AQA A-level English language- grammar terms

Adjectives

word used to describe a noun or pronoun, such as "happy," "sad," or "pretty."

comparative adjective

an adjective used to compare two items; example: Today is HOTTER than yesterday.

superlative adjective

an adjective used to compare three or more items; example: This is the HOTTEST day of the year.

Adverb

A word that describes a verb

collective noun

a word that names a group

mass noun

a common noun that cannot be easily separated into countable units; examples: water, sand, gold, cement, air

noun phrase

a word or group of words that functions in a sentence as subject, object, or prepositional object.

verb

An action word

auxiliary verb

a verb used in forming the tenses, moods, and voices of other verbs.

transitive verb

An action verb that has a direct object

intransitive verb

An action verb that does not have a direct object

countable noun

has both a singular and a plural form, e.g. book books

abstract noun

names an idea, a feeling, a quality, or a characteristic

concrete noun

A thing that can be seen, heard, smelled, touched, or tasted

modal verb

An auxiliary verb that expresses necessity or possibility e.g. must

finite verb

a verb that carries tense, person and number marking in agreement with the subject of the clause.

non-finite verb

A part of the verb which does not show time or person, e.g. the infinitive (He needed to have a holiday),

the present participle (Not understanding the question, he gave the wrong answer).

adjunct

optional part of a sentence that, if removed, does not affect the structural remainder of the sentence e.g. 'in Central Park' is not needed in the sentence 'John helped Bill in Central Park'

subjunct

an adverb or prepositional phrase used in a role that does not form part of the basic clause structure e.g. 'kindly' in 'he kindly offered to help'

Pronoun

A word that takes the place of a noun

Conjunction

A word used to join words or groups of words

coordinating conjunction

FANBOYS\=for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

subordinate conjunction

Joins dependent clauses together Ex. after, although, as

definite article

The word 'the'; the article that precedes names of specific items.

indefinite article

a or an

determiner

Positioned in front of nouns to add detail or to clarify

Preposition

A word that shows the relationship of a noun or pronoun to another word e.g. at or in

What is a colon used for?

Used for lists

What is a semicolon used for?

Separates two complete ideas

Parenthesis

insertion of words or phrases in a position that interrupts the normal flow of the sentence

active voice

the subject performs the action

passive voice

the subject receives the action

homophone

a word that has the same sound but a different meaning as another word

homonym

a word spelled exactly like another word, but having a different meaning

suffix

word ending

prefix

beginning of a word

Pre/post modification

Words that come before/after a noun to describe it

synonym

A word that means the same as another word

antonym

a word that means the opposite of another word

Connotation

All the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests

clause

A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb.

phrase

a group of words

Morphemes

The smallest units of meaning in a language.

present simple/ perfect/ continuous tense

Verb Tense happening now - I eat the pie.

past simple/ perfect/ continuous tense

Verb Tense happening in the past- I ate the pie.

future simple/ perfect / continuous tense

Verb Tense that is going to happen - I am going to eat the pie.

simple sentence

one independent clause

compound sentence

two or more independent clauses

complex sentence

A sentence with one independent clause and at least one dependent clause