A Level English Language - Grammar
auxiliary verb
assists the main verb; primary ones 'do', 'have' and 'be' denote changes of tense
primary auxiliary verbs
be, have, do
irregular verb
change their form when changing from present to past tense
morphological derviation
creating a new word which has a new meaning out of an old word or affix (prefix or suffix) eg: 'nicely' from 'nice'
material verb processes
describe actions or events; dynamic verbs
verb
describes an action or state; a' doing' or 'being' word
modification
description in the form of words, phrases or whole clauses that alters our understanding of the thing described
possessive determiner
determiner which shows who the noun belongs to, eg: her, their, my, our etc
superlative adjective
expresses the highest level of the quality represented by the adjective; generally made by adding'-est' to the base adjective
comparative adjective
form of an adjective that designates comparison between two things, generally made by adding the suffix '-er'
simple sentence
has only one clause
complex sentence
has two or more clauses, one of which is a subordinate clause
third person
he/she/it (singular); they (plural) in subject position
compound sentence
two or more clauses usually joined to the main clause by the coordinating conjunctions 'and' or 'but'
relative pronoun
used to connect a clause or phrase to a noun or pronoun; the most common are: who, whom, which, whoever, whomever, whichever, and that.
interrogative pronoun
used to make asking questions easy: wh- question words: who, what, where, why, when, whose, how
mental verb process
verbs that describe perception thought or speech ; a type of stative verb
relational verb process
verbs that describe states of being or are used to identify; a type of stative verb
progressive tense
where the action described by the verb is continuous
perfect tense
where the action describes the verb is complete or has been completed
grammatical word class
word classes that convey little meaning but instead glue the words together in a grammatical unit: prepositions, determiners, conjunctions, pronouns
lexical word class
word classes that convey the meaning (semantics) in a sentence
preposition
words that indicate place or relationship of one thing to another in a sentence
conjunction
words that join individual words and phrases
noun
words which name people, places, things, ideas and concepts
second person
you (singular) or you (plural) in subject position
modifier
a word that describes a noun or verb (can be an adjective, adverb or noun)
adjective
a word that modifies a noun
adverb
a word that modifies a verb, telling you how, where, when and how frequently an action takes place; can also modify an adjective
collective noun
a word that refers to a group or collection of things; often of animals
pronoun
a word that stands in for a noun
intensifier
an adverb that modifies an adjective such as 'really' or 'very'
tag question
an interrogative clause added to the end of a sentence to make it into a question, eg: isn't it?; didn't we?
noun phrase
a group of words with a noun as the head word
prefix
a morpheme or unit of meaning that is added to the start of a word to create a new word
abstract noun
a noun which refers to ideas and concepts that only exist in the mind rather than a tangible thing
subordinating conjunctions
these signal the start of a subordinate clause
indefinite article
'a' or 'an'
first person
I (singular) or we (plural) in subject position
coordinate clause
a clause beginning with a coordinating conjunction
complement
a clause element that tells you more about the subject or the object
main clause
a clause that can stand on its own grammatically
subordinate clause
a clause that depends on the main clause to exist; cannot stand alone
imperative sentence
a command - a type of sentence where the subject is usually left out and which functions as an order
sentence
a complete grammatical unit which makes sense and can stand on its own
clause
a complete grammatical unit which makes sense, made up of words and phrases, same as a simple sentence
definite article
a determiner that indicate a specific noun 'the'
demonstrative pronoun
a pronoun that is used to point to something specific within a sentence; it replaces a noun, eg: this, that, these, those
possessive pronoun
a pronoun which indicates who the object belongs to
interrogative sentence
a question - a type of sentence indicated by the swapping round of subject and verb or by the use of question words or simply by the use of a question makr
minor sentence
a sentence that has some missing elements, such as the subject of the verb, making it technically ungrammatical
passive sentence
a sentence when the object of the verb is foregrounded rather than the subject (which may be omitted altogether)
active sentence
a sentence where the subject/agent of the verb is foregrounded
compound-complex sentence
a sentence which has three or more clauses, one of which is a subordinate clause and one is a coordinate clause
declarative sentence
a statement - a type of sentence which gives information, where the subject typically comes in front of the verb
modal auxiliary verb
a sub-category of auxiliary verb that expresses degrees of possibility, probability, necessity or obligation
verb phrase
a syntactic unit composed of at least one verb, any auxiliaries and its dependents—objects, complements and other modifiers—but not always including the subject.
copular verb
a verb that takes a complement (such as 'seems', 'appears' or a form of the verb to be 'is', 'was', 'are' etc
suffix
a word ending which is placed after the stem of a word; usually shows tense or person of verb or number of noun
phrase
made up of usually more than one word but not a complete grammatical unit unlike a clause
exclamative sentence
makes a statement (just like a declarative sentence), but it also conveys excitement or emotion; ends with an exclamation mark (!)
epistemtic modal auxiliary verb
modal verb use relating to belief and knowledge (will, might)
deontic modal auxiliary verb
modal verb use relating to obligation and permission (should)
post-modified
modification that comes after the head noun (or after a phrase or clause)
pre-modified
modification that comes before the head noun (or before a phrase or clause)
plural
more than one of something
adverbial phrase
more than one word that functions as a adverb in a sentence
proper noun
names; words for specific people, places or things
singular
one of something
free morpheme
part of a word that has a meaning and can stand alone and has a dictionary definition
bound morpheme
part of a word that has a meaning but cannon stand alone (eg the prefix 'un-')
reflexive pronoun
pronouns that refer back to the subject of the sentence or clause. They either end in -self, in the singular form, or -selves, in the plural form.
concrete noun
refer to tangible things we can experience with the 5 senses: touch, taste, see, hear, smell etc
subject of a sentence
this normally performs the action (verb) of a sentence and can be a single word or a phrase
indefinite pronoun
replace nouns without specifying which noun they replace. Singular: another, anybody, anyone, anything, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, little, much, neither, nobody, no one, nothing, one, other, somebody, someone, something. Plural: both, few, many, others, several.
morpheme
smallest unit of meaning; can be a word or part of a word
dynamic verb
sometimes referred to as "action verbs"; usually describe actions we can take, or things that happen; suggest a change takes place; material verb processes
regular verb
take a regular '-ed' inflection when changing from present to past tense
grammar
the building blocks of sentences (words, phrases, clauses etc) and how they go together to mean something to the reader or listener
head word
the main word in a phrase
syntax
the order in which the elements of the sentence are placed
agent
the person or thing which enacts the verb in the sentence; the subject
inflectional morphology
the study of processes that distinguish forms of words in certain word classes such as verbs, nouns; focuses on inflections
morphology
the study of the structure of words
object of a sentence
the thing acted upon by the verb; receives the action of the verb and usually comes after it, except in a passive sentence
main verb
the verb that carries the main meaning or process in a verb phrase (and therefore in a clause/sentence)
determiner
these give an idea of number or status (eg posession) of nouns
coordinating conjunctions
these signal the start of a coordinate clause (essentially a main clause joined to another main clause)