LA

NGUAGE TERMINOLOGY

LINGUISTICS > the study of language

There are different types of linguistics, such as:

- SYNTAX = the study of the formation of sentences

- MORPHOLOGY = the study of the formation of words
- SEMANTICS = the study of the meaning of words and phrases
- PHONETICS = the study of speech sounds

TERMINOLOGY LIST

ABSTRACT NOUN (the opposite of a CONCRETE NOUN) > The name of something which we
experience as an idea, not by touching – e.g. doubt, friendship, happiness, geography

ACTIVE VOICE (the opposite of PASSIVE VOICE) > An active tense is one like breaks, told, will help (not
like is broken, was told, will be helped, which are PASSIVE tenses). The subject of an active tense is
usually the person or things that does the action, or that is responsible for what happens (see VOICE)

ADJECTIVE > A word like green, hungry, impossible, which is used when we describe people, things,
events etc. Adjectives are used in connection with nouns and pronouns – e.g. a green apple, She’s
hungry.

ADVERB > A word like tomorrow (adverb of time), once, usually (frequency adverbs), slowly, well,
suddenly, fast (adverbs of manner), here (adverb of place), … which is used to say when, where or
how something happens.

AFFIRMATIVE > An affirmative sentence is one that makes a positive statement, not a negative
sentence or a question. Compare I agree (affirmative); I don’t agree (NEGATIVE); Do you agree?
(question)

AFFIX > A group of letters added to the beginning or end of a word to change its meaning or use, such
as un-, mis-, -ness, or -ly’. DERIVATIVES are formed by adding an affix (PREFIX and/or SUFFIX) to a
headword.

AGENT > In a PASSIVE sentence, the agent is the expression that says who or what an action is done
by – e.g. This picture was probably painted by a child.

ANTONYM > A word that means the opposite of another word – e.g. fast and slow; good and bad,
black and white are all antonyms.

ARTICLE > A, an and the are called ‘articles’. A/an is called the INDEFINITE ARTICLE; the is called
DEFINITE ARTICLE

ASPECT > A tense can be SIMPLE, CONTINUOUS (also called PROGRESSIVE), PERFECT SIMPLE, or
PERFECT CONTINUOUS

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AUXILIARY VERB (also called HELPING VERB) > The verbs be, have, do which are used with another
verb to make tenses, questions, negatives and passive forms – e.g. She was writing, They have
written a letter, Where do you live?, I did not go to school, The car is made in Germany (see MAIN
VERB)

BARE INFINITIVE > The INFINITIVE without to. It is the verb’s most basic form – e.g. begin, work,
study (see FULL INFINITIVE)

CHIEF TENSES > The chief tenses of a verb are the three forms that you see on a typical irregular verb
list (e.g. to go – went – gone), i.e. the infinitive, the simple past tense and the past participle.

CLAUSE > A clause is a part of a SENTENCE which contains a subject and a verb.

COLLECTIVE NOUN > A singular word for a group – e.g. family, team

COLLOCATION > The way in which some words are often used together, or a particular combination
of words used in this way – e.g. commit a crime, take an exam, watch television

COMMON NOUN (the opposite of PROPER NOUN) > Any noun that is not the name of a particular
person, place, or thing e.g. book, sugar, stuff are common nouns.

COMPARATIVE (FORM) > The form of an adjective or adverb made with -er – e.g. older, faster. Also
the structure more + adjective/adverb, used in the same way – e.g. more useful, more politely (see
also POSITIVE & SUPERLATIVE FORM)

COMPOUND WORDS > A compound word is one that is made of two or more words. Bus driver,
wastepaper basket are compound nouns. Four-wheel in ‘a four-wheel vehicle’ is a compound
adjective.

CONCRETE NOUN (the opposite of ABSTRACT NOUN) > The name of something which we can
experience by seeing, touching etc – e.g. cloud, raspberry, petrol

CONDITIONAL > A verb form made by using the auxiliary would – e.g. I would run, She would sing / A
clause or sentence containing if – e.g. If you try you’ll understand.

