Grammar Terminology
Word
letter
capital letter
word
singular
plural
Year 1
Definition
A letter is a character representing one or more of the sounds used
in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
A letter written or printed in a larger size than and often in a form
differing from its corresponding lower case letter; an upper case
letter
A word is a single distinct meaningful element of speech or writing,
used with others (or sometimes alone) to form a sentence and
typically shown with a space on either side when written or printed
Being only one; individual; lone.
A plural noun normally has a suffix –s or –es and means ‘more
than one’.
There are a few nouns with different morphology in the plural (e.g.
mice, formulae).
sentence
punctuation
full stop
A sentence is a group of words which are grammatically connected
to each other but not to any words outside the sentence.
The form of a sentence’s main clause shows whether it is being
used as a statement, a question, a command or an exclamation.
The terms ‘single-clause sentence’ and ‘multi-clause sentence’ may
be more helpful.
The point of punctuation is (a) to make meaning clear and (b) to
indicate how the reader should use intonation and pauses to help
convey meaning.
A full stop is placed at the end of declarative sentences.
Some full stops are also used in some lower case abbreviations
Example
a, b, c etc
A, B, C etc
apple, banana, carrot etc
A singular tree in the meadow.
dogs [more than one dog];
boxes [more than one box];
mice [more than one mouse]
John went to his friend’s house. He stayed there till tea-time.
John went to his friend’s house, he stayed there till tea-time. [This is
a ‘comma splice’, a common error in which a comma is used where
either a full stop or a semi-colon is needed to indicate the lack of any
grammatical connection between the two clauses.]
See below
Jane and Jack went to the market.
question mark
exclamation mark
which might otherwise be confused with words.
A question mark (?) is used to indicate a direct question when
placed at the end of a sentence.
An exclamation point/mark (!) is used when a person wants to
express a sudden outcry or add emphasis.
(e.g.)
When did Jane leave for the market?
Within dialogue: “Get out!” screamed Jane.
To emphasise a point:
Having an argument makes me furious!
Grammar Terminology
Year 2
Word
noun
Definition
The name of a person, place or thing.
Example
Common or proper, e.g. woman/Florence Nightingale; city/ Leeds; dog/Lassie;
doll/Barbie.
Singular or plural, e.g. man/men; city/cities; dog/dogs (regular plural: add
s/es)
Collective, e.g. herd, team, army
noun phrase
A noun phrase is built around a noun.
statement
These are the most common type of sentence. We use them
to make statements.
question
When we want to ask questions, we use interrogative
sentences.
These types of sentences often have an auxiliary verb before
the subject.
An exclamatory sentence makes a statement with emotion.
It ends with an exclamation mark.
exclamation
Concrete, e.g. pencil, mountain, snow or abstract, e.g. justice, peace,
happiness.
the lady with the lamp;
the capital city of England;
an enormous herd of cows in the far meadow;
the dog that saved its owner’s life.
The butter was in the cupboard yesterday.
Dinosaurs lived millions of years ago.
Where is the butter?
When did dinosaurs live?
I can't find the butter!
The tyrannosaurus rex was huge!
command
These types of sentences give orders. The fancy name for a
command is an imperative sentence.
Show me the butter.
Give me a dinosaur for my birthday.
compound
A compound word contains at least two root words in its
morphology. e.g.
whiteboard; superman; blackbird; blow-dry; bookshop; ice-cream; inkjet; oneeyed; bone-dry; baby-sit; daydream; outgrow etc.
suffix
A suffix is an ‘ending’, used at the end of one word to turn it
into another word. Unlike root words, suffixes cannot stand
on their own as a complete word.
adjective
‘Tells you more about a noun’.
call – called
teach – teacher [turns a verb into a noun]
terror – terrorise [turns a noun into a verb]
green – greenish [leaves word class unchanged]
the pink fluffy monster
Adjectives can come before a noun to help form a noun
phrase.
The monster was pink. It felt fluffy.
They can also refer back a noun, after a verb such ‘be’ or
‘feel’.
adverb
As well as the basic ‘positive’ form, they can be comparative
or superlative.
‘Background detail about what happens, e.g. how? when?
where?’
Many adverbs are formed by adding –ly to an adjective.
pinker, fluffier (comparative)
pinkest, fluffiest (superlative)
slow – slowly; recent – recently; local – locally (but many are not e.g. well,
yesterday, everything)
Adverbs can modify words.
