Terminology

Question 1

What is an abstract noun?

Answer 1

A naming word for an idea, concept or state of being/belief, such as tidiness or love.

Question 2

What is a common noun?

Answer 2

A naming word for a tangible (‘touchable’) thing, such as chair, penguin, man.

Question 3

What is a proper noun?

Answer 3

A naming word for a specific example of a common noun (usually places or specific people), such as Eiffel Tower, Wayne Rooney.

Question 4

What is a verb?

Answer 4

A word that represents an action or process.

Question 5

What is an active verb?

Answer 5

A word that represents a physical action, such as run or shout.

Question 6

What is a stative verb?

Answer 6

A word that represents a state of being, such as ‘believe’ or ‘ponder’.

Question 7

What is an auxiliary verb?

Answer 7

A verb that must be used with another verb in order to form the tenses, moods and voices of other verbs. Example: “DID you go?”, “I AM going”

Question 8

What is a modal verb?

Answer 8

An auxiliary verb that expresses a degree of certainty or necessity, such as might, will, must.

Question 9

What is an adjective?

Answer 9

A word that describes a noun, such as red or huge.

Question 10

What is an adverb?

Answer 10

A describing word that modifies all types of word, excluding nouns, such as “He ran QUICKLY”, “I SLOWLY paced”.

Question 11

What is a superlative?

Answer 11

An adjective that displays the most extreme value of its quality, such as most, biggest, best, furthest.

Question 12

What is a hyperbole?

Answer 12

Uses similar language to a superlative, however is exaggerated to the point that it shouldn’t be taken literally. Often used to gain attention, emphasise something or for humour. For example, “There were MILLIONS of balloons at the party”.

Question 13

What is a comparative?

Answer 13

An adjective used to compare things to one another, usually ending in ‘er’, such as bigger, better, longer.

Question 14

What is a determiner?

Answer 14

A word used to introduce a noun, such as ‘the’ (a definite article) or ‘a / an’ (an indefinite article).

Question 15

What is a pronoun?

Answer 15

A word that takes the place of a noun in a sentence, such as him, her, me.

Question 16

What is a possessive pronoun?

Answer 16

My, mine, his, hers etc.

Question 17

What is an imperative sentence?

Answer 17

A sentence which issues a command.

Question 18

What is an exclamatory sentence?

Answer 18

A sentence which conveys a strong sense of emotion, sense of alarm or overly strong emphasis.

Question 19

What is a declarative sentence?

Answer 19

A sentence which makes a statement.

Question 20

What is an interrogative sentence?

Answer 20

A sentence which asks a question.

Question 21

What is the register of a text?

Answer 21

The level of formality of a text.

Question 22

What is a colloquialism?

Answer 22

Informal language usage, such as bloke, fella, arse.

Question 23

What is a syntax?

Answer 23

The way words form sentences to create meaning.

Question 24

What is a rhetorical question?

Answer 24

A question that is not intended to be answered, but provokes thought.

Question 25

What is a hypophora?

Answer 25

When a rhetorical question is immediately followed by an answer, such as “Where am I going? The cinema, of course!”.

Question 26

What is a triplet?

Answer 26

Grouping in threes for effect, either through repetition or structures such as a list, to emphasise or add momentum to a point being made.

Question 27

What is imagery?

Answer 27

The picture created through creative use of language.

Question 28

What is pre-modification?

Answer 28

When modifiers come before the thing they are describing, such as the big and fat wad of cash.

Question 29

What is post-modification?

Answer 29

When modifiers come after the thing they are describing, such as the wad of cash, big and fat, filled up his pocket.

Question 30

What is a metaphor?

Answer 30

A sentence or phrase with a different meaning to it’s literal meaning, such as “He ran like lightning.”

Question 31

What is a simile?

Answer 31

A descriptive technique which compares two things for effect, such as “He ran as fast as lightning.”

Question 32

What is a synecdoche?

Answer 32

A metaphor that states something as a small constituent part of it, such as “a new set of wheels” (car) or “he’s behind bars” (in jail).

Question 33

What is a metonym?

Answer 33

A metaphor which substitutes a word, name or expression for something it is closely associated with, such as using ‘Westminster’ to refer to the government.

Question 34

What is a lexical field?

Answer 34

Language that is all associated with the same or a similar topic, for example the lexical field of clothes would contain words such ‘T-Shirt’, ‘Jumper’, Trousers etc.

Question 35

What is pathetic fallacy?

Answer 35

When the environment or weather mirrors emotions, such as rain in a sad scene.

Question 36

What is a homophone?

Answer 36

Different words which sound the same said aloud, such as there and their.

Question 37

What is a homonym?

Answer 37

One word with multiple meanings, such as ‘great’ can depict size and positivity.

Question 38

What is a collocation?

Answer 38

Words that, through usage, naturally go together, such as ‘fish and chips’, ‘salt and vinegar’.

Question 39

What is a euphemism?

Answer 39

A polite way of saying something unpleasant or rude, such as ‘making love’, ‘pushing up the daisies’.