Lang Tech Flashcards
Adjective
Adjectives are words used to describe. For example: ‘The puppy had a warm belly’, ‘The President gave an important speech’ and ‘We put on our cumbersome diving suits’.
Adverb
An adverb is a word that describes or gives more information about a verb, adjective, adverb, or phrase: In the phrase “she smiled cheerfully”, the word “cheerfully” is an adverb. It is describing how she is smiling. These words often end with –‘ly’.
Alliteration/Consonance
Alliteration is the use of the same consonant letter or sound at the beginning of several connected words. You could also call them alliterative phrases. For example: ‘Hannah’s home has heat, hopefully!’, ‘She sells sea-shells down by the sea-shore’ and ‘Mike’s microphone made much music’.
Anecdote
An anecdote is a witty or interesting short story, often used in speech, to give a real-life example which supports a point.
Assonance
Assonance is similar to alliteration, however, instead of repeating a consonant sound, assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds. This effect can often also create rhyme. For example, ‘Beans Means Heinz’.
Colloquial Language
Colloquial language is simply a more sophisticated way of saying slang. Colloquialisms are words and phrases which are considered informal and not appropriate for a formal setting.
Direct Address
Direct address is a technique used by writers and speakers to communicate directly with their audience. The word ‘you’ is often used. For example: ‘Fellow students, have you ever felt afraid to walk around the school by yourself?’.
Emotive Language
Emotive language is a choice of words used to create an emotional impact on the writer’s audience, for example ‘sponsor a poor, lost puppy for only £5 a month’. This might make the reader feel sad, guilty and responsible which might make them more likely to donate to the cause.
Form
Form is the overall layout and structure of a text. Some text types have certain forms that you will be expected to know in your exam. For example, the form of an article, letter or speech.
Hyperbole
A hyperbole (hi-per-bol-ee) is a figure of speech in which extreme exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect. For example: ‘Your suitcase weighs a ton’, ‘I have a million things to do’ and ‘I am so hungry I could eat a horse’.
Imagery
Imagery is a technique used by writers to enable their reader to create a clear picture in their head. This often involves a detailed description of a scene with lots of adjectives and the use of the five senses technique. If you can clearly imagine a scene, then it’s likely that imagery has been used!
Imperative
An imperative is a command word. It is a word that tells you to do something, much like those that you find in instructions and recipes. For example: ‘stir’, ‘join’, ‘take off’ and ‘whisk’.
Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is when two things are placed closely together with contrasting effect such as: ‘Making a mountain out of a molehill’, ‘Better late than never’ and ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’.
Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech where a word or phrase (that ordinarily means one thing) is used to describe another, therefore making an implicit comparison. For example: ‘a sea of troubles’, ‘the curtain of night’ or ‘all the world’s a stage’.
Noun
A noun is a word (other than a pronoun) used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things (common noun), or to name a particular one of these (proper noun).
Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is a language technique used to describe words that are formed from the sound that the object makes. For example: ‘Boom! Bang! Crash!’, ‘My favourite game is Ping Pong’ and ‘The thirsty dog slurped the dirty water from the puddle’.
Oxymoron
Oxymoron is used describe words which contradict each other. For example: ‘deafening silence’, ‘hell’s angels’ or ‘living dead’.
Pathetic Fallacy
Pathetic fallacy is a technique used by writers to set the mood of a text. For example, ‘a wet, dull day greeted Mary as she stepped into the grey light. Men huddled by in drab wet coats or stood in dismal doorways waiting for a bus which never seemed to arrive’. The writer never tells us that Mary is in a bad mood and is having a bad day, but, we can infer this from the description of the weather.
Personal Pronoun
Personal Pronouns are words such as ‘us’, ‘we’ and ‘our’. They make the reader feel involved in your writing. They are often used in persuasive writing as the words pressure people to take responsibility. They can also be used to create groups in an ‘us’ against ‘them’ situation.
Personification
Personification is when a human characteristic is given to an inanimate object or an object without conscious thought. For example: ‘The moon winked at me through the clouds above’, ‘The wind howled its mighty objection’ and ‘The popcorn leapt out of the bowl’.
Pronoun
Pronouns are words such as ‘She’, ‘He’, ‘Him, ‘Her’, ‘They’ and ‘I’ which refer to people and participants in a text.
Proper Noun
Proper nouns are used to name individual people, places and organisations. For example: ‘Shaun’, ‘London’ or ‘Nike’.
Repetition
Repetition is a language device that simply repeats the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clearer and more memorable. The repeated words can be right next to each other (such as: ‘Education, education, education), at the beginning of each sentence or spread through the text.
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is a word used to describe persuasive writing. For example, you could say ‘the writer has used a hyperbole, which is a common figure of rhetoric.
Rhetorical Question
A rhetorical question is asked only for emphasis or to make a point, it’s not meant to be answered. For example: ‘It’s too hot today. Isn’t it?’.
Tricolon
The rule of three technique comes from the idea that things that come in threes are more effective and therefore more memorable. For example: ‘mothers, sisters and daughters’ or ‘lions, tigers and bears’.
Semantic Field
A semantic field is a theme created by using words which relate to each other. For example the words ‘well-made’, ‘sophisticated’, ‘elegant’ and ‘rare’ suggest a luxurious semantic field.
Simile
A simile is a figure of speech that makes a comparison, showing similarities between two different things, with the help of the words “like” or “as”. For example: ‘The water well was as dry as a bone’, ‘Her hair was as soft as a spider’s web’ and ‘The truth was like a bad taste on his tongue’.
Superlative
A superlative is a word which describes something in its most extreme form. For example, in this list ‘tall, taller and tallest’ the word ‘tallest would be the superlative as you can’t be taller than the tallest. The best way to spot superlatives is to lookout for the suffix ‘est’ at the end of the word. Other examples include ‘shortest, biggest, smallest, fastest, slowest’.
The Five Senses
This technique refers to sensory details which appeal to the five senses (taste, touch, smell, hearing, and sight) to help create imagery. If you want to show off with your vocabulary, try using words such as auditory, visual and aroma to help you describe this technique with more sophistication. Some examples include: ‘The heavy door suddenly, slammed shut’ and ‘the room was brightly lit by a large window and housed several modern pieces of electrical equipment but the effect was softened by a drinks cabinet and a warm red carpet’.
[NOTE: it can be quite a cliche technique to use in succession]
Verb
A verb is a word which describes an action. Verbs come in three forms - past, present and future or ‘walked’, ‘walking’ and ‘to walk’ or ‘ran’, ‘running’ and ‘to run’. Verbs can be described using adverbs.
Euphemism
The euphemistic language uses polite, pleasant, or neutral words and expressions to refer to things which people may find unpleasant, upsetting, or embarrassing to talk about, for example, sex, the human body, or death.
Symbolism
Symbolism is the use of symbols in order to represent something, often showing its importance in a situation or to an underlying theme.
Pun
Puns are jokes exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings. For example ‘I was struggling to figure out how lightning works, but then it struck me.’
Idiome
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a culturally understood meaning that differs from what its composite words’ denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words. For example ‘It’s raining cats and dogs’.
Simple sentences
Sentences that contain a subject and a verb. For example, ‘He laughed’.
Compound sentences
Sentences that join simple sentences with conjunctions (for, and, but). For example, ‘He laughed and she cried’.
Complex sentences
Sentences that join a main clause and a subordinate clause. For example, ‘Although he was angry, the man laughed’.
Compound-Complex sentences
Sentences that join a complex with a simple sentence with conjunctions (for, and, but). For example, ‘Although he was angry, the man laughed but she was still angry ‘.
