Concepts and terminology for describing language: GRAMMAR Flashcards
Active voice
In an active sentence, the subject of the verb usually does or causes the action,
e.g. The car hit the tree.
Adjective
Adjective
An adjective describes or gives more information about a noun or pronoun,
e.g. a cold day.
Adjectives types:
- possessive adjective
- Demonstrative adjective
- -ing/-ed adjective
4.Comparative adjective - superlative adjective.
Adverb
An adverb describes or gives more information about
-how,
-when
-where
-or to what degree
-etc
something is done,
e.g. he worked quickly and well.
Apostrophe
’
A punctuation mark (’). The ’ is added to a singular noun before an s to show that something belongs to someone,
e.g. John’s house.
Article
An article can be:
definite (the),
indefinite (a/an)
or zero (-),
e.g. I was at (-) home in the sitting room when I heard a noise.
Aspect
A way of looking at verb forms not purely in relation to time. Aspect relates to the type of event,
e.g.
whether it is long or short, whether it is complete or not, whether it is repetitive or not, whether it is connected to the time of speaking or
not.
There are two aspects in English, 1. the continuous/progressive
2. the perfect.
The continuous aspect, for
example, suggests that something is happening temporarily.
‘At’ symbol @
A punctuation mark (@) used instead of ‘at’ in email addresses, e.g. john@yahoo.com
Auxiliary verb
An auxiliary verb is a verb used with other verbs to make questions, negatives, tenses, etc
e.g. be, do, have.
Base form of a verb
The base form of a verb is the infinitive form of a verb without ‘to’,
e.g. go.
Base form of a verb
The base form of a verb is the infinitive form of a verb without ‘to’,
e.g. go.
Capital letter
A letter of the form and size used at the beginning of a sentence or a name,
e.g. They went to Spain last year.
Clause
It generally consists of a subject and a finite verb relating to the subject and any other elements,
e.g. object.
A clause can be a full sentence or a part of a sentence.
-Main clause
When the teacher arrived, the learners stopped talking.
-Subordinate clause
When the teacher arrived, the learners stopped talking.
-Relative clause
The learners who were sitting near the front stood up.
Collective noun
A collective noun is a noun that refers to a group of people or things,
e.g.
the police,
the government.
Comma
A punctuation mark (,) used to separate items in a list or to show where there is a pause in a sentence,
e.g.
*-I bought some apples, oranges, bananas and lemons. *
*-When I went to the market, *I met my friend.
Comparative adjective
A comparative adjective compares two things,
e.g.
He is taller than she is.
Complex sentence
A sentence containing a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses.
Compound noun
A compound noun is a combination of two or more words, which are used as a single word, e.g. a flower shop,
a headache.
Conditional (forms)
A verb form that refers to a possible or imagined situation. Grammar books often mention four kinds of conditionals:
-First conditional – refers to present or future possible or likely situations, e.g. I will come if I can.
-Second conditional – refers to present or future situations which the speaker thinks are impossible or
unlikely, e.g. I would go if they asked me.
-Third conditional – refers to past situations that cannot be changed, e.g. I would have seen her if I had
arrived earlier (but I didn’t so I couldn’t).
-Mixed conditional – is used when the speaker wants to refer to different time frames in one sentence,
e.g. If I’d arrived on time, I wouldn’t have to wait now. If I’d arrived refers to the past and I wouldn’t have to
wait refers to the present.
First conditional
– refers to present or future possible or likely situations, e.g. I will come if I can.
Second conditional
– refers to present or future situations which the speaker thinks are impossible or
unlikely, e.g. I would go if they asked me.
Third conditional
– refers to past situations that cannot be changed, e.g. I would have seen her if I had
arrived earlier (but I didn’t so I couldn’t).
Mixed conditional
It is used when the speaker wants to refer to different time frames in one sentence,
e.g.
If I’d arrived on time, I wouldn’t have to wait now.
If I’d arrived refers to the past and I wouldn’t have to wait refers to the present.
Conjunction / connector
A conjunction (or connector) is used to connect words, phrases, clauses or sentences, e.g. I like tea but I don’t like
coffee because it’s too strong for me.
Countable noun
A countable noun has a singular and plural form, e.g. book books.
Demonstrative adjective
A demonstrative adjective shows whether something is near or far from the speaker,
e.g. this (near), that (far).
Demonstrative pronoun
A demonstrative pronoun is a word which refers to a noun (phrase) and shows whether it is near or far from
the speaker,
e.g. this, that, these, those.
Dependent preposition
A dependent preposition is a word that is always used with a particular noun, verb or adjective before another word,
e.g. interested in, depend on, bored with.
Determiner
A determiner is used to make clear which noun is referred to, or to give information about quantity, and includes
words such as the, a, this, that, my, some, e.g. That car is mine.
