active voice: when the subject performs an action.
adjective: a word that modifies a noun or a pronoun.
adverb: a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
antecedent: a word or group of words to which a relative pronoun refers.
articles: small words that are generally classified as adjectives. They indicate that a noun or noun substitute will follow.
auxiliary verb: one of two elements needed to form a compound tense. Also called a helping verb.
cardinal numbers: the numbers we use for counting.
cognates: words that are the same or similar in both French and English.
conditional: a mood that expresses what a subject would do under certain circumstances.
conditionnel passé: a mood that expresses what a subject would have done under certain circumstances.
conjugation: the action of changing the ending of the verb so that it agrees with the subject noun or pronoun performing the task.
definite article: an article that indicates a specific person or thing: the house.
demonstrative adjective: an adjective that precedes nouns to indicate or point out the person, place, or thing referred to: this, that, these, or those.
demonstrative pronoun: a pronoun that stands alone to indicate or point out the person or thing referred to.
direct object: answers the question whom or what the subject is acting upon and may refer to people, places, things, or ideas. May be a noun or pronoun.
exclamation: a word or phrase used to show surprise, delight, incredulity, emphasis, or other strong emotion.
false friends: words that are spelled the same or almost the same in both languages but have entirely different meanings and can be different parts of speech.
future: a tense that expresses what the subject will do or is going to do or what action will or is going to take place in a future time.
futur antérieur: a tense that expresses what the subject will have done by a future time.
gender: indicates whether a word is masculine or feminine.
idiom: a particular word or expression whose meaning cannot be readily understood by either its grammar or the words used.
imperative: a verb form used to give commands or make requests.
imperfect: a past tense that expresses a continuous, repeated, habitual or incomplete action, situation, or event in the past that was going on at an indefinite time or what used to happen in the past.
indefinite adjective: expresses any, no, other, certain, some, each, the same, several, some, all, etc.
indefinite article: refers to persons and objects not specifically identified.
indefinite pronoun: expresses any, no one, none, other(s), other one(s), certain one(s), some, each one, everyone, the same one(s), one, several, someone, anyone, some, a few, something, anything, nothing, all, everything, anything, etc.
independent (stress) pronoun: a pronoun used to emphasize a fact and to highlight or replace nouns or pronouns.
indicative: a verb tense that states a fact.
indirect object: answers the question to or for whom the subject is doing something and refer only to people. May be a noun or pronoun.
infinitive: the basic “to” form of the verb.
intonation: the act of asking a question by inserting a rising inflection at the end of the statement.
inversion: the reversal of the word order of the subject pronoun and the conjugated verb in order to form a question.
noun: a word used to name a person, place, thing, idea, or quality.
partitive: an article asking for an indefinite quantity (part of a whole: some or any).
passé composé: a tense that expresses an action or event completed in the past.
passé simple: a past tense that occurs primarily in formal, literary, and historical writings expressing a completed action.
passive voice: when the subject is acted upon.
past conditional: a tense that expresses what the subject would have done under certain conditions.
past participle: a verb form expressing an action that has occurred in the past.
pluperfect or plus-que-parfait: a tense that expresses what the subject had done.
preposition: a word used to relate elements in a sentence: noun to noun, verb to verb, or verb to noun/pronoun.
present participle: a verb form ending in -ing that expresses an action that is taking place.
present tense: a tense that expresses what is happening now.
pronoun: a word that is used to replace a noun (a person, place, thing, idea, or quality).
reflexive verb: a verb that shows that the subject is performing the action upon itself.
relative pronoun: a pronoun that joins a main clause (a clause that can stand alone) to a dependent clause.
subject: the noun performing the action of the verb.
subjunctive: a mood expressing wishing, emotion, doubt, denial.
verb: a word that shows an action or state of being.
