Les bases de la conjugaison : Le lexique

Conjugation vocabulary

Here is a summary of the main grammatical terms used in conjugation.

Word	Definition
adjective	An adjective accompanies a noun and serves to complement it (a small cat). It agrees in gender and number with the noun.
adverb	An invariable word whose function is to modify the meaning of a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
affix	A linguistic element that is placed either at the beginning, middle, or end of a word to modify its meaning or grammatical value.
attribute	A term (adjective, noun, etc.) qualifying the subject or the direct object through a verb.
auxiliary	Auxiliary verbs are the verbs "to be" and "to have" which lose their meaning when, combined with the past participle, they are used in the conjugation of compound tenses (e.g., he has come).
direct object	It designates the person or thing upon which the action is carried out. It can be identified by asking the questions "who" or "what" after the verb.
indirect object	It complements a verb through a preposition "to" or "of/from". It can be identified by asking the question "to whom", "to what", "from whom", "from what" or "for whom".
conjugation	Conjugation is the set of forms that a verb can take. In total, with all the variants, there are about a hundred forms for a single verb.
adverbial phrase	An adverbial phrase complements a verb. Their number is not limited in a sentence. It introduces an indication of time, place, manner, or means. They can be identified by asking the questions "where", "when", "how", "how much".
conjunction	A conjunction is a word that unifies two words, two groups of words, or two expressions by coordinating or subordinating them. Coordinating conjunctions in English include: but, or, and, so, for, nor, yet.
second object	It behaves like an indirect object introduced after a direct object. It has the same function as the indirect object.
defective	A defective verb is a verb that is not conjugated in all tenses. Its conjugation is incomplete.
ending	Also called conjugation or termination, the ending is the part which, added to the stem, carries the marks of mood, tense, number, and person. Unlike stems, endings show few irregularities. They vary according to groups for certain tenses such as the present indicative or imperative, but they are, for example, the same for all verbs of all groups in the conditional or subjunctive.
diphthong	A single vowel that changes timbre during its emission. In Spanish, diphthongs involve changes in spelling during conjugation.
elision	Deletion, in writing or pronunciation, of the final vowel of a word before an initial vowel or silent h. It is then replaced by an apostrophe: "I'm".
euphony	Harmonious succession of sounds in a sentence.
expletive	Refers to a word that is not necessary for the meaning of the sentence, but serves to give it more force. Typically the "do" in "I do believe".
hiatus	Juxtaposition of two vowels within the same word (chaos) or between two words.
homophone	Homophones are all words that are pronounced the same way, but whose spelling differs.
impersonal	Refers to a verb that is conjugated only in the third person: "it rains".
parenthetical clause	A parenthetical clause is a sub-sentence that is placed inside or at the end of a main sentence: "I'm coming with you, he exclaimed".
interjection	An interjection is an invariable word that expresses a feeling, an order, a sensation, or a state of mind: "Ah! Oh! Bravo! Darn! Shush!".
intransitive	Refers to a verb that is not followed by an object: direct or indirect.
phrase	A group of words constituting a unit (lexical or grammatical).
verbal phrase	A group of words that expresses a single idea and plays the role of a verb: to give rise, to feel like, to take care, to make known...
pronoun	A word that replaces the noun. They are categorized into six classes: demonstrative, indefinite, interrogative, personal, possessive, and relative.
stem	The invariable part of a word or verb as opposed to the ending.
reciprocal	Refers to a pronominal verb when the subject and the pronoun are not the same person.
reflexive	Refers to a pronominal verb when the subject and the pronoun are the same person: "he looked at himself in the mirror".
relative	Refers to a word that establishes a relationship between the noun or pronoun and the so-called relative (subordinate) clause. "who, whom, what, whose, where, which..." are relative pronouns.
noun	It is a synonym of substantive. A verbal noun is a noun that is derived from a verb (parking / to park).
semi-auxiliary	Semi-auxiliaries are verbs that also lose their meaning and are constructed with an infinitive to bring a nuance of time or aspect. Thus "to be going to" + infinitive serves to express the imminence of the action (near future), "to start to" + infinitive serves to mark the starting point of the action (inchoative aspect). Semi-auxiliary verbs include: to go, to come, must, can, to make, to know, and to want.
ending	The final part of a word or verb as opposed to the stem. The ending carries the mark of the subject, tense, and mood in conjugation. Also called desinence.
transitive	Refers to a verb that accepts an object: direct or indirect.
verb	A verb is a word that expresses either an action done or undergone by a subject, or the existence or state of the subject, or finally the union of the attribute with the subject. Example: he plays the violin.