CONJUGATE > Conjugated verbs are verbs which have been changed to communicate one or more of
the following: PERSON (cf. first, second, or third person), NUMBER (cf. singular or plural), time (cf.
past, present, future), ASPECT (simple, continuous, perfect), mood (cf. indicative mood to make a
statement; interrogative mood for questions; imperative mood to give commands and instructions
etc), or VOICE (cf. active versus passive).

CONJUNCTION > A word like and, but, although, because, when, if, which can be used to join
CLAUSES together – e.g. I rang because I was worried.

CONNOTATION > A quality or an idea that a word makes you think of that is more than its basic
meaning – e.g. the word skinny has a negative connotation, slim and slender on the other hand have
positive connotations, yet all three words mean more or less the same, i.e. not fat (see DENOTATION)

CONSONANT (the opposite of VOWEL) > For example the letters b, c, d, f, g are consonants.

CONTEXT (cf. MEANING IN CONTEXT) > To really know a word, you must be able to use it in context,
i.e. in a sentence with other words. The same word may have an entirely different meaning in a
different context – e.g. Good football teams win their home matches; Don’t let your children play
with matches; How do I find makeup that matches my skin?

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CONTINUOUS (also called PROGRESSIVE) > A tense made with the auxiliary be + … ing – e.g. is
staying, were reading (see ASPECT)

CONTRACTION (also called ‘contracted form’) > A short form in which a subject and an auxiliary verb,
or an auxiliary verb and the word not, are joined together into one word. Contractions are also made
with non-auxiliary be and have – e.g. I’m, John‘ll , can’t, isn’t.

COORDINATE CLAUSE > see SENTENCE

COUNTABLE NOUN (the opposite of UNCOUNTABLE NOUN) > A noun like car, dog, idea, which can
have a plural form, and can be used with the indefinite article a/an.

DECLARATIVE SENTENCE > A declarative sentence is a sentence that makes a statement, provides a
fact, offers an explanation, or conveys information. It is the most commonly used type of sentence. It
usually ends with a full stop, and normally the subject comes before the verb – e.g. My dog is sick
and that makes me very sad.

DEFINITE ARTICLE > the (see ARTICLE)

DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE (the opposite of NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE) > A relative clause
which identifies a noun; which tells us which person or thing is being talked about – e.g. There’s the
woman who tried to steal your cat. > The relative clause who tried to steal your cat identifies the
woman.

DEMONSTRATIVE > this, these, that, those

DENOTATION > The literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the
word suggests (see CONNOTATION)

DERIVATIVE > A derivative is the result of adding an AFFIX (PREFIX and/or SUFFIX) to a headword –
e.g. (un)friendly, defriend, friendship are all words which are derived from the headword friend.

DICTIONARY > A monolingual dictionary explains the meaning of a word in the language that you are
learning. A bilingual dictionary provides a translation or explanation using another language, a
language you are very familiar with, usually your native language.

DIRECT OBJECT ( & INDIRECT OBJECT) > see OBJECT

DIRECT SPEECH (the opposite of INDIRECT SPEECH) > Speech reported directly, in the words used by
the original speaker, without any changes of tense, pronouns etc – e.g. She looked at me and said
‘This is my money’

DISCOURSE MARKER > A word or expression which shows the connection between what is being said
and the wider context. A discourse marker may, for example, connect a sentence with what comes
before or after, or it may show the speaker’s attitude to what he/she is saying – e.g. on the other
hand, frankly, as a matter of fact

DURATION > Duration is how long something lasts. The preposition for can be used with an
expression of time to indicate duration – e.g. I rained for three days.

ELLIPSIS > Leaving out words when their meaning can be understood from the context – e.g. It was
better than I expected (it would be).

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EMPHASIS > Giving special importance to one part of a word or sentence (for example by
pronouncing it more loudly; by writing it in capital letters; by using do in an affirmative clause; by
using special word order).

