Using the Grammar Dictionary

Starting from version 8.0, ABBYY Lingvo includes an electronic grammar reference book on its Bookshelf, LingvoGrammatical (En-Ru). The dictionary contains about 500 entries which cover:

1. Major grammar topics;
2. Common grammatical patterns and differences (if any) between similar constructions such as give me this and give this to me;
3. English usage, including differences between British and American English.

The structure of a grammar entry

The root article is Grammar, which links to six major articles: Parts of speech; Syntax; Speech situations; American and British English; Spelling; Punctuation. These entries provide links to entries which treat related grammar topics in detail. A grammar entry contains a link to its mother entry and may also contain links to child entries and related entries.

Show me a grammar entry

Using LingvoGrammatical

You can use LingvoGrammatical just like any other dictionary on the Bookshelf. Note, however, that cards in this dictionary provide not translations of headwords but descriptions of the grammatical phenomena that they name.

You can access LingvoGrammatical either by clicking links to its entries in some LingvoUniversal (En-Ru) cards, or simply by opening its root entry, Grammar, and browsing it as a hyperlinked electronic reference.

Show me an example

Suppose you need to select the correct translation for this Russian sentence.

Russian sentence:	Проходя мимо кухни, он остановился, чтобы выпить стакан воды.
English sentences:	Passing the kitchen, he stopped to drink a glass of water. Passing the kitchen, he stopped drinking a glass of water.

You can use LingvoGrammatical to select the correct variant:

1. Use the full-text search function to look for entries which deal with infinitives and ing-forms. The search returns two relevant cards - Verb + to-infinitive or ing-form? and stop, go on + to-infinitive or ing-form.
2. From Verb + to-infinitive or ing-form? you can learn that some verbs combine in one of their meanings with to-infinitives and others with ing-forms. The verb stop is such a verb, and the entry provides a link to the corresponding grammar entry.
3. Clicking this link opens the entry stop, go on + to-infinitive or ing-form. (You could also open this card by clicking it in the Search dialog box). From this entry you can learn that stop may be followed by an infinitive of purpose which denotes a subsequent action or by a gerund which denotes the action which has been stopped.
4. The original Russian sentence means purpose, and so you must use an infinitive after stop.
5. It follows that the correct variant is:

   Passing the kitchen, he stopped to drink a glass of water.