Glossary of technical terms
adjective a word that describes a noun or pronoun, e.g. the green door; it’s
very old; John’s skinny; she’s most objectionable:
a demonstrative adjective describes something as being pointed out (‘dem-
onstrated’), e.g. this/that computer; these/those railings;
a possessive adjective describes something as belonging to someone or
something, e.g. my/her/its/our/your behaviour is quite normal.adverb a word which gives information about a verb, an adjective or
another adverb, e.g. she sang loudly; it’ll finish soon; I’ve got it somewhere; it’s
incredibly/very funny; she sang incredibly/very loudly.
agreement a feature whereby the form of one word changes depending on
the form of another word it is linked with. In English, the most obvious
example is in the difference between singular and plural: so we say ‘This is the
road’ and ‘These are the roads’, but not e.g. ‘This are the roads’, ‘These is the
roads’, etc. In Italian, agreement is far more detailed and widespread than in
English.
article a word which has no meaning on its own, but is placed before a
noun to show whether it is specific or non-specific:
a definite article shows that the noun refers to a specific thing or person, e.g.
the airline; the pilot; the passengers;
an indefinite article shows that the noun does not refer to a specific thing
or person, e.g. an airline; a pilot; passengers [no plural indefinite
article].auxiliary verb a verb that helps another verb to make its form, e.g. we have
done it; it had been agreed.
conjugation a group of verbs which have the same endings as one another
in all tenses; e.g. in Italian, verbs of the first conjugation have an infinitive
ending in -are (comprare, ‘to buy’, cantare, ‘to sing’) and the same endings
in the present (comprano, ‘they buy’, cantano, ‘they sing’), the imperfect