EMPHATIC PRONOUN > REFLEXIVE pronoun (myself, yourself, ourselves etc) used to emphasise a
noun (e.g. The king himself showed up at the ceremony) or to emphasise a pronoun (e.g. I’ll tell him
myself).

EXCLAMATORY SENTENCE > Exclamatory sentences make statements that express strong feeling or
strong emotion. You can identify exclamatory sentences by their punctuation mark; all exclamatory
sentences end with an exclamation mark – e.g. What an amazing sunset!; I hate your guts!; That’s
such a beautiful wedding ring!

FALSE FRIEND > A word in a foreign language that is similar to one in your own, so that you wrongly
think they both mean the same thing – e.g. fabric, eventually, sensible

FINITE VERB (the opposite of NON-FINITE VERB) > A finite verb is a form of a verb that shows
agreement with a subject and is marked for tense – e.g. I love London; She loves her boyfriend; He
loved his dad, are sentences which contain finite forms of the verb love.

FORMAL (the opposite of INFORMAL) > The style used when talking politely to strangers, on special
occasions, in some literary writing, in business letters, etc – e.g. commence is a more formal word
than start (see REGISTER)

FREQUENCY ADVERB > Adverbs of frequency say how often something happens – e.g. often, never,
daily, occasionally

FULL INFINITIVE > The INFINITIVE with to. When you use a full infinitive, the to is part of the verb, not
a preposition – e.g. to begin, to work, to study (see BARE INFINITIVE)

FULL VERB > see LEXICAL VERB

FUTURE > A tense made with the auxiliary will + infinitive without to – e.g. I will arrive.

FUTURE PERFECT > A tense made with will + have + past participle – e.g. She will have finished by
lunchtime.

FUTURE CONTINUOUS (also called FUTURE PROGRESSIVE) > A tense made with will + be + …ing – e.g.
They will be needing the car this evening.

GENDER > The use of different grammatical forms to show the difference between masculine,
feminine and neuter, or between human and non-human – e.g. he, she, it, who, which

GERUND > The form of a verb ending in -ing, used like a noun (for example, as the subject or object
of a sentence) – e.g. Smoking is bad for you. / I hate getting up.

HELPING VERB > see AUXILIARY VERB

HOMOGRAPH > A word that is spelled the same as another, but is different in meaning, and
pronunciation – e.g. the noun record is a homograph of the verb record; the plural noun lives and the
conjugated verb lives

HOMONYM > A word that is spelled the same and sounds the same as another, but is different in
meaning – e.g. the noun bear and the verb bear are homonyms

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HOMOPHONE > A word that sounds the same as another but is different in spelling, and meaning –
e.g. knew and new are homophones

HYPOTHETICAL > Some words and structures (e.g. modal verbs, if-clauses) are used for hypothetical
situations, i.e. situations which may not happen or are imaginary – e.g. What would you do if you
won the lottery?

IDENTIFYING RELATIVE CLAUSE > see DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE

IDIOM > A group of words that has a special meaning that is different from the ordinary meaning of
each separate word – e.g. under the weather is an idiom(atic expression) meaning ill, to get cold feet

IMPERATIVE > The tense used to give orders, instructions, etc. – e.g. Leave, Shut up!

IMPERATIVE SENTENCE > Imperative sentences are used to deliver an instruction, command, or
request. Usually, these kinds of sentences will end in a full stop, although they occasionally use an
exclamation point – e.g. Pass the butter; Get out of my face!

INDEFINITE ARTICLE > a / an (see ARTICLE)

INDIRECT OBJECT ( & DIRECT OBJECT) > see OBJECT

INDIRECT SPEECH - also called REPORTED SPEECH (the opposite of DIRECT SPEECH) > A structure in
which we report what somebody said by making it part of our own sentence (so that the tenses,
word order, and pronouns and other words may be different from those used by the original
speaker). Compare: He said ‘I’m tired’ ( > the original speaker’s words are reported in DIRECT
SPEECH) and He said that he was tired ( > the original speaker’s words are reported in INDIRECT
SPEECH).

