Noun
Names people, places, things and ideas.
Common: table, supermarket, teacher
PROPER: Sainsbury’s, Cristiano Ronaldo, United Kingdom
Abstract: knowledge, jealously, love
Collective: swarm (bees), murder (crows), pod (dolphins)
Compound: friendship, daredevil, homework, teardrop
Verb
Action word.
to be to have
run eat jump sit talk
Pronoun
Replaces a noun.
this that one it you
he she these
Adjective
Describes a noun or pronoun.
picturesque damp
glimmering emerald
Adverb
Modifies a verb, adjective or
other adverb.
slowly loudly fast now
sometimes almost never
Preposition
Link nouns, verbs, phrases.
against on off under
through across at behind
Conjunction
Link words, phrases, clauses.
FANBOYS (coordinating)
I SAW A WABUB (subordinating)
Determiner
Before a noun; shows which particular
example of the noun being referred to.
a an the one several
theirs many twenty
Fronted adverbial
Words/phrases at beginning of sentence
to describe the action that follows.
Weekly, Later, Curiously,
On the cliffside, Perhaps,
Personal pronoun
Used instead of name of
person/thing.
I you it they them
him she us they me
Possessive pronoun
Shows a person/thing is owned.
mine your/s their/s our/s
his hers its
Modal verb
Verbs indicating possibility.
could would should may
might must shall ought
Active voice
Subject acts upon the verb.
Zombies ate the
victims.
Passive voice
Subject receives the verb’s action.
The victims were
eaten by zombies.
Past progressive
Describes an ongoing activity in the past.
This tense is formed with the helping "to be"
verb, in the past tense, plus the present
participle of the verb (with an -ing ending):
She was kicking the ball.
Subjunctive form
Form of verb used to talk about things
that should or could happen.
If you were a better
footballer, you’d have scored
that goal.
Present perfect
Shows that an action has taken place
once or many times before now.
Uses has/have verb form.
I have already decided.
She has lost the game.
Relative clause
Subordinate clause, opening with a
relative pronoun (who, that, which,
where, when, whose)
I
Harry, who loved football,
played every weekend.
Expanded noun phrase
Detail added to a
noun to modify.
The dark-haired girl with the
wild nature.
Commas
Theo enjoys swimming,
running, tennis and rounders.
Theo, who loves sport,
particularly enjoys running.
Colons
Hope loves to read: her
favourite genre is horror.
For the trip, the pupils will need: a
packed lunch, a drink and sun cream.
Hyphens
The man eating shark
The man-eating shark
Semi-colons
The moon glowed above us;
its light radiated across
the calm ocean.
Dash
to indicate a pause
The children are very good
friends – they’ve known each
other for years.
Dashes, brackets, commas
for parenthesis
Piran (the gaming fan) is ten years old.
Piran – the gaming fan – is ten years old.
Piran, the gaming fan, is ten years old.
Apostrophe
Omission (contraction): she’ll,
we’ll, you’re
Possession: That’s Harry’s
jumper!
Contraction
Shortened word; apostrophe
replaces omitted letters.
shouldn’t can’t didn’t he’ll I’m