Grammatical terms – definitions and examples Term abbreviation

Definition An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or group of words

acronym

An acronym is an abbreviation, which is made up of the initial letters of a group of words and is pronounced as a single word. Many verbs can be active or passive. In the active sentence, the subject ( the dog) performs the action. In the passive sentence, the subject ( Ben) is on the receiving end of the action. Passive forms are common in impersonal and formal styles of writing.

active and passive voice

adjective

An adjective is a word that describes somebody or something. - Adjectives can come before a noun to modify the noun. - Adjectives after verbs (such as be, get, seen.) as its complement - Comparative forms er / more… -

adverb

adverbial phrase

A fronted adverbial

Alliteration

Superlative form est / most…

Adverbs give extra meanings to a verb, an adjective or a whole sentence. Adverbs modify the verbs. Many adverbs are formed by adding - ly to an adjective. In many cases, adverbs tell us: How (manner) Where (place) When (time) How often (frequency) Degree of intensity An adverbial phrase is a group of words, a clause, that functions in the same way as the adverb to modify the verb.

This is when the adverb or adverbial phrase has been placed in front of the clause, used as an opener in a sentence. This clause has a comma separating it from the main clause. A phrase where adjacent or closely connected words begin with the same phoneme

Example Co. (Company) PTO ( please turn over) EU ( European Union) Laser ( Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation) NATO ( North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) The dog bit Ben. (active) Ben was bitten by the dog. (passive) All passive forms are made up of the verb be+ past participle. You were seen. They must be found. It has been repaired. The old, white cat. ( Adj. before the noun as modifier ) Those shoes look nice. ( adj after verb as complement) The cat was old and white. Old –older hot – hotter, easy – easier dangerous – more dangerous Small – smallest , big biggest funny funniest important - most important

-

quickly, dangerously,

how- slowly, happily, carefully where – here, there, home, outside when – now, yesterday, later, soon frequency – often, never, regularly intensity – very slow, fairly dangerous They left yesterday (adverb) They left a few days ago. (adverbial phrase) She looked at me strangely. (adverb) She looked at me in a strange way. ( adverbial phrase) During the afternoon, the children will go swimming.

One wet wellington Free phone Several silent, slithering snakes.

Apostrophe ‘

An apostrophe is a punctuation mark that shows either -omission of letters I’m for I am - or possession Amy’s mother.

Antonym assonance Clause

conjunctions

A word with an opposite meaning to another. Repetition of vowel sounds

Omission They’ve (they have) We’re (we are) Don’t go far, I’m worried about you. Possession Amy’s mother called after her. James’s ambition My parents’ car. The girls’ toilets Cold/ hot Light /dark Crying time (i) hop-scotch (o) great flakes (a) The kind knight rides by. (i)

A clause is a group of words that express an event ( she drank some water) or a situation ( she was thirsty) it usually contains a subject and a verb A word used to link clauses within a sentence. Co-ordinating conjunctions join clauses of equal weight – ( See Compound sentences) Subordinating conjunctions, these go at the beginning of a subordinating clause. ( see complex sentence)

connective

Connective is an informal name for words whose main function is to connect ideas expressed in different clauses, or sentences; such words may be prepositions, conjunctions or adverbs. ( See connective page)

determiner

A determiner stands before a noun.

Elision

Elision (or ellipsis …) is the omission of a word or phrase which is expected or predictable.

FANBOYS for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

Time links - When while before, after, until Conditional links: although, if, unless, as long as, Causal links - as since, because, in order that, so that Place links – where , wherever These can often maintain cohesion to a text. Addition: also, furthermore, moreover Opposition: however, nevertheless, on the other hand Reinforcing: besides, anyway, after all Explaining: for example, in other words, Listing: firstly, finally, next Indicting result: therefore, consequently, as a result Indicating time: just then, meanwhile, later. Articles: the a an Demonstratives: this/that / these/those Possessives: my/your//his/her/its/our/their Quantifiers: some/any/no/many/ much/few/ little/ both/all either/ neither/ each/ every Numbers; three, fifty etc Some question words which (which car?) what (what size?) whose (whose coat?) To show and unfinished sentence (can add suspense) She waited in the dark… To show words have been missed out in a quotation. The hyphen differs from the dash in that … it is half as long.

