English Key Terms

Question 1

adjective

Answer 1

Word or phrase that describes or modifies a noun. Ex: frozen, ridiculous, excitable.

Question 2

adverb

Answer 2

Word or phrase that describes or modifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb. Ex: easily, quickly, triumphantly.
Adverbs modifying adjectives : “extremely happy,” “very tired,” “quite interesting,”Adverbs that modify adverbs.“very quickly” (where “very” modifies “quickly”), “quite often” (where “quite” modifies “often”), “extremely slowly” (where “extremely” modifies “slowly”). Adverb that modifies a verb.“The dog barked loudly.” - “Loudly” describes how the dog barked.
“She arrived early.” - “Early” tells when she arrived.
“He walked steadily.” - “Steadily” explains the manner of his walking.

Question 3

affix

Answer 3

Letters placed at the beginning or end of a word or word part to modify its meaning.

Question 4

apostrophe

Answer 4

Punctuation mark that denotes possessive case or omission of letters. article. Word ( a, an, or the) that refers to a noun.

Question 5

brainstorming

Answer 5

Discussing as a group to create an idea or solve a problem.

Question 6

citation

Answer 6

A strictly formatted line of text that provides a source reference.

Question 7

colloquialism

Answer 7

An informal word or phrase. Ex: Ain’t: A contraction of “is not” that’s commonly used in American English
Ballpark: Something that’s close but not exact

Question 8

comma

Answer 8

Punctuation marks used to separate parts of sentences.

Question 9

complement

Answer 9

Sentence part that gives more information about a subject or object. Ex: “Math is fun.” Math is the subject, “is” constitutes the simple predicate, fun is the complement because it completes the sentence.

Question 10

complex sentence

Answer 10

Sentence that contains an independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

Question 11

compound sentence

Answer 11

Sentence that contains at least two independent clauses.

Question 12

conjunction

Answer 12

A connecting word. Ex: and, so, but

Question 13

context

Answer 13

Surrounding words or ideas within a sentence or passage that affect the meaning of a word and influence how it is understood.

Question 14

coordinate adjectives

Answer 14

Two equally weighted adjectives that describe the same noun and require a comma between them. Ex: “The Tigris River ends near the Persian Gulf in a wide, swampy delta”
“Smart, funny Jaimie quickly advanced as a class leader”
“I have baked a flaky, sticky, delicious pastry”

Question 15

dependent clause

Answer 15

A group of words that includes a subject and verb but cannot stand alone as a complete sentence because it does not express a complete thought.

Question 16

derivation

Answer 16

Determining the origin of a word.

Question 17

derivational suffix

Answer 17

A suffix that forms a new word with a new meaning when added.
-er: Used to create a noun that means “a person who does a verb”. For example, “teacher” comes from the verb “teach”.
-y: Used to indicate a characteristic. For example, “greasy”, “nerdy”, and “smelly” all end in “-y”.
-ful: Used to indicate that something is full of something else. For example, “tasteful”, “joyful”, and “fearful” all end in “-ful”.
-ness: Used to indicate a state or quality. For example, “kindness”, “seriousness”, and “happiness” all end in “-ness

Question 18

diction

Answer 18

The style of writing determined by word choice.

Question 19

draft

Answer 19

An unfinished version of a text.

Question 20

end marks

Answer 20

Punctuation marks that end sentences: period, question mark, and exclamation mark.

Question 21

exclamation mark

Answer 21

End mark that denotes strong feeling.

Question 22

formal

Answer 22

A style that follows conventional rules.

Question 23

fragment

Answer 23

An incomplete sentence

Question 24

genre

Answer 24

A group of related writings or other media.

Question 25

homographs

Answer 25

Words that are spelled the same, such as "bass" ( a fish) and bass (musical instrument), but have different meanings and may be pronounced differently.

Question 26

homophones

Answer 26

Words that sound the same, such as "new" and "knew" but have different meanings and are spelled differently.

Question 27

imperative sentence

Answer 27

A complete sentence that conveys a command, instruction, or request and has the implied or understood subject, "you." Ex: Finish your homework!

Question 28

independent clause

Answer 28

A group of words that includes a subject and predicate and can stand alone as a complete sentence because it expresses a complete thought.

Question 29

indirect object

Answer 29

The person or thing to whom or which something is done. Ex: "He left me a ticket at the information desk." For whom was the ticket left? Me.

Question 30

inflection

Answer 30

How a word is spoken to modify its tone or meaning. An example of an inflection in English is adding the suffix "-s" to a noun to make it plural, like changing "cat" to "cats" - the "-s" is the inflection that indicates plurality.

Question 31

inflectional suffix

Answer 31

In English, common inflectional suffixes include "-s" (plural), "-ed" (past tense), "-ing" (present participle), and "-'s" (possessive).

Question 32

informal

Answer 32

A style that is relaxed and unofficial.