He spoke really slowly.
Adverbs are the ‘roving reporters’ of the sentence – they can
moved about, thus affecting rhythm and/or emphasis
verb
Any phrase or clause ‘telling more about what happens’ in this
way is known as an adverbial – these often begin with
prepositions or subordinating conjunctions.
The verb is the main word around which a sentence is built.
Verbs have tense, shown by regular verbs by a change to the
word ending.
Everywhere, there is chaos or There is chaos everywhere
he plays - he played
he sings; he eats - he sang; at ate
tense (past/present)
Verbs in the present tense are often commonly used:
 talk about the present
 talk about the future
Emily goes to the pool every day.
He can swim.
The bus arrives at three.
apostrophe
An apostrophe is used to show that letters have been
omitted.
It is used to show possessive nouns.
My friends are coming to play.
can’t, should’ve, o’clock, she’s, it’s etc
the cat’s tail (where a singular cat is the possessor of a tail
the cats’ tail (where plural cats are the possessors of tails NB The children’s
coats, the men’s boots.
Grammar Terminology
Year 3
Word
preposition
conjunction
word family
Definition
Example
A preposition links a following noun, pronoun or noun phrase
to some other word in the sentence. Prepositions often
describe locations or directions, but can describe other things,
such as relations of time.
They can often come at the beginning of a phrase.
e.g. at, through, by, of, with etc
These phrases often act as adverbials answering questions
such as ‘when’.
e.g. for ages, at midnight, before lunch, etc
These phrases often act as adverbials answering questions
such as ‘where’.
e.g. in the kitchen, over the rainbow etc
These phrases often act as adverbials answering questions
such as ‘how’.
‘link ideas together’
e.g. without a care in the world, at top speed
Coordinating conjunctions, such as and, but, or and so, can
link words, phrases or clauses.
black and white (words)
over the hills and far away (phrase)
I like coffee but I hate tea (clause)
Subordinating conjunctions (e.g. because, when, until,
although) open subordinate clauses, linking them to a main
clause
When she got home, she fell into bed because she was exhausted. (Since
these are adverbials, they can be moved around the sentence).
Because she was exhausted, when she got home she fell into bed.
Word families are groups of words that are sufficiently closely
related to each other to form a 'family'
Here are two examples of form-based word families:
word - wordy - word (verb) - wording - word-list … (but not: worth, worry)
Words can be grouped into families in two main ways:
prefix
clause
subordinate clause
they are similar in form
their meanings are related.
A prefix is added at the beginning of a word in order to turn it
into another word.
A clause that makes sense on its own is known as a main
clause. With a capital letter and full stop, it can be a singleclause sentence. The accepted grammatical term is simple
sentence, but when it involves expanded noun phrases and
plenty of adverbial detail, a single-clause sentence can carry a
lot of information.
Some clauses do not make sense on their own, so cannot
stand as complete sentences; these are subordinate clauses.
direct speech
Direct speech is used to give the exact words used by another
speaker. The words are given between inverted commas(" ")
in writing.
consonant
A sound which is produced when the speaker closes off or
obstructs the flow of air through the vocal tract, usually using
lips, tongue or teeth.
vowel letter
inverted commas
Most of the letters of the alphabet represent consonants.
a, e, i, o and u are vowel letters.
Inverted commas are the punctuation marks (` ') or (" ") which
are used in writing to show where speech or a quotation
begins and ends.
family - familiar - unfamiliar - familiarity - familiarise … (but not: famine,
famous)
overtake, disappear
The monster was happy.
The monster was singing because it was happy.
When the police arrived, the monster was singing.
The monster was singing, although it was tone deaf.
"I'm coming now," he said.
"I'm coming now," he said.
Grammar Terminology
Year 4
Word
determiner
pronoun
possessive
pronoun
Definition
‘homes you in on a noun’
Most noun phrases begin with a determiner.
The most common determiners are the two articles:
the definite article – the
the indefinite article - a/an
‘stand in place of a noun (or noun phrase)’
The lady with the lamp; his oldest friend; this question etc
The word begins with a consonant sound, e.g. a herd
The word begins with a vowel sound, e.g. an enormous herd
There are different types of pronouns (e.g. personal
pronouns, singular, plural and relative pronouns)
Personal pronouns can be first, second or third person.
