Noun

A naming word for things, animals, people, places and feelings

The ravenous lion pounced but the gazelle bolted courageously.

Adjective

A word which describes a noun

The ravenous lion pounced but the gazelle bolted courageously.

Verb

A word used to describe an action, occurrence or state.

Miss Jones, who is our music teacher, always makes us laugh.

Modal verbs

a verb that expresses necessity or possibility

We should all put our coats on to stop us getting cold.

Relative pronoun

A pronoun used in a relative clause (who, that, which).

Miss Jones, who is our music teacher, always makes us laugh.

Relative clause

a type of subordinate clause that adapts, describes or modifies a noun by using a relative pronoun (who, that or which).

Miss Jones, who is our music teacher, always makes us laugh.

Parenthesis (bracket/ dash)

a word or phrase inserted as an explanation or afterthought into a passage. It is marked with brackets, dash or commas

My brother- Jason- never brushes his hair.

My brother (the scruffiest boy in history) never brushes his hair.

Cohesion

A sentence will have cohesion if all its parts fit together, for example if tenses and pronouns are consistent.

Andrew was never really keen on PE. He always tried to hide at the back of the line.

Solemnly the man starred out to sea. He had never felt so alone.

Why don’t we go the shops to get some milk? While we are there we can see if the stickers are back in too.

Ellipsis

to show missing words or to create a pause for effect.

I know that I have seen my keys somewhere…

Hyphen

A punctuation mark used to link and join words, and often used to reduce ambiguity in sentences

The daring, athletic diver on the ten-metre board boldly leapt off.

Colon

used to expand the sentence by introducing an idea, list or quotation

There was only one thing the wolf wanted to do now: eat that juicy Little Red Riding Hood.

Little Red Riding Hood carried a selection of provisions for Grandma: a loaf of bread, some apples and a freshly-wrapped pat of butter.

Semi-colon

to link two sentences together that are closely related and to separate items in a list

The wood was silent and absolutely still; Little Red Riding Hood realised that she had not truly seen its beauty until now.

There are lots of characters in the story: Big Bad Wolf, the baddie; Little Red Riding Hood, the heroine; Grandma, the victim and Mr Woodcutter, the rescuer.

Bullet points

to make lists and organise information

What you need

• Bread
• Butter
• Jam

Synonyms 

words which have a similar meaning

Big, large, giant, immense, vast

Antonyms

words which have the opposite meaning

Hot = cold

Near = far

Up = down

Active voice

has the subject of the sentence carrying out the main action.

Daniel broke his finger.

Passive voice

the subject is having something done to it

Daniel’s finger was broken.

(Remember if you can add ‘by a zombie’ after the verb it is passive)

Subject

the thing or person carrying out the main action

The man ate a cream cake.

Object

The object of a sentence is involved in the action but does not carry it out.

The man ate a cream cake.

Prepositions

used to show where things are in time or space

The daring, athletic diver on the ten-metre board boldly leapt off.

Expanded noun phrase

tells you more about the noun

The daring, athletic diver on the ten-metre board boldly leapt off.

Adverbs

describes how a verb action is being carried out.

Sarah quickly packed up her belongings and headed to the door.

Conjunctions

a word which joins clauses together. There are two types: subordinating and co-ordinating.

Subordinating

Even though

As

If

While

When

Because

Until

Though

Co-ordinating

For

And

Nor

But

Or

Yet

So

Pronoun

Any word which can be used to replace a noun

Miss Jones, who is our music teacher, always makes us laugh.

Proper noun

A noun which names a particular person, place or thing

I am writing to you to complain about my recent visit to your supermarket, Costsavers, on Thursday 12^th January, 2017

Determiners (the, a, an)

A word that introduces a noun and identifies it in detail.

The ravenous lion pounced but the gazelle bolted courageously.

Common noun

Describes a class of objects (e.g. dog, man, day) which do not have a capital letter

The children sat down at their tables.

Subordinate clause

A clause (sentence) that does not make sense on its own but is joined to a main clause.

After she picks me up, mum is taking me to buy some shoes.

Mr. Smith bought the paper, when he was on the train.

Embedded clause

A clause used in the middle of another clause

The man, walking along with his dog, whistled a tune to himself.

Fronted adverbial

Words or phrases used at the beginning of a sentence, used like adverbs to describe the action that follows

Beyond the forest, the troll hid menacingly under the rickety bridge.

Inverted commas- speech marks

“Quick”, shouted Mrs Brown.

“I’m going as fast as I can”, replied Sarah.

Subjunctive

A verb form or mood used to express things that could or should happen

If I were you I would go right now.

I demand that they be counted again.

Present perfect tense

Happened in the past and there is still something about it that connects it to now (present tense).

It uses the word have/has with the verb in the past tense.

The children have sprinted.

The dog has jumped into the pool.

Past perfect tense

An event completed in the past before something else happened. It uses ‘had’ with the verb in the past tense

I had walked.

Past progressive  

Uses ‘was’ or ‘were’ and present tense of the verb with suffix -ing

I was walking to school

You were talking.

 

 

Present progressive

Uses ‘is’, ‘am’ or ‘are’ with present tense of the verb with suffix -ing

I am walking to school.

She is singing.

We are singing.

Simple past

The verb is in the past tense

Erin finished first.

Sarah walked a long way.