Grammar Topics
Browse and filter all grammar topics by level or category.
23 topics found
Participle Clauses (Sentence Shortening)
Reducing clauses with -ing, -ed, or having + past participle: Walking home, I saw an accident.
The Unreal Past (Beyond 'Wish' and 'If')
Expressing unreality with: it's time, I'd rather, as if/as though, would sooner, had better.
Advanced Passive (Infinitive, Gerund, and Reporting Structures)
Passive infinitives (to be done), gerunds (being done), and complex reporting passives (believed to have been).
Free Relatives (whoever, whatever, wherever)
Clauses with whoever, whatever, whenever, wherever, however that act as noun or adverb phrases.
Advanced Reported Speech Structures
Nuanced reporting: mixed time references, reporting verbs + gerunds, distancing and hedging in formal contexts.
What-Clauses
Noun clauses with what as subject or complement: What surprised me was her reaction. What I need is help.
Fronting
Moving a non-subject element to the front of a sentence for emphasis or contrast: This I did not expect.
Advanced Noun Phrases
Complex noun phrases with pre- and post-modification, nominalization, and dense noun stacking in academic and professional English.
Advanced Inversion
Inversion in conditionals (Were it not for…), after so/such, and in comparative structures.
Ellipsis and Substitution
Omitting or replacing repeated material for efficiency: I can swim and so can she. I haven't, but I will.
Nominalization
Turning verbs and adjectives into nouns for formal, dense writing: decide → decision, fail → failure.