Glossing abbreviations: a Leipzig-style cheat sheet
Interlinear glosses label grammar with short tags: NOM for a subject, PFV for a completed action, 3SG for a third-person singular. The tags below follow the Leipzig Glossing Rules, the convention most grammars and journals use. Each one comes with a plain-language note, and the notation marks at the end link to worked examples you can open in the editor.
Person, number, gender
- 1 first person
- the speaker (I, we).
- 2 second person
- the addressee (you).
- 3 third person
- someone else (he, she, it, they).
- SG singular
- one referent.
- PL plural
- more than one referent.
- DU dual
- exactly two, in languages that mark it.
- M masculine
- masculine gender or noun class.
- F feminine
- feminine gender or noun class.
- N neuter
- neuter gender or noun class.
Case
- NOM nominative
- subject of a clause.
- ACC accusative
- direct object.
- GEN genitive
- possessor or “of” relation.
- DAT dative
- recipient or “to / for” relation.
- ABL ablative
- source or “from” relation.
- LOC locative
- location or “in / at” relation.
- INS instrumental
- the means: “with / by”.
- ERG ergative
- subject of a transitive verb in ergative languages.
- ABS absolutive
- intransitive subject or transitive object in ergative languages.
- OBL oblique
- a general non-core case, often a stem form before other endings.
- COM comitative
- “with”, accompaniment.
Tense, aspect, mood
- PRS present
- present tense.
- PST past
- past tense.
- FUT future
- future tense.
- PFV perfective
- event viewed as a whole.
- IPFV imperfective
- event viewed as ongoing or habitual.
- PRF perfect
- past event with present relevance.
- PROG progressive
- action in progress.
- IMP imperative
- command.
- SBJV subjunctive
- irrealis or dependent mood.
- COND conditional
- “would” mood.
Derivation and clause structure
- INF infinitive
- unmarked verb form (“to do”).
- PTCP participle
- verb form acting as an adjective.
- NEG negation
- marks a negative.
- APPL applicative
- adds an object (e.g. a beneficiary) to the verb.
- CAUS causative
- “make / cause to”.
- PASS passive
- passive voice.
- REFL reflexive
- subject and object are the same.
- POSS possessive
- marks a possessor.
- DEF definite
- definite article or marker (“the”).
- INDF indefinite
- indefinite article or marker (“a”).
Notation marks
Beyond the labels, glossing uses a small set of marks to line up the source text with the gloss. Each mark below links to an example that shows it in a real sentence.
- - Hyphen
- Separates morphemes that can be cut apart. The source line and the gloss line carry the same number of hyphens, so each piece lines up. Turkish case and verb morphology.
- . Period
- Joins several meanings that share one form. When one source morpheme needs two English words, the gloss links them with a period (come.out). Turkish infinitive (one-to-many).
- ~ Tilde
- Marks reduplication: a copied syllable or stem written with a tilde in both lines (bi~bili, IPFV~buy). Tagalog reduplication.
- ø Zero (ø)
- An overt ø stands for a morpheme that carries meaning but has no sound, common for null case endings. Latin zero morpheme.
- \ Backslash
- Marks a category shown by a change inside the word rather than a separable piece, such as an umlaut plural (father\PL). German umlaut plural.
Build your own interlinear gloss with these labels: stack a source line, a gloss line, and a translation, then draw the alignment and export it.