Key Terms - Nouns, Verbs and Sentence Types

Noun

A person, place, thing, feeling or idea.

E.g. London, mum, cat, table, happiness.

Abstract noun

An idea or concept - something that you cannot actually see, touch, hear, smell or taste. The opposite of a concrete noun.

E.g. Love, hatred, anger, happiness, truth, freedom, dedication, peace, knowledge.

Collective noun

A group of nouns.

E.g. Team, army, family, group, audience, herd.

Common noun

All nouns are either common nouns or proper nouns. Common nouns are places, things, feelings or ideas.

E.g. Home, school, book, computer, trees, television.

Concrete noun

A thing (noun) that can be touched, tasted, heard, seen, or smelled. The opposite of an abstract noun.

E.g. Dog, building, tree, fire, water.

Pronoun

A word used to replace a noun. We use pronouns so we don’t need to repeat the same nouns over and over again.

E.g. I, you, he, she, it, we, they, me.

Proper noun

All nouns are either common nouns or proper nouns. Proper nouns are the names of specific people or places.

E.g. Kate, Harry, Liverpool, England, BBC.

Key Terms for English Language - Verbs

You need to know the following key terms for your English Language exam:

Verb

An action - a doing word.
E.g. Sing, walk, dance, laugh, watch, be, do.

Dynamic verb

A verb which is physically moving or changing.

E.g. Eat, walk, learn, grow, sleep, talk, run, read, become, go.

Stative verb

A verb which does not physically move - you cannot see, feel, hear, taste or smell them happening, but they are still happening.

E.g. Love, hate, prefer, doubt, seem, know, own, understand.

Imperative verb

Verbs which give orders - bossy verbs.

E.g. Stop, bring, give, tell me.

Key Terms for English Language - Sentence and Clause Types

You need to know the following key terms for your English Language exam:

Complex sentence

A complex sentence is formed when you join a main clause and a subordinate clause with a connective.

Some connectives include: when, if, because, although.

E.g. While the wind blew, people stayed indoors.

Compound sentence

A compound sentence is formed when you join two main clauses with a connective.

Some connectives include: and, but, so, or.

E.g. The sand was rough on my skin but the sun was gleaming brilliantly off the water.

Main clause

A main clause is a clause that contains a subject and an object. Main clauses make sense on their own.

E.g. I like bananas.

Simple sentence

A simple sentence has one clause. It only has a verb and a subject.

E.g. She picked up the brown box.

Subordinate clause

A subordinate clause is one that relies on a main clause to make sense - it contains a subject and a verb, and adds extra information to the sentence. It needs to be attached to a main clause because it cannot make sense on its own.

E.g. After she noticed it was missing… (What happened?)