TEAS- ENGLISH & LANGUAGE

Vowels/ consonants

different speech sounds in English;

letters: A,E,I,O,O,U, and sometimes Y; create a variety of sounds

Long vowel sounds

sound like the name of the letter such as the a in late

Short vowel sounds

sounds have a unique sound such as the a in cat

Consonants

weak letters and only make sounds when paired with vowels ; need to be doubled to make a stronger sound like sitting, grabbed, progress

Suffix

a word part that is added to the ending of a root word; changes the meaning and spelling of words

Plurals

similar to suffixes as letters are added to the end of the word to signify more than one person, place, thing, or idea

Homophone

a word that has the same sounds as another word but doesn not have the same meaning or spelling

ex: Too, To, and two

There, Their, and they’re

See and sea

Homograph

a word that has the same spelling as another word but does not have the same sound or meaning

ex: Lead (to go in front of and lead ( a metal)

Bass (deep sound) and a bass ( a fish)

North, east, south, west are_ capitalized…

NOT; unless they related to a definite region

ex: Go north on I-5 for 200 miles

The West Coast has nice weather

Words like northern, southern, eastern, and western are _ capitalized

NOT; unless they describe people or the cultural and political activities of people

ex: there is nothing interesting to see in eastern Colorado

Midwesterners are known for being extremely nice

The western states almost always vote Democratic

Continents, countries, states, cities, and towns need to be_

capitalized

ex: Australia has a lot of scary animals

Not many people live in Antartica

Albany is the captial of New York

Historical events should be _ to seperate the specific from the general

capitalized

ex: The bubonic plague in the Middle Ages killed a large portion of the population in Europe

The Great Depression took place in the early 1930s

We are living in the twenty-first century

The titles of books, chapters, articles, poems, newspapersm and other publications should be _

capitalized;

ex: Her favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time

I do the crossword in The New York Times every Sunday

The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll has many silly sounding words

Peoples names as well as their familial relationship title need to be_

capitalized;

ex: Barack Obama was our first African American president

Uncle Jose brought the steaks from our Memorial Day grill

Aunt Sarah lives in California, but my other aunt lives in Florida

Professional titles need to be _ when they precede a name or as a direct address

capitalized;

ex: Goveror Cuomo is trying to modernize the subway system in New York

Compound titles

the prefixes or suffixes do not need to be capitalized

ex: George W. Bush is the ex-president of the United States

Terminal punctuation are used…

at the end of a sentence

ex: period. question mark, exclamation point

Periods (.)

mark the end of a declarative sentence, one that states a fact, or an imperative sentence one that states a command or request.

ex: Doctors save lives.

She has a B.A. in Psychology.

Question marks (?)

signify the end of a sentence that is a question. where, when, who, whom, what. why, and how are common words that begin question sentences

ex: Who is he?

Where is the resturaunt?

Why is the sky blue?

Exclamation points (!)

indicate strong feelings, shouting, or emphasize a feeling

ex: Watch out!
That is incredible!

I hate you!

Internal punctuation

used within a sentence to help keep words, phrases, and clauses in order

Comma (,)

signifies a small break within a sentence and sepearates words, phrases, or ideas; used before conjunctions that connect two independent clauses ; used to set off an introductory phrase; short phrases that emphasize thoughts or emotions are enclosed by commas; sets off the words yes and no; set off a question tag; commas seperate items in a series

ex: I ate some cookies, and i drank some milk.

After the test, she grabbed dinner with a friend.

The school year, thankfully ends in a week.

Yes, I am avaliable this weekend.

No, she has not finished her homework.

It is beautfiul outside, isn’t it?

We ate eggs, potatoes, and toast for breakfast.

I need to grab coffee, go to the store, and put gas in my car.

Semicolons (;)

used to connect two independent clauses without a coordinating conjunction like and or but; creates a bond between two sentences that are related; do not capitalize the first word after the semicolon unless it is a word that is normally capitalized

ex: The ice cream man drove down my street; I bought a popsicle

My mom cooked dinner; the chicken was delicious,

It is cloudy today; it will probably rain.

Colons (:)

introduce a list; at the end of a sentence, a colon creates an empasis of a word or phrase

ex: She teaches three subjects: English, history, and geography

She had one goal: pay the bills.

Apostrophes (‘)

used to indicate possession or to create a contraction; for plurals that are also possessive, put the apostrophe after the s; make contractions by combining two words

ex: Bob has a car-Bob’s car is blue.