Direct speech, question
The actual words someone says, e.g. He said, ‘My name is Ron.’
, ‘What do you mean, Sue?’, asked Peter.
See indirect speech, question and reported speech, statement, question.
Exclamation mark
A punctuation mark (!) written after an exclamation, e.g. Be careful!
Exponent
An example of a grammar point, function or lexical set.
Full stop
A punctuation mark (.) used at the end of a sentence, e.g. I like chocolate.
Future with going to
I’m going to visit my aunt on Sunday. It’s going to rain.
Future with present continuous
He is meeting John for dinner at eight tomorrow.
Future with present simple
The plane leaves at 9.00 next Saturday.
Future with will or shall
I’ll help with the cleaning. It will be lovely and sunny tomorrow.
Future with will or shall
I’ll help with the cleaning. It will be lovely and sunny tomorrow.
Gerund, -ing form
A form of a verb functioning as a noun, which ends in -ing, e.g. I hate shopping.
(Grammatical) structure, form
A grammatical structure is a grammatical language pattern, e.g. present perfect simple, and the parts which combine
to make it, e.g. have + past participle.
Imperative
The form of a verb that gives an order or instruction, e.g. Turn to page 10.
Indirect speech, question
The words someone uses when they are telling someone what somebody else said or asked,
e.g. He told me his name was Ron. Peter asked Sue what she meant.
An indirect question can also be used when someone wants to ask something in a more polite way, e.g. ‘I was wondering if you could help me.’ (indirect question) instead of ‘Could you help me?’ (direct question).
Infinitive
The infinitive form is the base form of a verb with ‘to’. It is used after another verb, after an adjective or noun or as
the subject or object of a sentence,
e.g. ‘I want to study.’, ‘It’s difficult to understand.’
Infinitive of purpose
This is used to express why something is done, e.g. I went to the lesson to learn English.
-ing/-ed adjective
An -ing/-ed adjective describes things or feelings. An -ing adjective describes things or people, e.g. The book is very
interesting. An -ed adjective describes feelings, e.g. I am very interested in the book.
Intensifier
A word used to make the meaning of another word stronger, e.g. He’s much taller than his brother. I’m very tired.
Interrogative
A question form.
Intransitive
Is used to describe a verb which does not take a direct object, e.g. She never cried.
Irregular verb
An irregular verb does not follow the same pattern as regular verbs. Each irregular verb has its own way of forming
the past simple and past participle, e.g. go went (past simple) gone (past participle).
Modal verb
A modal verb is a verb used with other verbs to show ideas such as ability or obligation or possibility. They include
can, must, will, should, e.g. I *can *speak French, but I *should *study even harder.
Noun
A person, place or thing, e.g. elephant, girl, grass, school.
See collective noun, compound noun, countable noun,
plural noun, proper noun, singular noun, uncountable noun.
Object
This is a noun or phrase that describes the thing or person that is affected by the action of a verb,
e.g. I saw Mary in
the classroom.
-A direct object is the main object of a transitive verb.
-An indirect object is an object affected by a verb but not directly acted on,
e.g. He gave the book to me. In this sentence, the book is the direct object and me is an indirect object.
Direct object
A direct object is the main object of a transitive verb.
Indirect object
An indirect object is an object affected by a verb but not directly acted on,
e.g. He gave the book to me.
In this sentence, the book is the direct object and me is an indirect object.
Object pronoun
An object pronoun is a word which replaces an object noun or an object noun phrase,
e.g. him, her.
Participle (past and present)
-ed and –ing forms of the verb, they are often used to make tenses or adjectives,
e.g.
- an interesting film
(present participle); - I haven’t seen him today. (past participle)
Particle
A small grammatical word, often an adverb or preposition which does not change its form when used in a sentence,
e.g.
look after
after is a particle.
Passive voice, progressive
In a passive sentence, something is done to or happens to the subject of the verb,
e.g. The tree was hit by the car.
Past continuous, progressive
I was watching TV all evening.
Past perfect continuous, progressive
I had been studying for three hours so I felt tired.
Past perfect simple
After I had phoned Mary, I went out.
Past simple
I went on holiday to France last year.
Person
-First person – the person speaking, e.g. I, we.
-Second person – the person spoken to, e.g. you.
-Third person – the person spoken about, e.g. he, she, they.
Personal pronoun
Personal pronouns are words, which are used instead of the name of that person, e.g. I (subject pronoun), me (object
pronoun).
Phonology noun, phonological adjective
The study of sounds in a language or languages.
Phrase
A group of words often without a finite verb that do not form a sentence, e.g. the green car, on Friday morning are
phrases. Also a group of words that together have a particular meaning.
