A UNIX command line consists of the name of a UNIX command (actually the "command" is the name of a built-in shell command, a system utility or an application program) followed by its "arguments" (options and the target filenames and/or expressions). The general syntax for a UNIX command is
$ command -options targets
Here command can be though of as a verb, options as an adverb and targets as the direct objects of the verb. In the case that the user wishes to specify several options, these need not always be listed separately (the options can sometimes be listed altogether after a single dash).