Grammar Dictionary

Starting from version 8.0, ABBYY Lingvo includes an electronic grammar reference book on its Bookshelf, LingvoGrammar (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

Show me a grammar entry

Using LingvoGrammar

You can use LingvoGrammar 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.

To open the Grammar Dictionary, type Grammar in the search field and press Enter. A card window with the table of contents of the Grammar Dictionary will open.

The structure of the Grammar Dictionary

The table of contents consists of the following sections (main topics):

1. Parts of speech
2. Syntax
3. Speech situations
4. American and British English
5. Spelling
6. Punctuation

These topics include smaller sub-topics. Individual grammar entries contain links to their mother entries and may also contain links to child entries and related entries.

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 LingvoGrammar to select the correct variant:

1. Use the full-text search function to find 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 Results 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.