Plural noun
A plural noun is more than one person, place or thing and can be regular or irregular, e.g. boys, women.
Possessive adjective
A possessive adjective shows who something belongs to, e.g. my, our.
Possessive adjective
A possessive adjective shows who something belongs to, e.g. my, our.
Possessive pronoun
A possessive pronoun is used to replace a noun and shows something belongs to someone, e.g. the house is mine.
Possessive ‘s’ and whose
Ways of showing or asking who something belongs to, e.g. ‘Whose book is it?’ ‘It’s Sue’s’ .
Preposition
A word used before a noun, pronoun or gerund to connect it to another word, e.g. He was in the garden
Present continuous, progressive
I am working in London now.
He is meeting John for dinner at eight tomorrow.
Present continuous, progressive for future
Present perfect continuous, progressive
I have been studying for three years.
I have known him for a long time.
Present perfect simple
A word that replaces or refers to a noun or noun phrase just mentioned.
Pronoun
See
-demonstrative pronoun, -object pronoun,
- personal pronoun,
-possessive pronoun,
-reflexive pronoun,
- relative pronoun.
It is the name of a person or place, e.g. Robert, London.
Proper noun
The symbols or marks used to organise writing into clauses, phrases and sentences to make the meaning clear,
e.g.
-full stop (.),
-capital letter (A),
-apostrophe (‘),
-comma (,),
-question mark (?),
-exclamation mark (!),
- ‘at’ symbol (@)
-speech marks (“ ”).
Punctuation
Quantifier
A word or phrase such as:
-much,
-few
-a lot of
which is used with a noun to show an amount,
e.g.
- I don’t have much time
-I have a lot of books.
Question mark
A punctuation mark (?) used in writing after a question,
e.g. How are you?
Question tag
A phrase such as:
- isn’t it?
- doesn’t he?
that is added to the end of a sentence to make it a question, or to check that someone agrees with the statement just made,
e.g. It’s very cold, isn’t it ?
Reflexive pronoun
A reflexive pronoun is used when the object of a sentence refers to the same person or thing as the subject of the sentence,
e.g. He cut himself.
Regular verb
A regular verb changes its forms by adding -ed in the past simple and past participle,
e.g. walk —> Walked
Relative pronoun
A relative pronoun introduces a relative clause,
e.g. the book *which * I’m reading is interesting.
Reported speech, statement, question
When someone’s words are reported by another person,
e.g. She said she was sorry.
See indirect speech, question.
Reporting verb
A verb such as:
tell,
advise,
suggest
used in indirect, reported speech to report what someone has said,
e.g. Jane advised John to study harder.
Singular noun
A singular noun is one person, place or thing, e.g. boy, park, bicycle.
Speech marks Punctuation mark (“ ”)
They are written before and after a word or a sentence to show that it is what someone said, e.g. John said “Hello, Sarah”.
Subject
This is the noun or phrase that goes before the verb to show who is doing the action in an active sentence,
e.g.* John *plays tennis every Saturday,
or who the action is done to in a passive sentence,
e.g. the food was cooked yesterday. See object.
Subject-verb agreement
When the form of the verb matches the person doing the action of the verb,
e.g. I walk, he walks.
If a learner writes I walks , then it is wrong because there is no subject-verb agreement.
Superlative adjective
A superlative adjective compares more than two things, e.g. He is the tallest boy in the class.
Tense
A form of the verb that shows whether something happens in the past, present or future.
See
-future with going to,
-future with present continuous,
-future with present simple,
-past continuous/progressive,
-past perfect continuous/progressive,
-past perfect simple,
-past simple,
-present continuous/progressive,
-present perfect continuous/progressive,
-present perfect simple.
Time expression
A word or phrase that indicates time, such as after, last weekend, e.g. I will meet you after the lesson
Transitive
Is used to describe a verb which takes a direct object, e.g. She wrote a letter.
Uncountable noun
An uncountable noun does not have a plural form, e.g. information.
An uncountable noun
does not have a plural form, e.g. information.
Used to
A structure that shows something happened in the past but does not happen now, e.g. I used to live in London, but now I live in Paris.
Verb
A word used to show an action, state, event or process, e.g. I like cheese; He speaks Italian.
See
-auxiliary verb,
-base form of a verb,
- infinitive,
-irregular verb,
- modal verb,
-regular verb.
Wh- word
Wh- words introduce wh- questions and indirect questions. Wh- words include who, whom, what, which, whose, why, where, when.
Verb pattern
The form of the words following the verb, e.g. He advised me to get there early. (advise + object pronoun + to + base form).
Wh- question
Wh- questions start with a wh- word. Wh- questions expect information in reply; not just yes or no, e.g. Where do you live? I live in France.
