English Language

Question 1

Proper nouns

Answer 1

Specific names of people and places, written with capital letters at the start.

e.g.: “America,” “Danny”

Question 2

Abstract nouns

Answer 2

Things or concepts you can’t touch.

e.g.: “happiness,” “shyness,” “romance”

Question 3

Common nouns

Answer 3

Most nouns, those which are not proper or abstract.

e.g.: “car,” “jacket,” “cinema”

Question 4

Verbs

Answer 4

Words indicating action or change

e.g.: “to kiss,” “to sing,” “to eat”

Question 5

Subject of a verb

Answer 5

The person or thing who is carrying out the action of the verb.

e.g.: In “Danny kissed Sandy,” Danny is the subject.

Question 6

Object of a verb

Answer 6

The person or thing that the verb is being carried out upon.

e.g.: In “Danny kissed Sandy,” Sandy is the object.

Question 7

Verb phrase

Answer 7

In order to express some of the different tenses (past, present, etc.), a verb can become a verb phrase, incorporating auxiliary verbs to indicate timing.

e.g.: “had been kissing” is a verb phrase

Question 8

Modal verbs

Answer 8

A subgroup of auxiliary verbs that express how likely or possible an event is.

e.g.: “may,” “must,” “can”

Question 9

Adjectives

Answer 9

They modify and describe nouns.

e.g.: “shiny” in “shiny car”

Question 10

Adjectival phrases

Answer 10

When adjectives themselves are modified.

e.g.: “Impressively shiny car”

Question 11

Adverbs

Answer 11

They tell us how, where, or when something is done. In other words, they describe the manner, place, or time of a verb. Many of them are created simply by adding an “ly” to the end of an adjective.

e.g.: “slowly”

Question 12

Pronouns

Answer 12

Words that replace nouns in a sentence, to make them less combersome and less repetitive.

e.g.: “he,” “she,” “they”

Question 13

Conjunctions

Answer 13

Words that are used to link other words, phrases, and clauses.

e.g.: “when,” in “tell me when you are ready”

Question 14

Articles

Answer 14

Used to refer to specific or particular nouns

e.g.: “a,” “an,” and “the”

Question 15

Indefinite article

Answer 15

An article which refers to any member of a group.

e.g.: “a” in “a boy kissed her”

Question 16

Definite article

Answer 16

An article used when the specific subject is known.

e.g.: “the” in “the boy kissed her”

Question 17

Prepositions

Answer 17

Words that link nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in the sentence. They usually indicate relationships in time or space.

e.g.: “under,” “above,” “behind,” “at,” “for”

Question 18

Interjections

Answer 18

Words added to a sentence to convey emotion. They are not grammatically related to any other part of the sentence. They’re often followed by an exclamation mark.

e.g.: “Ouch!” “Hey!”

Question 19

Clause

Answer 19

Sentences are made up of one or more of these. It is a group of words that includes a verb and usually also a subject. There are also two types (main and subordinate).

Question 20

Main clause

Answer 20

Complete unit of sense and must contain a verb and a subject. Every sentence must contain one of these.

e.g.: “it was cold,” in “it was cold, reminding her of Danny”

Question 21

Subordinate clause

Answer 21

These are dependent on main clauses and do not have to be a complete unit of sense.

e.g.: “reminding her of Danny,” in “it was cold, reminding her of Danny”

Question 22

Gerund

Answer 22

Verbs which take on the function of a noun.

e.g.: “fighting” in “fighting is fun”

Question 23

Relative pronouns

Answer 23

Join clauses together and begin subordinate clauses (called a relative clause).

e.g.: “who,” “whom,” “which,” “that”

Question 24

Restrictive relative clauses

Answer 24

Identify what is being referred to by the previous noun. Also known as “defining.”

e.g.: “that I wore then” in “The shirt that I wore then was pink.”

Question 25

Nonrestrictive relative clauses

Answer 25

Provide info about the noun but are not essential to the meaning of the sentence. They’re found between commas. Also known as “nondefining.”
Note: only “which” can be used in these contexts.

e.g.: “the sweater, which was pink, …”

Question 26

Dangling participle

Answer 26

A clause containing a present participal with no subject, followed by a main clause with a subject different from the subject of the participle. They are inelegant and should be avoided at all costs.

e.g.: “having read the book, the bottle of wine was opened” is incorrect

Question 27

Split infinitive

Answer 27

When an infinitive of a verb is split by an adverb.

e.g.: the Star Trek quote, “to boldly go,” is technically incorrect.

Question 28

Reflexive pronouns

Answer 28

Pronouns that refer back to the subject of the sentence. They are used when the subject and object of a sentence are the same.

e.g.: “oneself,” “himself,” “yourself,” “themselves”

Question 29

Period

Answer 29

Divide sentences from other sentences. They are the strongest form of punctuation.

Question 30

Question mark

Answer 30

Used in place of periods when the sentence is a question.

Question 31

Exclamation mark

Answer 31

Used after words, phrases, or sentences that are exclamatory, horatory (e.g. giving encouragement or advice), particularly enthusiastic, or full of wonder or contempt.

Question 32

Colon

Answer 32

Used to introduce lists or separate main clauses in a sentence where the following clause explains, paraphrases, or gives an example of the preceding clause.

e.g.: “She had such a short temper: she lost control and smacked me.”

Question 33

Semicolon

Answer 33

Used between two main clauses when they are connected together more strongly than warrants a period (to avoid a comma splice). They are also used to divide up lists if commas aren’t clear enough to mark divisions.
When you have a conjunctive adverb linking two independent clauses (moreover,nevertheless,however, etc.), you should use one of these.

e.g.: “I ordered a cheeseburger for lunch; life’s too short for a diet.“

Question 34

Dashes

Answer 34

Used to indicate a pause or to introduce a list or explanation. Pairs of them are often used in the place of parentheses or commas.
This punctuation is a bit more emphatic than colons. When you want to generate strong emotion in your writing or create a more casualtone, use these.

e.g.: “He is afraid of two things—spiders and senior prom.”

Question 35

Parentheses

Answer 35

Used to separate extra information or explanations from the rest of the sentence.

Question 36

Comma

Answer 36

Used as light divisions to make the structure and meaning of sentences clear, for example in lists. They are also used to mark nonrestrictive clauses.
You CANNOT link two main clauses using one of these– you must use a conjunction instead.

Question 37

Apostrophe

Answer 37

Used to indicate posession. Also used to indicate missing letters.

Rememer that “its” is possessive and “it’s” means “it is”

Question 38

Quotation mark

Answer 38

Used to indicate quotations and direct speech.

e.g.: “‘It wasn’t me,’ she answered.”

Question 39

Hyphen

Answer 39

Used in some compound words, or to connect words that would look awkward or unclear if they were put together to make one word. They are also used to link words used to describe an attribute of the noun.

e.g.: “well-known villain,” “in-depth investigation,” “mind-blowing”