Functional English: Communication Skills, Parts of Speech, and Tenses

A comprehensive vocabulary review deck covering the core concepts of Functional English: communication theory, parts of speech, and the English tense and voice system.

Functional English

The practical use of English to achieve specific communicative purposes in real-life situations, emphasizing applied communication rather than the memorization of isolated grammatical rules.

Language

A structured system of symbols and rules used by humans to express ideas, experiences, knowledge, and emotions, functioning socially to create meaning and build relationships.

Stylistics in Grammar

The study of how grammatical choices, structures, and language patterns create distinct styles, tones, and communicative effects in speech and writing.

Receptive Skills

The two language skills centered on receiving and processing information from outside sources: listening and reading.

Productive Skills

The two language skills focused on actively generating and expressing messages: speaking and writing.

Active Listening

A purposeful, structured effort to understand a speaker through attention, interpretation, critical evaluation, and appropriate response.

Encoding

The stage in the communication process where the sender converts internal ideas, information, or intentions into words, symbols, or signals.

Decoding

The stage in the communication process where the receiver interprets and assigns meaning to the transmitted words, tone, symbols, or signals.

Feedback

The response sent from the receiver back to the sender demonstrating whether and how accurately the message was understood.

Kinesics

The study of bodily movement, hand gestures, posture, body orientation, and facial expressions as forms of non-verbal communication.

Oculesics

The study of eye contact and eye behavior in communication to display confidence, interest, respect, and engagement.

Proxemics

The study of how individuals utilize physical distance and space during communicative interactions to signal relationships, status, and authority.

Paralanguage

Vocal features accompanying speech—such as pitch, volume, speed, tone of voice, and pauses—that alter or enhance how verbal words are interpreted.

Ideational Metafunction

Halliday's language metafunction concerned with using language to represent human experiences, events, actions, ideas, and information about the world.

Interpersonal Metafunction

Halliday's language metafunction concerned with using language to establish relationships, adopt social roles, and convey attitudes, feelings, and politeness.

Textual Metafunction

Halliday's language metafunction concerned with using language to organize information into logical, meaningful, and coherent spoken or written text.

Register

The variation and stylistic adaptation of language according to situation, purpose, and audience (categorized into academic, professional, and casual forms).

Cohesion

The grammatical and lexical linking between sentences using transition words, reference markers, and repetition to bind a text together.

Coherence

The logical arrangement, smooth development, and structural clarity of ideas that makes an entire piece of communication clear and understandable.

Pragmatics

The study of language meaning that accounts for context, social conventions, and underlying speaker intentions beyond literal word definitions.

Part of Speech

The specific functional role or syntactic category that a word performs in the context of a sentence.

Common Noun

A generic name applied to an item, person, or concept within a class or group that is not capitalized unless placed at the start of a sentence.

Concrete Noun

A noun naming something physical or material that can be detected through the five physical senses.

Abstract Noun

A noun naming a concept, emotional state, condition, or quality that cannot be directly perceived through the physical senses.

Collective Noun

A noun denoting a collection, unit, or group of individuals, animals, or items considered together (such as a pack, flock, or committee).

Subject Complement

A noun or adjective that appears after a linking verb to identify, rename, or describe the subject of the clause.

Object Complement

A word that immediately follows a direct object to rename it or state what the object has become after an action of making, naming, or creating.

Appositive Noun

A noun placed immediately beside or following another noun to further specify, define, or identify it.

Uncountable Noun

A mass noun that denotes an indivisible substance, mass, or abstract quantity that cannot be counted, taking singular verbs and determiners like much or a little.

Antecedent

The prior noun or nominal expression to which a following pronoun refers or for which it substitutes.

Relative Pronoun

A pronoun (that, what, which, who, whom) that links a dependent relative clause directly to an independent clause.

Demonstrative Pronoun

A pronoun (this, that, these, those) used to stand in place of a specific person or object identified by context or previously stated.

Distributive Pronoun

A pronoun (such as each, either, neither, any, none) that refers to members of a group as separate individuals rather than collectively.

Linking Verb

A verb with a passive connecting function that joins the subject to a descriptor or complement, or simply indicates that something exists.

Transitive Verb

An action verb that transfers its action toward a direct object answering the question 'Whom?' or 'What?' in the sentence.

Intransitive Verb

A verb that expresses action or state without transferring it to an object, never taking a direct object.

Compound Adjective

An adjective formed by combining two or more words, commonly written with hyphens, joined together, or appearing as spaced pairs.

Coordinating Conjunction

One of seven conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) used to link grammatically equal words, phrases, or clauses.

Correlative Conjunction

A paired set of conjunctions (such as both…and, either…or, neither…nor, not only…but also) used to link elements of equal grammatical rank.

Subordinating Conjunction

A conjunction that joins two full clauses by making one clause subordinate to and dependent upon the independent clause.

Conjunctive Adverb

An adverb (such as however, nevertheless, therefore, moreover) that provides a logical transition indicating contrast, consequence, or addition between clauses.

Interjection

A word expressing strong emotion or spontaneous feeling that stands grammatically independent from the rest of the sentence.

Present Simple Tense

Tense structured as $S + V_1$ (with s/es for third-person singular) used to describe everyday routines, habitual actions, and timeless general truths.

Present Continuous Tense

Tense structured as $S + \text{am/is/are} + V\text{-ing}$ indicating an ongoing activity in progress at the moment of speaking or a temporary present state.

Present Perfect Tense

Tense structured as $S + \text{has/have} + V_3$ representing a completed past action that retains present relevance, or an activity completed at an unspecified prior time.

Present Perfect Continuous Tense

Tense structured as $S + \text{has/have} + \text{been} + V\text{-ing}$ showing the ongoing duration of an action that began in the past and continues into the present.

Past Simple Tense

Tense structured as $S + V_2$ expressing an event, action, or situation that began and concluded at a specific stated point in past time.

Past Continuous Tense

Tense structured as $S + \text{was/were} + V\text{-ing}$ representing an activity that was actively in progress at a specific past moment.

Past Perfect Tense

Tense structured as $S + \text{had} + V_3$ denoting an event that was entirely completed before another event or point in the past.

Past Perfect Continuous Tense

Tense structured as $S + \text{had} + \text{been} + V\text{-ing}$ emphasizing how long an ongoing activity continued before another past event or reference time occurred.

Future Simple Tense

Tense structured as $S + \text{will} + V_1$ (or with 'be going to') used to state spontaneous decisions, make predictions, or express future intentions.

Future Continuous Tense

Tense structured as $S + \text{will} + \text{be} + V\text{-ing}$ expressing an action that will be actively underway at a particular time in the future.

Future Perfect Tense

Tense structured as $S + \text{will} + \text{have} + V_3$ expressing an activity that will be fully finished before another specified event, deadline, or time in the future.

Future Perfect Continuous Tense

Tense structured as $S + \text{will} + \text{have} + \text{been} + V\text{-ing}$ emphasizing the duration of an ongoing activity up to a specific future reference point.

Active Voice

A syntactic orientation in which the grammatical subject is the doer or performer of the action denoted by the verb.

Passive Voice

A syntactic transformation in which the object of the action becomes the grammatical subject using an appropriate form of 'be' plus $V_3$, shifting focus toward the result or receiver.