INFINITIVE > see BARE INFINITIVE & FULL INFINITIVE

-ING FORM > The form of a verb ending in -ing – e.g. finding, keeping, running

INFORMAL (the opposite of FORMAL) > The style used in ordinary conversation, personal letters etc,
when there is no special reason to speak politely or carefully. I’ll is more informal than I will, cop is an
informal word for police officer (see REGISTER)

INSEPARABLE PHRASAL VERB (the opposite of SEPARABLE PHRASAL VERB) > see PHRASAL VERB

INTERROGATIVE > Interrogative structures and words are used for asking questions. In an
interrogative sentence, there is an auxiliary verb before the subject (e.g. Do you go to school?).
What, where, who, when, why, which, whose, how are interrogative words.

INTERROGATIVE SENTENCE (also called INTERROGATORY SENTENCE) > Interrogative sentences ask a
direct question, and are therefore punctuated by a question mark at the end of the sentence – e.g.
Who are you?; Where is the brown building?; Why were you so depressed yesterday?

INTONATION > The way in which the level of your voice changes in order to add meaning to what you
are saying, for example by going up at the end of a question.

INTRANSITIVE VERB (the opposite of TRANSITIVE VERB) > An intransitive verb is one that cannot have
an object or be used in the passive – e.g. smile, fall, come, go. Some verbs can be both transitive and
intransitive but with a difference in meaning – e.g. My father drinks (= he is addicted to alcohol) &
My father drinks two cups of coffee every day.

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INVERSION > A structure in which an auxiliary or other verb comes before its subject – e.g. Never had
she seen such a mess; Here comes John

IRREGULAR (the opposite of REGULAR) > Not following the normal rules, or not having the usual
form. An irregular verb has a simple past tense and/or past participle that does not end in -ed – e.g.
swam, taken. Children is an irregular plural.

LEXICAL VERB (also called FULL VERB) > Lexical verbs express meaning; they add meaning to a
sentence. In the sentence I have had a car; the verb have is first used as an AUXILIARY VERB (to form
a present perfect tense) and then as a LEXICAL (FULL) VERB meaning to possess.

MAIN CLAUSE > see SENTENCE

MAIN VERB > A verb phrase often contains one or more AUXILIARY VERBS together with a main verb.
The main verb is the verb which expresses the central meaning; auxiliary verbs mostly add
grammatical information (for instance they may show that a verb is continuous, future, perfect or
passive) – e.g. has arrived > has is the auxiliary verb / arrived is the main verb

MEANING > The thing or idea that a word, expression, or sign represents – e.g. I don’t know the
precise meaning of the word thyroid gland. Is it an organ or… ?

MODAL AUXILIARY VERB > One of the verbs can, could, may, might, must, will, shall, would, should,
ought. They are used with another verb to express ideas such as possibility, necessity, and
permission.

NEGATIVE > A negative sentence is one in which the word not is used with the verb – e.g. I did not
know.

NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE (the opposite of DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE) > A relative clause
which does not identify the noun it refers to because we already know which person or thing is
meant – e.g. There’s Hannah Smith, who tried to steal my cat. > The relative clause who tried to steal
my cat does not identify the person, she is already identified by the name Hannah Smith.

NON-FINITE VERB (the opposite of FINITE VERB) > Non-finite verbs are not marked for tense and do
not show agreement with a subject. A non-finite verb can be an infinitive (e.g. walk), a present
participle (e.g. walking), or a past participle (e.g. walked).

NON-IDENTIFYING RELATIVE CLAUSE > see NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE

NOUN > A word like oil, memory, arm, etc which can be used with an article. Nouns are most often
the names of people or things. Personal names (e.g. John) and place names (e.g. Manchester) are
called PROPER NOUNS.

