LANGUAGE BASICS Flashcards
What are proper nouns?
Words that refer to specific people and places e.g. Paris, Andrew (they usually begin with a capital letter).
What are common nouns and name the types?
They are less specific than proper nouns and refer to types of people, places, feelings etc. They can be subdivided into 3 different types: concrete, abstract and collective.
What are concrete nouns?
They refer to things that exist physically e.g. computer, tiger.
What are abstract nouns?
They refer to things that do not exist physically e.g. friendship, sadness, democracy.
What are collective nouns?
They refer to groups of people, animals or objects e.g. team, family, flock.
Why is writing that contains a large number of concrete nouns often easier to understand than writing that contains a large number of abstract nouns?
Because readers are able to imagine the physical reality of what is being described whereas writing that contains a lot of abstract nouns makes more demands upon the readers intellect and imagination.
What are adjectives?
Describing words- used to describe nouns.
What are comparative adjectives?
Adjectives formed by adding -er to the end or more in front e.g. hotter, bigger etc (comparing two nouns).
What are superlative adjectives?
Adjectives formed by adding -est to the end or most in front e.g. hottest, biggest etc.
What are verbs?
Doing words e.g. jump.
What are dynamic verbs?
Verbs that refer to physical actions e.g. jump
What are stative verbs?
Verbs that refer to states or conditions e.g. felt
What are transitive verbs?
Verbs that involve an object
What are intransitive verbs?
Verbs that don’t involve an object
What are infinitives?
The base form of a verb- the form from which all other forms derive e.g. to be
