CategoryTerms
Parts of speechnoun, pronoun, adjective, article, verb, preposition, conjunction
Nounscommon/proper, countable/uncountable, collective, gender, number
Pronounssubject, direct/indirect object, reflexive, possessive, demonstrative, interrogative, clitic
Adjectivesdescriptive, possessive, demonstrative, comparative, superlative, agreement
Verbs — the basicsinfinitive, conjugation, regular/irregular, stem-changing, auxiliary, modal, reflexive
Tense, mood, aspect, voicetense, mood (indicative/imperative/subjunctive), aspect (perfect/progressive), voice
Verb formsparticiple, gerund
Sentence structuresubject, object, clause, word order, negation

Parts of speech

Every word in a sentence belongs to a category based on the job it does. This is the top-level sorting system everything else below sits inside.

Noun — from Latin nomen, “name.” A word that names a person, place, thing, or idea.

Pronoun — from Latin pro (“in place of”) + nomen (“name”). A word that stands in for a noun so you don’t repeat it.

Adjective — from Latin adjectivus, “added” (ad- “to” + jacere “to throw”). A word thrown onto a noun to describe it.

Article — from Latin articulus, “small joint.” The small connecting word (a/an/the, un/una/el/la) that joins onto a noun to mark whether it’s specific or general.

Verb — from Latin verbum, simply “word” (verbs were considered the word of a sentence — the action). Expresses an action or state.

Preposition — from Latin prae (“before”) + positio (“placement”). A word placed before a noun to show its relationship (place, time, direction) to the rest of the sentence.

Conjunction — from Latin conjungere, “to join together.” A word that connects words, phrases, or clauses (y/and, pero/but, porque/because).

Nouns

Common noun vs proper noun — “common” (Latin communis, shared by everyone) names a general class (city, dog); “proper” (Latin proprius, one’s own) names one specific thing and is capitalized (Madrid, Rex).

Countable vs uncountable (mass) noun — countable nouns can be pluralized and counted (one book, two books); uncountable nouns describe a substance or concept with no natural plural (water, honesty) — Spanish sometimes disagrees with English about which is which.

Collective noun — a single word for a group treated as one unit (family, team → familia, equipo).

Grammatical gender — every Spanish noun is classified masculine or feminine (from Latin genus, “kind/class” — nothing to do with biological sex for objects). This is arbitrary for most inanimate nouns and drives agreement everywhere else in the sentence. See Grammatical Gender.

Number — whether a noun is singular (one) or plural (more than one). From Latin numerus.

See also: Nouns, Noun Patterns.

Pronouns

Subject pronoun — replaces the noun doing the verb’s action (I, you, she → yo, tú, ella). Spanish drops these often since the verb ending already shows who’s acting (“pro-drop”).

Object pronoun — replaces the noun receiving the action.

  • Direct object — receives the action directly (I see her → la veo). From Latin directus, “straight” — the action goes straight to it.
  • Indirect object — the one the action is done to/for (I gave her a book → le di un libro). From Latin indirectus — one step removed from the action.

Reflexive pronoun — the subject does the action to itself (myself, yourself → me, te, se). From Latin reflectere, “to bend back” — the action bends back onto the subject.

Possessive pronoun/adjective — shows ownership (my, your → mi, tu). From Latin possidere, “to possess.”

Demonstrative pronoun — “points at” something (this, that → este, ese, aquel). From Latin demonstrare, “to point out.”

Interrogative pronoun — used to ask a question (who, what → quién, qué). From Latin interrogare, “to ask.”

Clitic — a technical term (Greek klitikos, “leaning”) for a pronoun so short it can’t stand alone — it “leans” on the verb next to it, attaching before or after (lo veo / veolo). Spanish object and reflexive pronouns are clitics; that’s the term for the “attaches to the verb” behavior you’ll see referenced elsewhere.

See also: Subject Pronouns, Object Pronouns, Reflexive Verbs, Demonstratives.

Adjectives

Descriptive adjective — describes a quality (red, tall → rojo, alto).

Possessive adjective — shows ownership and sits before/agrees with the noun owned (my house → mi casa) — same root as possessive pronoun above.

Demonstrative adjective — points at a specific noun (this book → este libro).

Comparative — compares two things (more, -er → más…que). From Latin comparare, “to pair/match up.”

Superlative — marks the extreme of a group (most, -est → el más…). From Latin superlativus, “carried beyond” (super- “above” + latus “carried”) — the quality is carried past everyone else’s.

Agreement (concord) — in Spanish, adjectives change form to match the gender and number of the noun they describe (niño alto / niña alta / niños altos). English adjectives never do this, which is why it needs its own name — “concord” from Latin concordia, “agreement of hearts,” i.e. the words agreeing with each other.

See also: Adjectives, Adjective Patterns, Comparatives & Superlatives.

Verbs — the basics

Infinitive — the base, unconjugated form of a verb (English to speak; Spanish just hablar, no “to” needed — it’s built into the ending). From Latin infinitus, “without limit/boundary” — it isn’t yet limited to a specific subject or tense the way a conjugated form is.

Conjugation — changing a verb’s ending to match its subject, tense, and mood (hablo, hablas, habla). From Latin conjugare, “to yoke together” — joining the verb stem with an ending.

Stem — the part of the verb that stays constant when you remove the infinitive ending (habl- from hablar). Endings attach here.

Regular verb — follows the standard conjugation pattern for its class with no surprises. Irregular verb — breaks the pattern somewhere (ser, ir, tener…).

Stem-changing verb — regular endings, but the stem’s vowel shifts under stress (pedir → pido, e→i). Sometimes nicknamed “boot verbs” because the changed forms trace a boot shape in a conjugation table.