NOUN PHRASE > see PHRASE

NUMBER > The way in which differences between singular and plural are shown grammatically. The
differences between house and houses, mouse and mice, this and these are differences in number.

OBJECT (DIRECT OBJECT & INDIRECT OBJECT) > The object is a noun phrase or pronoun that normally
comes after the verb in an active clause. The DIRECT OBJECT most often refers to a person or thing
(or people or things) affected by the action of the verb. – e.g. In the sentence ‘Take the dog for a
walk’, the dog is the direct object. / The INDIRECT OBJECT usually refers to a person (or people) who
receive(s) the direct object – e.g. In the sentence ‘John gave me a watch’, the indirect object is me.

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PARTICLE > An adverb or preposition that can combine with a verb to form a phrasal verb – e.g. look
after, put down

PARTITIVE EXPRESSION > Partitive expressions make it possible to express a plural concept of
UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS – e.g. two pieces of advice, four slices/loaves of bread

PART OF SPEECH (also called WORD CLASS) > One of the types into which words are divided in
grammar according to their use, such as noun, verb, or adjective.

PASSIVE VOICE (the opposite of ACTIVE VOICE) > A passive tense is made with be + past participle –
e.g. is broken, was told, will be helped (but not breaks, told, will help, which are ACTIVE tenses). The
subject of a passive tense is usually the person or thing that is affected by the action of the verb.
Compare: They sent John to prison for five years (ACTIVE) and John was sent to prison for five years
(PASSIVE)

PAST CONTINUOUS – also called PAST PROGRESSIVE > A tense made with was/were + …ing – e.g. I
was going, They were shopping

PAST PARTICIPLE > A verb form like walked, stopped, broken, gone, which can be used to form
perfect tenses (e.g. I have walked) and passives (e.g. The game was stopped) , or as an adjective (e.g.
a broken heart).

PAST PERFECT SIMPLE > A tense made with had + past participle – e.g. I had forgotten, The children
had arrived.

PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS (also called PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE) > A tense made with had been
+ …ing – e.g. She had been working, It had been rainin.g

PAST PROGRESSIVE > see PAST CONTINUOUS

PAST SIMPLE > see SIMPLE PAST

PERFECT > A tense made with the auxiliary have + past participle – e.g. he has worked, they had
taken (see ASPECT)

PERSON > The way in which, in grammar, we show the difference between the person(s) speaking
(first person singular and plural), the person(s) spoken to (second person singular and plural), and the
person, people or thing(s) spoken about (third person singular and plural). The differences between I
and you, or between am, are and is, are differences of person.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS > The words I, me, you, he, him etc

PHRASAL VERB (also called MULTI-WORD VERBS) > An idiomatic phrase ( = an expression whose
meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements) consisting of a verb
and another element, typically either an adverb (e.g. break down), or a preposition (e.g. see to), or a
combination of both (e.g. look down on). Phrasal verbs may be separable or inseparable. SEPARABLE
PHRASAL VERBS can be separated by another word that goes in between the verb and the PARTICLE -
e.g. I need to put my jacket on. An INSEPARABLE PHRASAL VERB is a phrasal verb that can't be
separated. This means that the verb and the particle need to be together and nothing can go in
between to separate them – e.g. Could you look after the kids for me?

PHRASE > A group of words without a FINITE VERB, especially when they are used to form part of a
sentence, such as dead tired ( = adjective phrase), the silly old woman ( = noun phrase), would have
been repaired ( = verb phrase), etc

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PLURAL (the opposite of SINGULAR) > Grammatical form used to refer to more than one person or
thing. – e.g. we, buses, children, are, many, these

POSITIVE (FORM) > The positive form of an adjective or adverb is the simplest form of that adjective
or adverb – e.g. old, fast, slow(ly), useful, polite(ly), intelligent (see COMPARATIVE & SUPERLATIVE
FORM)

POSSESSIVE > A form used to show possession – e.g. John’s birthday, our responsibilities, that book is
mine

POSSESSIVE PRONOUN > My, your, his her etc (used before nouns – e.g. their house) / mine, yours,
his, hers etc (used without following nouns – e.g. that jumper is hers) are possessive pronouns.