Question 33

interjection

Answer 33

A word or phrase that represents a short burst of emotion. Ex: Ouch!

Question 34

jargon

Answer 34

Words used in a specific profession or discipline. Ex: Medical: "Aneurysm" (a medical professional would understand this, but the average person might not) Tech: "bandwidth" (referring to internet speed) Legal: "voir dire" (a legal process of questioning potential jurors) Marketing: "customer acquisition cost" (CAC)

Question 35

mind mapping

Answer 35

Visually diagramming ideas around a central concept.

Question 36

modifier

Answer 36

A word or group of words that provide description for another word. Ex:"The big dog barked loudly," the word "big" is a modifier because it describes the noun "dog" by specifying its size; essentially, it modifies the noun "dog" to give more detail about it.

Question 37

mood

Answer 37

How the elements in a text, such as word choice make the reader feel

Question 38

noun

Answer 38

a person, place, thing or idea.Ex: brother, school, computer, philosophy.

Question 39

object/direct object

Answer 39

A word or group of words that receive the action of a verb. "The dog chased the cat," "the cat" is the direct object; it is the thing being chased by the dog (the subject) and directly receives the action of the verb "chased."She bought a new dress." (Direct object: "a new dress") "He ate the pizza." (Direct object: "the pizza") "The teacher explained the lesson." (Direct object: "the lesson She bought a new dress." (Direct object: "a new dress") "He ate the pizza." (Direct object: "the pizza") "The teacher explained the lesson." (Direct object: "the lesson

Question 40

Oxford Comma

Answer 40

The comma before the "and" in a simple series of items.

Question 41

parts of speech

Answer 41

Eight categories for classifying words, adjective, adverb, conjunction, interjection, noun, preposition, pronoun, verb.

Question 42

perfective

Answer 42

A verb tense indicating that the action described has been completed. Ex: "I watched television last night" "My sister visited Paris last summer" "She has eaten"

Question 43

period

Answer 43

End mark that denotes the end of a standard sentence.

Question 44

phrase

Answer 44

A group of words that work together as a unit. Ex: "the big red ball" - it's a group of words that function together but doesn't have a subject and verb on its own

Question 45

plural

Answer 45

More than one item. Ending in "s" or "es." Ex: Cats: The plural of "cat"

Question 46

predicate

Answer 46

The part of a sentence that explains what the subject does or is like. Ex: I am studying. Subject= I; predicate= am studying.

Question 47

prefix

Answer 47

An affix that appears at the beginning of a word

Question 48

preposition

Answer 48

A word that describes relationships between other words. Ex: on, at, to, by, with, for, under, between, above, and through.

Question 49

progressive

Answer 49

A verb tense indicating that the action described is currently happening.

Question 50

pronoun

Answer 50

A word that takes the place of a noun.Ex: she, he, they, we

Question 51

pronoun-antecedent agreement

Answer 51

Matching like numbers of pronouns and their antecedents. Ex: "The girls found their new shoes at the mall" "Chelsey finished her presentation"

Question 52

quotation marks

Answer 52

Punctuation marks that denote a spoken or other quoted text.

Question 53

register

Answer 53

Degree of formality in a text.

Question 54

root

Answer 54

A word part to which an affix can be attached.

Question 54

run-on sentence

Answer 54

A sentence with extra parts that are not joined properly by the correct conjunction or punctuation. Ex: "I love to cook, I could spend all day in the kitchen." "She went to the store, she bought groceries." It should be separated into two sentences or joined with a coordinating conjunction like "and" with a comma

Question 55

second person

Answer 55

A narrative mode that addresses the reader as "you."

Question 56

simple sentence

Answer 56

Sentence that contains only one idea or independent clause and uses only an end mark.

Question 57

slang

Answer 57

Informal language usually tied to a specific group of people.

Question 58

stream-of-consciousness writing

Answer 58

A narrative device that mimics interior monologue. It mimics the natural flow of thoughts, jumping between ideas seemingly without order or logical progression. "The coffee is too hot, but I need the caffeine, gotta get to work, did I lock the door? Wait, what was I thinking about? Oh yeah, that email from the boss, maybe I should just call in sick today."

Question 59

subject

Answer 59

The main noun of a sentence that is doing or being.

Question 60

subject-verb agreement

Answer 60

Matching like numbers of subjects and verbs: singular with singular, plural with plural.

Question 61

Suffix, supporting detail, synonyms, tense, tone, topic sentence, transition words, verb.

Answer 61

**suffix**- An affix that appears at the end of a word. **supporting detail**- that supports the main idea by answering, who, what, where, when, or why. **synonyms**- Words with identical or similar meanings. **tense**- Refers to when an action occurs: past, present, future. **Tone**- An authors implied or explicit attitude toward a topic. **Topic sentence**- The sentence that summarizes the main idea of a text or paragraph. **Transition words**- Words that link or introduce ideas. **Verb**- A word that describes an action or state of being.