Singular pronouns ( I/you/he/she/it)
Plural pronouns (we/you/they)
Relative pronouns (who, which, whose, whom, that, where) refer back to the noun
immediately before, e.g. The dog that saved its owner’s life is called Lassie.
Pronouns help avoid repetition, and therefore must agree
(in terms of person, number and gender) with the noun or
noun phrase to which they refer.
I like Lassie. She is a good dog.
They are an important element in cohesion, since they make
links between one part of a text and another.
‘stand in place of a noun (or noun phrase)’
Possessive pronouns do not need apostrophes.
adverbial
Example
Adverbials can be added to a clause, and are mobile.
The dog ate its dinner.
This is hers.
On Sundays, we eat cake in the garden.
We eat cake in the garden on Sundays.
In the garden, on Sundays, we eat cake.
Grammar Terminology
Year 5
Word
modal verb
Definition
Modal verbs are used to change the meaning of other
verbs. They can express meanings such as certainty,
ability, or obligation.
relative pronoun
Relative pronouns (who, which, whose, whom, that,
where) refer back to the noun.
parenthesis/brackets Brackets (also known as parenthesis) are often found
in informal or technical writing.
dash
cohesion
ambiguity
The dash signifies a sharp break in a sentence. As its
name suggests, it’s a rather slipshod punctuation mark
so should be used with discretion.
Cohesive texts (that is texts that hold together to
make meaning) need to make links between
sentences. Key ways in which this done are:
 the use of pronouns to refer back to
specific nouns/noun phrases
 adverbials.
Something that does not have a single clear meaning.
Example
will, would, shall, should, can, could, might, may, must
The dog that saved its owner’s life is called Lassie.
John and Jane (who were actually half brother and sister) both have red
hair.
She was really tired – the only thing to do was sleep.
There was a man in a raincoat standing in doorway.
He seemed to be watching us.
Words such as: however, also, alternatively; phrases e.g. in addition,
on the other hand
Grammar Terminology
Year 6
Word
subject
Definition
The subject of a verb is normally the noun, noun
phrase or pronoun that names the ‘do-er’ or ‘be-er’.
Example
Sam’s mother went out.
That is uncertain.
The subject’s normal position is:
just before the verb in a statement
just after the auxiliary verb, in a question.
The children will study the animals.
Will the children study the animals?
object
An object is normally a noun, pronoun or noun phrase
that comes straight after the verb, and shows what the
verb is acting upon.
Year 2 designed puppets. [noun acting as object]
Objects can be turned into the subject of a passive
verb, and cannot be adjectives.
Verbs can be active.
In active sentences, the thing doing the action is the
subject of the sentence and the thing receiving the
action is the object. Most sentences are active.
Some people suggested a pretty display. [noun phrase acting as object]
passive
synonym
The passive voice is often found in formal writing.
Two words are synonyms if they have the same
meaning, or similar meanings.
Britain was invaded by the British; The earth is warmed by the sun.
talk – speak
old – elderly
antonym
Two words are antonyms if their meanings are
opposites.
hot – cold
light – dark
light – heavy
active
I like that. [pronoun acting as object]
The Romans invaded Britain; The sun warms the earth.
ellipsis
Ellipsis is the omission of a word or phrase which is
expected and predictable.
hyphen
A hyphen is half the length of a dash, and it helps the
reader make sense of text by:
 showing when a word has been split into two
because it wouldn’t fit on one line
 linking words together to make the meaning
clear
 occasionally linking a prefix to a root word,
when there’s a possibility of ambiguity.
The colon suggests that the clauses ‘balance’ each
other in some way: the second may explain or
exemplify the first.
The semi-colon is an extra strong comma.
Bullet points are used when listing complex
information; a colon is used to introduce the bulleted
list.
colon
semi-colon
bullet points
Frankie waved to Ivana and [she] watched her drive away.
She did it because she wanted to. [do it]
thirty-two, odd-looking, mother-in-law
re-cover as opp recover
She was really tired: the only thing to do was sleep.
She was really tired; the only thing to do was sleep.
If the bullet points are not written as sentences, there’s no need for
punctuation at the end of each bullet (just a full stop after the last one).
However, if written as sentences each requires full sentence punctuation.