Glossary: Structural Features in Sentences

Action Verb -- any verb that represents an action (as opposed to a linking verb, like is or seems)

example: Walking alone, he met a friend who seemed sad at the corner. Met is a verb of action.

Clause -- a paired subject and verb along with any words (modifiers, objects, or complements) connected to them; can be dependent or independent

example: Walking alone, he met a friend at the corner. He met is the subject-verb pair at the center of this sentence's independent clause.

Compound Sentence -- a sentence containing two independent clauses connected either with a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, so, etc.) or a semi-colon

example: Walking alone, he met a friend who was in trouble at the corner, so he stopped to see if he could help. This is a compound sentence because it contains two independent clauses (he met and he stopped) connected by the coordinating conjunction so.

Complex Sentence -- a sentence containing at least one dependent clause in addition to its main (or independent) clause

example: Walking alone, he met a friend who was in trouble at the corner, so he stopped to see if he could help. This is a complex sentence because it contains two independent clauses (he met and he stopped) along with two dependent clauses (who was in trouble and if he could help).

Dependent Clause -- a clause that cannot "stand on its own" and so must be accompanied by an independent clause in a sentence; can function as a noun (noun clause), an adjective (adjective clause), or an adverb (adverb clause)

example: Walking alone, he met a friend who seemed sad at the corner. Who seemed sad is a dependent clause. (Its subject is who, its verb is seemed, and it functions as an adjective to describe friend, so it's an adjective clause.)

Direct Object -- a noun that receives the action of a verb; that is, the noun the verb acts upon

example: Walking alone, he met a friend who seemed sad at the corner. Friend is the direct object of met; it's whom he met.

Independent Clause -- a clause that can "stand on its own" as a complete sentence (as opposed to a dependent clause)

example: Walking alone, he met a friend at the corner. He met a friend at the corner is the independent clause in this sentence.

Linking Verb -- any form of the verb to be or a verb that could take its place (like seems, feels, or sounds); links the subject with a noun or adjective following the verb, which is called a subject complement

example: Walking alone, he met a friend who seemed sad at the corner. Seemed is a linking verb.

Phrase -- any subordinate word group without a paired subject and verb working together to perform a single function in a sentence (a paired subject and verb would make it a clause)

example: Walking alone, he met a friend at the corner. Walking alone is a participial phrase; at the corner is a prepositional phrase.

Subject -- agent of the action or state of being in a clause (whether dependent or independent)

example: Walking alone, he met a friend who seemed sad at the corner. He is the subject of the independent clause in this sentence; who is the subject of a dependent clause.

Subject Complement -- a noun or adjective following a linking verb that describes or renames the subject

example: Walking alone, he met a friend who seemed sad at the corner. Sad is a subject complement.