be empty). Regardless of which symbols surround it, the single nonterminal on the left hand side can always be replaced by on the right hand side. This distinguishes it from a context-sensitive grammar, which can have production rules in the form with a nonterminal symbol and , , and strings of terminal and/or nonterminal symbols.

A formal grammar is essentially a set of production rules that describe all possible strings in a given formal language. Production rules are simple replacements.