PREFIX (the opposite of SUFFIX) > A form like ex-, dis-, im- etc which can be added to the front of a
word to give an additional or different meaning – e.g. ex-wife, anti-British, unhappy (see AFFIX)

PREPOSITION > a word like on, off, into, at etc – e.g. at 7 o’clock in the morning, the brain is located
inside the skull, the trees in the park

PRESENT CONTINUOUS (also called PRESENT PROGRESSIVE) > A tense made with am/are/is + …ing –
e.g. I am going, She is staying for two weeks.

PRESENT PARTICIPLE (also called -ING FORM) > The form of a verb ending in -ing, used as an
adjective, or part of a verb – e.g. a crying baby, She was running.

PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE > A tense made up with have/has + past participle – e.g. I have forgotten,
She has arrived

PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS (also called PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE) > A tense made with
have/has been + …ing – e.g. It has been raining, I have been working all day

PRESENT SIMPLE > see SIMPLE PRESENT

PROGRESSIVE > see CONTINUOUS

PRONOUN > A word that is used instead of a noun or noun phrase, such as he instead of John or her
husband, it instead of the table, I’ll take these

PRONOUNCE > To make the sound of a letter, word etc, especially in the correct way – e.g. How do
you pronounce jeopardize? – Well, the correct pronunciation is [ˈdʒep.ə.daɪz] - cf. phonetic
transcription > Phonetic transcription is the visual representation of speech sounds. It is usually
written in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), in which each English sound has its own symbol.
Phonetic transcription is usually given in brackets /ˈɪŋ. ɡlɪʃ / or in square brackets [ˈɪŋ.

PROPER NOUN (the opposite of COMMON NOUN) > A noun such as John, New York, Harrods, etc that
is the name of one particular thing and is written with a capital letter. Proper nouns are usually used
without articles (see NOUN)

PUNCTUATION MARKS > Signs used to divide a piece of writing into sentences, phrases etc – cf. full
stop (BE) or period (AE), comma, question mark, exclamation mark/point, colon, semicolon, in
brackets (BE) or in parentheses (AE), apostrophe, hyphen, in inverted commas (BE) or in quotation
marks

QUESTION TAG > An expression like do you? Or isn’t it?, consisting of an auxiliary verb + subject
pronoun, put on the end of a sentence – e.g. You don’t eat meat, do you?, It’s a nice day, isn’t it?

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REFLEXIVE PRONOUN > myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves –
e.g. I cut myself shaving this morning

REGISTER > Register is the level and style of your language. It should be appropriate for the situation
you are in. There are three types of language register: FORMAL, INFORMAL, and neutral.

REGULAR (the opposite of IRREGULAR) > Following the normal rules or having the usual form – e.g.
hoped is a regular simple past tense; cats is a regular plural

RELATIVE CLAUSE > A CLAUSE which *modifies a noun, usually introduced by a RELATIVE PRONOUN
like who or which – e.g. I like people who are honest; Students eat food which is cheap / see also
DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE (also called IDENTIFYING RELATIVE CLAUSE) & NON-DEFINING RELATIVE
CLAUSE (also called NON-IDENTIFYING RELATIVE CLAUSE)

*to modify > If an adjective, adverb etc modifies another word, it describes something or
limits the word’s meaning. In the phrase walk slowly, the adverb slowly modifies the verb
walk.

RELATIVE PRONOUN > A pronoun used to connect a relative clause to its noun. Who, whom, whose,
which, that, when, where, why can be used as relative pronouns – e.g. There is the man who wants to
buy my car; This is the room which needs painting; Do you remember the day when we met?

