A relative clause is a group of related words that defines or adds information about the noun immediately in front of it. These clauses come in two types: restrictive and non-restrictive. The clause begins with a relative pronoun; the “relative” pronoun “relates” to the noun it is speaking about and ties the relative clause to…

When used to refer to language and dictionaries, corpus (“corpus linguistics”) is an extensive collection of written or audio samples (“corpora”) used in the study of language. Early attempts to study language in this way were based on cultural and religious texts, such as Sanskrit, Hebrew and Arabic writings. Once gathered by hand, these collections…

People, places, things, and ideas are all nouns. They are organized into two categories: concrete and abstract. Concrete These nouns are physical and can be touched, heard, seen, smelled or tasted. If it can be identified through the five senses, it is concrete. This category includes many proper nouns (persons, places and things that are…

Connective words and phrases are used to join sentences and clauses together or to organize the words within a clause. Seven “coordinating conjunctions” are the most basic of these and there is a handy acronym that can help to remember them all. FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so Using coordinating conjunctions “I want…