Honors English Midterm Exam Study Guide; Vocabulary + Grammar

Invincible

unable to be conquered

Petulant

Irritable or short-tempered

Impetus

That which drives one; momentum

Provincial

limited in knowledge of the world; narrow-minded

Impetuous

Acting passionately and without forethought

Deduce

to lead toward some action

Fractious

Tending to argue or cause discord

Remiss

failing to fulfill one's duty; negligent

Compunction

a feeling of regret or remorse

Compel

To force or strongly persuade; coerce

Epitome

The best or most typical example

Incisive

Sharply cutting; direct and powerful

Punctilious

Paying strict attention to detail; extremely careful

Dismissive

Showing little regard; scornful

Perspicacious

wise; insightful; acutely intelligent

Comportment

the manner in which one acts or behaves

Proliferate

To increase greatly in number; multiply

Diaphanous

lightweight and transparent

Impervious

Unable to be affected

Abject

Lowly, miserable and wretched

Epiphany

A moment of sudden revelation or insight

Envisage

to imagine; to conceive of

Visage

the face; a facial expression

Retrospective

Looking backward over a period of time

Verb

An Action or State; (to) be, have, do, like, work, sing, can, must.

Ex: English **is** a terrible class. ; I **hate** English class

Noun

A Person, Place, Thing; pen, dog, work, music, town, London, teacher, John

Ex: **English** is miserable.

Adjective

Describes (modifies) a noun; good, big red, well, interesting.

Ex: English is **miserable ;** English is a **terrible** class.

Adverb

Describes (modifies) a verb, adjective, or another adverb; quickly silently, well, badly, very, really.

Ex: My patience wears **quickly** (Quickly modifies Wears \[V.\])

When I am **very** bored, I tire **really** **easily** (Very modifies bored \[Adj.\], Really modifies easily \[Adv.\], Easily modifies tire \[V.\])

Pronoun

Replaces a noun; I, you, he, she, it, we, they, some.

Ex: Owen is in English. **He** is sleeping.

Preposition

Links a noun to another word, tells where or when but is not crucial to a sentence; to, at, after, on, but.

Ex: We have our lame english midterm **in** there. (W/O Prep. Phrase: We have our lame english midterm, sentence functions the same)

Conjunction

Joins clauses, sentences, or words (FANBOYS: For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).

Ex: I hate English class **but** I like Spanish class. I hate our English **and** Spanish midterms, I hate midterms and finals.

Subject-Verb Agreement

Singular Subject → Singular verb (s/es)

Plural Subject (s) → Plural verb (were, are, have,)

‘YOU’ is a Plural Subject → It takes a singular verb

Each, neither, every (s.) → Plural Verb (were, do, are, have)

Ex: The __boy__ **sleeps** during english; the __boys__ **sleep** during english

Transitive

Needs a Direct object to answer the question ‘whom or what’

Ex: We take the midterm (whom or what do we take, we take midterms)

Intransitive

Cannot have a direct object, or is preceded with a linking verb, replace the verb with ‘=’

Ex: I Snore (No direct object)

I am sleeping (replace am with ‘=’, I = sleeping)

Singular pronouns with singular antecedents

Ex: Henry was going to go to the mall with his friends.

Each student completes (their/his or her) boring work.

(**His or Her**, each is singular, their is plural)

When in doubt, separate sentence ○

Reginald and (he/him)put new tires on the tractor
○ (He/him) put new tires on the tractor.

Antecedent

The name/person the pronoun replaces the name of.

* Make sure pronoun fits antecedent (gender, plural/singular)

Comparative

Words used to compare; Cooler, Better, Fitter

Superlative

The most or least + Best, coolest, fittest

Base

Infinitive of the word; Cool, fit