Person

The label person refers to the grammatical category which distinguishes participants in a conversation. English distinguishes three persons: first person, second person and third person.

The first person represents the speaker. The pronouns are I/me and we/us. The second person represents the listener, and the pronoun is you. The third person represents everybody and everything else. The third person pronouns are he/him, she/her, it, they/them.

Phrasal genitive

The grammatical construction in which the preposition of and a possessive appear together. Examples: a friend of mine and that cat of yours

Phrasal verb

A verb consisting of a simple verb and an adverb particle. Examples are: make up, take off, turn on, put away etc. A phrasal verb differs from a prepositional verb (preposition + verb) in three aspects.

1. The adverb particle in a phrasal verb is stressed.

2. The adverb particle of a phrasal verb can be moved to the end.

3. The simple adverb of a phrasal verb should not be separated from its particle by an adverb.

Phrase

A sequence of one or more words which forms a single grammatical unit. There are five types of phrases in English: noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase, adverb phrase and prepositional phrase.

Pied-piping

The construction in which a preposition comes at the front of its clause, just before its subject.

Examples:

To whom were you talking?

At whom are you looking?

Note that these constructions are extremely formal in English. The more common equivalents are:

Who were you talking to?

Who are you looking at?

Place adverb

An adverb which answers the question ‘where?’ Examples are: here, there, above, down, nearby, upstairs, downstairs etc.

Pluperfect

Another term for past perfect

Plurale tantum

A noun which is plural in form even though it is singular in sense. Examples are: cattle, oats, remains, pants, scissors, binoculars, pyjamas, shorts and tweezers. These nouns cannot be used with the indefinite article a/an: we cannot say a pants or a cattle, and we must say instead a pair of pants or a herd of cattle.