Etymology

homograph

A word’s etymology is its history: its origin in earlier forms of English or other languages and how its form and meaning have changed. Words that have the same spelling as another, but different meaning. Note the pronunciation may be different

homophone

Words which have the same sound as another but a different meaning or different spelling.

inflection

Inflection is a change to the ending of a word to indicate tense, number or other grammatical features.

Interjection

metaphor

Modal verb

modify

morphology

noun

An interjection is a word like Ouch! Oh!, expressing an emotion such as pain, surprise, anger etc, An interjection is followed by an exclamation mark ! This is when the writer write about something as if it were really something else. It is used as The main modal verbs are will, would, can, could, may, might, shall, should, must and ought. They are important in expressing degrees of certainty, or ability or obligation. A modal verb only has finite forms and has no suffix – s in the present tense even when its subject is singular. Modify means to alter or change something slightly. As a results words can modify other words to change the meaning. A word’s morphology is its internal make up defined in terms of a root word, with changes such as the addition of prefixes and suffixes A noun is the name of a person, place or thing. They are the subject or object of verbs. They are the largest word-class. Proper nouns are the actual names and always start with a capital letter Collective nouns – a singular noun for a plural groups

Abstract nouns, things you can’t see, hear touch smell

The calf was eating grass. My calf was aching after the run. A lead pencil / the dog’s lead. Furniture polish / Polish people Read / reed Pair/pear Write/right/rite

Walk – walks / walked / walking Shoe - shoes Old / older / oldest

His feet had wings. The princess is a shining jewel and her father is a raging bull. Your child will be travelling by coach.  Not: your child wills be ….



Teacher can be modified to class teacher or head teacher (all are types of teachers)

house / houses / housing appear / disappear / appearing

Common nouns Girl, city, dog, day Proper nouns Emma, Belfast, Fido, Monday Collective nouns Group of people Flock of birds Shoal of fish Herd of cattle Abstract nouns Idea, justice, happiness, wisdom, grief

object onomatopoeia palindrome Paragraph

phrase

plural prefix

preposition

Words which echo sounds associated with their meaning. A word or a phrase which is the same when read left-right or right – left. A section of a piece of writing. A new paragraph marks a change of focus, a change of time, a change of place, or speaker. A new paragraph begins on a new line, usually with a one-line gap separating it from the previous paragraph. Many writers also indent the first line of a new paragraph. Paragraphing helps writers to organise their thoughts, and helps the reader to follow the story line, argument or dialogue. A phrase is a group of words that act as one unit. A phrase can function as noun, an adjective or an adverb

Clang , hiss, crash, cuckoo, ding-dong, splosh splash. Madam ; mum; dad; eve; pup are a few examples

Is a morpheme which can be added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning.

Prefix e.g. In + edible=inedible Dis + appear = disappear Un +intentional=unintentional In the garden. Up the stairs… With large claws… Round the corner… Over the rainbow… On his best behaviour After lunch Through the years Under the trees

Prepositions links a following noun or pronoun to some other word in the sentence. Examples of prepositions above, about, across, against, along, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, by, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, of, off, on, since, to, toward, through, under, until, up, upon, with and within.

Noun phrase: a big dog An adjectival phrase: I’m really hungry An adverbial phrase: they left five minutes ago Prepositional phrase: in a hurry

Time (at , on, before, during , since) Position ( under, in, up, near ) Direction ( to ,over) Possession ( of) Means (by) Accompaniment ( with) They can act like adjectives

personification

pronoun

They can act like adverbs (where) A form of metaphor, in which language relating to human action , motivation and emotion is used to refer to non human agents or objects or abstract concepts. A pronoun stand in place of a noun It is important to stick to the same

The weather is smiling on us today. Love is blind.

Singular pronouns 1st 2nd I you

3rd He /she/it

pronoun when writing and not to switch from 3rd person to the 1st person.

me my mine myself

you your yours yourself

Plural pronouns we You us You our Your ours yours oursleves yourselves punctuation

Rhetorical question Sentence

Simple sentences

Punctuation is a way of marking text to help reader’s understanding. The most commonly used marks in English are: apostrophe, colon, comma, dash, ellipsis, exclamation mark, full stop, hyphen, semi-colon and speech marks. A question to which no answer is required often used for dramatic effect. A sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop and it must make sense. A sentence can be simple or complex.

