Grammar Flashcards
Nouns
Names, labels, people or concepts
Answer the question WHAT?
Proper nouns
Begin with a capital letter
Refer to specific people, places, occasions, time
E.g. London, Friday
Concrete nouns
Refer to physical things like people, objects, places
E.g. table, photograph
Abstract noun
Refer to things that don’t physically exist like ideas, concepts, feelings, time frames.
They cannot be touched or seen.
E.g. arrogance, year
Collective noun
Refer to groups of people, animals or objects
E.g. team, class, herd
Adjectives
Describe nouns
Qualitative adjective
describing a noun with facts, things that are certain
E.g. green, pregnant
Evaluative adjectives
Describing a noun through judgements and opinions
E.g. nice, horrible
Comparative adjectives
comparing nouns
(-er, more, less)
E.g. bigger, more dedicated
Superlative adjectives
Indicating the most of least of something
(-est, most, least)
E.g. most intelligent, smallest
Premodifier
Words that are used before a noun to provide more information about the it
adjectives, determiners, pronouns
E.g. shopping centre
Verbs
Convey an action the subject is doing or the state the subject is in.
Infinitives
to + verb
E.g. to run, to be
Present participle
-ing ending
Has no auxiliary verb
E.g. eating, staying
Past participle
-ed ending (except irregulars)
Has no auxiliary verb but used after had/has/have
E.g. shown, danced
Modal auxiliary verbs
Followed by a main verb
Cover a range of possibilities
E.g. can/could, shall/should, will/would, may/might, ought to/must
Auxiliary verb
Help verbs form tenses
E.g. to be, to have, to do
Simple present tense
Express actions that normally happen, what currently is
1 verb, no auxiliary verb
-s added to 3rd person (he/she/it)
E.g. play/plays, help/helps
Simple past tense
Express actions that happened in the past
1 verb, no auxiliary verb
-ed for regular verbs
E.g. played, helped
Future tense
Used to talk about events that will happen
2 verbs
will/shall + base form of main verb
E.g. will revise, shall eat
Present perfect tense
Recent past - things that have just finished
2 verbs
have/has + past participle
E.g. have danced, has finished
Past perfect tense
Distant past - actions which happened before another past action occurred
2 verbs
had + past participle
E.g. had created, had asked
Present continuous
Actions that are ongoing now
2 verbs
is/am/are + present participle
E.g. am talking, is typing
Past continuous
Actions that happened in the past but lasted a while
2 verbs
was/were + present participle
E.g. was writing, were designing
Adverbs
describe verbs
answer the questions how? when? where?
Adverb of time
answer when?
E.g. now, soon, yesterday
Adverb of manner
answer how?
E.g. quickly, calmly
Adverb of place
answer where?
E.g. here, there, anywhere
Adverb of frequency
answer how often?
E.g. frequently, rarely
Prepositions
relate one thing to another in terms of place
E.g. in, on, at, by, while, with, from, under, beside
Pronouns
Replace nouns
1st person pronouns
Includes the speaker
E.g. I, me, we
2nd person pronouns
refers to the other person in the conversation
you
3rd person pronouns
those being talked about
not part of the conversation
E.g. he, she, they
Subject pronouns
can be used at the beginning of the sentence
the one doing the verb
E.g. I, you, he, she, they
Object pronouns
the one being affected by the verb
E.g. them, me, us
Possessive pronouns
indicate possession
E.g. my, your, his their
Reflexive pronouns
end in -self or -selves
e.g. myself, himself, herself, themselves
Noun phrase
premodifier + noun
has no verb
E.g. the baby, every college
Adjective phrase
Intensifier (very, really etc) + adjective
E.g. extremely nice, very talented
Verb phrase
A group of verbs together
auxiliary verbs + main verbs
E.g. am drinking, are seeing
Prepositional phrase
starts with a preposition
has a noun/noun phrase
E.g. in the morning
Adverbial of place
A prepositional phrase which answers where?
E.g. in a cupboard
Adverbial of time
A prepositional phrase which answers when?
E.g. in the afternoon
Adverbial of manner
A prepositional phrase which answers how?
E.g. with a smile
Clauses
Must have a verb in it
infinitives and participles do not count as a verb
Main clauses
Has 1 verb
Can stand on its own and make sense
E.g. the snow is falling
Coordinating clause
Starts with a coordinating conjunction (and/but/or)
has 1 verb
E.g. and he ran away
Subordinate clause
Has 1 verb
starts with a subordinating conjunction
(because, that, if etc)
there are 3 types - relative, adverbial, noun
Relative subordinate clause
Gives more information about a noun
starts with which, that, who
Can replace
has a verb
E.g. who helped me
Adverbial subordinate clause
Answers the question when? where? how? why?
has a verb
E.g. although it was raining
Noun subordinate clause
Answers the question what?
has a verb
starts with what, that (can’t be replaced by who/which)
E.g. that he is right (the ‘that’ can be hidden)
Verbs that don’t count in sentences
Present participles without an auxiliary in-front of it , infinitives
Simple sentence
One clause - one verb
E.g. the weather is nice
Compound sentence
2 or more clauses - 2+ verbs
Only have coordinating clauses
E.g. the weather is nice and it is hot
Complex sentence
2 clauses - 2+ verbs
At least one subordinate clause
E.g. the weather would be nice if it was sunny
Complex-compound sentence
Minimum of 3 clauses - 3+ verbs
Has a subordinate clause
Has a coordinating clause
The subordinate clause comes before the coordinating clause
E.g. the weather was nice because it was hot and it was sunny.
Compound-complex sentence
Minimum of 3 clauses - 3+ verbs
Coordinating clause
Subordinate clause
The coordinating clause comes before the subordinate clause
E.g. the weather was hot and it was sunny because there was no clouds.
Minor sentence
When a subject or verb is missing so a word or phrase is used as a whole sentence
Sentence functions
Declarative
Interrogative
Imperative
Exclamative
Declarative sentences
Convey information or state a fact
E.g. I have homework to do
Interrogative sentences
Used in questions
E.g. where is my homework?
Imperative sentences
Give commands or orders
E.g. give me my homework
Exclamative sentences
Make exclamations
E.g. what a shit piece of homework!