I can’t swim

Hyphens (-)

mainly used to create compound words

ex: The documentary was a real eye-opener for me

Quotation marks (“)

used when directly using another persons words in your own writing; also used for titles of short works such as poems, articles, and chapters

ex: Robert Frost wrote “The Road Not Taken.”

Noun

Names a person, place, thing or idea; role in a sentence is a subject or object

ex: Gandhi

New Hampshire

garden

happiness

Subject

the part of the sentence that does something whereas the object is the thing that something is done to; the subject acts and the object is acted upon

Concrete nouns

people, places, or things that physcially exist

Abstract nouns

ideas, qualities, or feelings that we cannot see and that might be harder to describe

Pronoun

takes the place of a noun or refers to a specific noun; purpose it to replace a noun

Relative pronouns

connect a clause to a noun or pronoun

Antecedent

a pronoun in a sentence refers to a specific noun

Adjective

a word that describes a noun or pronoun; describes, modifies, or tells us more about a noun or pronoun

ex: colors, numbers, and descriptive words such as healthy, good, and sharp are adjectives

Adverb

a word that describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb; describes , modifies, or tells us more about a verb an adjectie or another adverb

Articles

a unique part of speech but they work like adjectives

Conjunction

a connector word; it connects words, phrases, or clausesnin a sentence

Preposition

a relationship word; it shows the relationship between two nearby words

Coordinating conjunctions

connect two words, phrases, or indeoendent clauses

ex: and, or, but, so, for, nor , yet

Subordinating conjunctions

connect a main clause

ex: ater, as soon as, once, if, even, though, unless

Correlative conjunctions

pairs of conjunctions that work together to connect two words or phrases

ex: either, neither, nor, as

Preposition

shows the relationship between two nearby words; help to tell information such as direction, location, time

ex: to, for, and with

Prepositional phrase

a preposition plus the object that follows it

Verb

a word that describes a physical or mental action or a state of being

Base form

used for simple present tense and the past form is used for simple past tense

Helping verb

a supporting verb that accompanies a main verb

Progressive tense

used for an action that is or was ongoing; it takes base form of the main verb plus -ing

Perfect tense

used to cover two time periods; takes the participle form of the main verb

A complete sentence includes…

a subject and a verb; the verb is called the predicate

Run-on

when two or more independent clauses are combined without proper punctuation

Fragment

a group of words that looks like a sentence; starts with a captial letter

Compound sentence

a sentence made up of two independent clauses connected with a coordinating conjunction

Coordinating conjunctions: FANBOYS

FOR

AND

NOR

BUT

OR

YET

SO

Complex sentence

a sentence that is made up of an independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses connected to it

Dependent clause

the part of a sentence that cannot stand by itself; need other information to make them complete

Parallel structure

the repetition of a grammatical form within a sentence to make the sentence sound more harmonious; coe in to play when you are making a list of items

Independent clause

a simple sentence, has s subject, verb, and expresses a complete thought

ex: Steve went to the store.

Formal language

often associated with writing for professionak and academic purposes

Formal language

used in situations where people are not extremely close and when one needs to show respect to another person

Root words

found in everday language; the most basic parts of words ; most derived from Latin or Greek

Prefixes

the letters added to the beginning of a root word to make a new word with a different meaning

Suffixes

are the letters added to the end of a root word to make a new word with a different meaning

Context

the other words in the sentences around the unfamiliar word

Multiple meaning words

words that have more than one definition or meaning

Context clues

clarify which meaning of the word is being used

Writing process

a writer goes through several discrete steos to trasnform an idea into a polished text

Prewriting

making a plan for writing

ex: brainstorming, free writing, outlining, or mind mapping

Writing/ drafting

getting the bulk of the text down on the page in complete sentences

Conferencing/ Revising

making improvments to the content and structure of a draft

Editing

fixing errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation

Conducting research

involves looking for information in books, articles, websites, and other sources

Brainstorming

making a list of short phrases or sentences related to the topic

Free writing

writing whatever comes to mind about your topic in sentences and paragraphs

Mind mapping

arranges ideas into an associative structure

Outlining

arranges ideas into a linear structure

Chronological

describe how events happen in order

Sequential

present a series of steps

Descriptive

describe a topic in a coherent spatial order from top to bottom

Cause/effect

present an action and its results

Compare/contrast

describe the similarities and differences between two or more topics