Him /her/it His /hers/it His /hers/it Himself/Herself itself They Them Their Thiers Themselves

Who knows?

Simple sentence – one clause The knight killed the dragon.

A simple sentence has only one clause. Use shorter sentences to attract attention, or for dramatic impact or to move events on quickly.

Compound sentences

A compound sentence has two clauses or more clauses joined by the following conjunctions (FANBOYS) For, and , nor, but, or, yet, so

Two main clauses are linked by conjunctions. It was midnight and Fred lay awake. He was exhausted but he could not sleep. The dragon was dead so his job was done.

Use longer sentences to build up tension, for descriptive power or give detailed information. Complex sentence – a main clause and a subordinate clause

Complex sentences A complex sentence consists of a main clause which itself includes one or more subordinate clauses.

1) The main clause could make sense on its own. The subordinate clause does not make sense on its own. When the killed the dragon, the knight felt strangely sad because it hah been a mighty beast.

2) Relative clauses can be embedded in the

main clause ( who, whom. whose, which that) 2) Relative clauses typically begin with relative pronouns: who/whom/ whose / which /that They are subordinate clauses. embedded subordinate clauses tell you more about the nouns

The knight, who was called Fred, killed the dragon. The knight, whom we met on page 2, killed the dragon. The knight, whose name was Fred, killed the dragon. The knight killed the dragon, which had terrorised the village. The knight killed the dragon that had threatened the village.

3) The dragon, breathing furiously, collapsed on the ground. 3) Verbs in ing – or ed form can give more information about the nouns and can come before the noun or can be embedded after it.

Or open the sentence … Breathing furiously, the dragon collapsed on the ground. Sir George, defeated by the battle, slumped to his knees. Or Defeated by the battle, George slumped to his knees.

4) Adverb clause – when, how when – vary the position of these pieces of information.

4) It was raining when we went out. Or When we went out it was raining.

Sentences can be grouped into types. Declarative. (statements and suggestions) Interrogative? (questions and requests) Imperative! (commands and instructions) Exclamative ! (Exclamations) simile

Subject and object

The writer creates an image in the readers’ mind by comparing a subject to something else. Writers often use the words as and like to compare. In the sentence: John kicked the ball. S V O John is the subject and ball is the object of the verb – kicked .

I went outside. Can I go outside? Go outside! Help! As happy as a lark As strong as an ox Moonlight shone like sliver

The cat sat on the mat. S V O

The subject is doing the verb, while the object is being affected by the verb. Some verbs ( give, show, buy) can have two object, indirect and direct.

She gave the man some money. S V indirect O direct O

suffix

synonym verbs

A suffix is and “ending”, something added at one end of a word to turn it into another word. Words which have the same meaning as another words A verb is a word that expresses an action, a happening, a process or a state. It can be thought of doing or being word. Sometimes two or more words make up a verb phrase. A verb can be present tense. A verb can be in the past tense.

Most verbs can occur in a simple or continuous verb forms ( be + ing)

A verb can also be perfect ( with have)

word Word family

Leaving waited teacher assistant

Wet/ damp/moist/ There are two basic tenses in English verbs present and past. Present I wait she waits Past I waited she waited Simple present I make I wait Simple past She drove She waited

present continuous I am making I am waiting past continuous she was driving she was waiting

Present perfect I have made / I have been making I have waited / I have been waiting Past Perfect He had driven / he had been driving He had waited / he had been waiting

Future tense English has no specific future tense, Future time can be expressed in a number of ways using will or present tense verbs.

Future is expressed like this: John will arrive tomorrow. John will be arriving tomorrow. John is going to arrive tomorrow. John is arriving tomorrow. John arrives tomorrow.

Regular verbs : If a verb is regular, the simple past and the past particple are the same and end in - ed.

Regular verbs

The smallest single meaningful units of speech or writing . The words in a word family are normally related to each other by a combination of form grammar and meaning.

Wait waited Want wanted Irregular verbs – do not follow that pattern eg. Make - made Catch – caught Stand – stood See/saw/seen Drive /drove

Teach, teacher Extensive, extend, extent