Auxiliary verb (“helping verb”) — a verb that doesn’t carry the main meaning itself but combines with another verb to build a tense (English have in “I have eaten”; Spanish haber in “he comido”). From Latin auxilium, “help.”

Modal verb — expresses necessity, ability, or possibility around another verb (can, must, should → poder, deber, tener que). From Latin modus, “manner/mode” — it changes the mode in which the main verb’s action happens.

Reflexive verb — a verb whose action the subject performs on itself, marked in Spanish with a reflexive pronoun fused to the infinitive (llamarse, “to call oneself” → to be named). English usually doesn’t mark this at all.

See also: Verb Types, Reflexive Verbs, Modal Verbs.

Tense, mood, aspect, and voice

These four are the terms most often confused with each other, because English grammar teaching tends to flatten them all into “tense.” They actually answer four separate questions about a verb.

Tense — when did/does/will it happen? (present, past, future). From Latin tempus, “time.”

Mood — what kind of statement is this — a fact, a command, a wish/doubt? From Latin modus, “manner.” Three moods matter here:

  • Indicative — states a fact (I eat). From Latin indicare, “to point out/declare.” The default, matter-of-fact mood.
  • Imperative — gives a command (Eat!). From Latin imperare, “to command” (same root as “emperor” — one who commands).
  • Subjunctive — expresses doubt, wish, or hypothetical (I hope that he eats — not covered in this wiki yet; see the roadmap). From Latin subjunctivus, “subjoined/added underneath” — historically described as a mood “joined under” the main clause it depends on.

Aspect — how the action unfolds over time, independent of when it happened. From Latin aspectus, “a looking at” (i.e. the “view” you’re taking of the action). Two aspects that matter most for Spanish past tense:

  • Perfective aspect — the action is viewed as a complete, whole event (Spanish preterite: comí, “I ate” — one finished occurrence). From Latin perficere, “to finish/carry through.”
  • Imperfective aspect — the action is viewed as ongoing, habitual, or unfinished, with no focus on its endpoint (Spanish imperfect: comía, “I was eating / used to eat”). “Imperfect” from Latin imperfectus, “not completed” — not finished from the inside, still in progress at the moment you’re describing.
  • Perfect — confusingly, unrelated to “perfective” in modern use. It marks an action completed relative to some reference point, still relevant to it (I have eaten / he comido). From Latin perfectus, “thoroughly done.”
  • Progressive — the action is happening right now, in progress (I am eating / estoy comiendo). Built with a form of estar + gerund in Spanish.

Voice — who’s doing the action, grammatically — is the subject the doer or the receiver? From Latin vox, “voice,” in the sense of how the verb “speaks” the event.

  • Active voice — subject performs the action (She wrote the letter / Ella escribió la carta).
  • Passive voice — subject receives the action (The letter was written [by her] / La carta fue escrita [por ella]). From Latin passivus, “capable of suffering/being acted upon.”

See also: Preterite vs Imperfect, Present Perfect, Present Progressive, Commands (Imperative).

Verb forms

Participle — from Latin participium, “sharing/partaking” (pars “part” + capere “to take”). It’s called that because a participle shares properties of both a verb and an adjective — it comes from a verb but can describe a noun like an adjective does.

  • Past participle — the -ed/-en form in English (eaten, spoken) or -ado/-ido in Spanish (comido, hablado). Used to build the perfect tenses (he comido) and as an adjective (la puerta cerrada, “the closed door”).
  • Present participle — the English -ing adjective form (a boring movie). Spanish doesn’t really use this the same way — its -ando/-iendo form is the gerund, below, not an adjective.

Gerund — from Latin gerundium, from gerere, “to carry out/perform.” In Spanish, the -ando/-iendo form (hablando, comiendo) used with estar to build the progressive (“carrying out” the action right now). Careful: English calls its -ing noun form (“Swimming is fun”) a gerund too, but that’s a different use than the Spanish one — Spanish gerunds are not nouns.

See also: Present Perfect, Conjugation — Present Perfect, Present Progressive.

Sentence structure

Subject — the noun/pronoun doing the verb’s action. From Latin subjectus, “thrown/placed under” (under the verb’s control).

Object — the noun/pronoun the action happens to. See direct/indirect object above under Pronouns — the same distinction applies to full noun phrases, not just pronouns.

Clause — a group of words with its own subject and verb. A sentence has at least one.

Word order — the sequence subject, verb, and object appear in. Spanish and English both default to SVO (Subject–Verb–Object: Yo como manzanas / I eat apples), though Spanish allows more flexibility since verb endings already identify the subject.

Negation — turning a statement negative. From Latin negare, “to deny.” Spanish requires double negatives where English forbids them (No veo a nadie, literally “I don’t see nobody” = “I don’t see anyone”) — this isn’t broken grammar, it’s simply how Spanish negation agrees across a sentence, the same way adjectives agree in gender.

See also: Basic Syntax, Negation, Questions.

Summary

  • Every term on this page is borrowed from Latin (occasionally Greek) descriptions of grammar — knowing the root usually explains the name.
  • Tense (when), mood (what kind of statement), and aspect (how the action unfolds) are three separate axes that English teaching often blurs together — Spanish keeps them distinct, especially in the past (preterite = perfective, imperfect = imperfective).
  • Participle and gerund are both non-finite verb forms (not conjugated to a subject) that behave partly like other parts of speech — participles like adjectives, Spanish gerunds like adverbs describing “how” via estar.
  • Every entry above links back to the explanation page(s) where it’s used in context.

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