REPORTED SPEECH > see INDIRECT SPEECH

SENTENCE > A group of words that expresses a statement (= a DECLARATIVE SENTENCE), command
(= an IMPERATIVE SENTENCE) , question (= an INTERROGATORY/INTERROGATIVE SENTENCE) or
exclamation (= an EXCLAMATORY SENTENCE). A sentence consists of one or more CLAUSES, and
usually has at least one subject and verb. In writing, it begins with a capital letter and ends with a full
stop, question mark or exclamation mark.

CLAUSE > A clause is a part of a sentence which contains a subject and a verb – e.g. John said
that he was tired.

Some sentences consist of a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses.

A SUBORDINATE CLAUSE acts like a part of the MAIN CLAUSE – e.g. Where she is doesn’t
matter > the subordinate clause Where she is is the subject of the main clause / I told you
that I didn’t care > the subordinate clause that I didn’t care is the direct object in the main
clause / You’ll find friends wherever you go > the subordinate clause wherever you go acts
like an adverb in the main clause (cf. wherever you go can be replaced by anywhere).

A COORDINATE CLAUSE is one of two or more main or subordinate clauses of equal ‘value’
that are connected – e.g. Shall I come to your place or would you like to come to mine?; It’s
cooler today and there’s a bit of wind (= 2 main clauses) / She said that it was late and that
she was tired (= 2 subordinate clauses)

SEPARABLE PHRASAL VERB (the opposite of INSEPARABLE PHRASAL VERB) > see PHRASAL VERB

SIMPLE > A tense that is not CONTINUOUS – e.g. He works (see ASPECT)

SIMPLE PAST (also called PAST SIMPLE) > A past tense that has no auxiliary verb in the affirmative –
e.g. I stopped, You heard, We knew

SIMPLE PRESENT (also called PRESENT SIMPLE) > A present tense that has no auxiliary verb in the
affirmative – e.g. He goes there often, I know, They like chocolate.

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SINGULAR (the opposite of PLURAL) > A grammatical form used to talk about one person, thing, or
about an uncountable quantity – e.g. me, bus, water, is, much, this

SLANG > A word, expression or special use of language found mainly in very INFORMAL speech, often
in the usage of particular groups of people – e.g. thick (= stupid); lose one’s cool (= get upset)

SPELLING > The way a particular word is spelt (BE)/spelled (AE). When you spell, you form a word or
words with the correct letters in the correct order – e.g. How do you spell receive? – It is R-E-C-E-I-V-
E, so the e comes before the i

STANDARD > A standard form of language is the one that is most generally accepted for use in
government, the law, business, education and literature – e.g. I’m not is standard English; I ain’t is
non-standard English.

STATEMENT > A sentence which gives information; not a question – e.g. I’m cold (= positive
statement); John didn’t come home last night (= negative statement)

STRESS > The way in which one or more parts of a word, phrase or sentence are made to sound more
important than the rest, by using a louder voice and/or higher pitch – e.g. In the word particular, the
main stress is on the second SYLLABLE; in the sentence Where’s the new secretary?, there are three
stresses.

SUBJECT > A noun, noun phrase, or pronoun that usually comes before a main verb and represents
the person or thing that performs the action of the verb, or about which something is stated, for
example she in She hit John; or elephants in Elephants are big

SUBORDINATE CLAUSE > see SENTENCE

SUFFIX (the opposite of PREFIX) > A form like -able, -ness, -ese etc which can be added to the end of a
word to give an additional or different meaning – e.g. understandable, stubbornness, Chinese (see
AFFIX)

SUPERLATIVE (FORM) > The form of an adjective or adverb made with the suffix -est – e.g. oldest,
fastest. Also the structure most + adjective/adverb, used in the same way – e.g. most intelligent,
most politely (see also POSITIVE & COMPARATIVE FORM)

SWEARWORD > A TABOO WORD used (usually with a change of meaning) to express strong emotion
or emphasis – e.g. Fuck!

SYLLABLE > The word cat has one syllable, cattle has two, cataract has three and category has four. A
syllable normally has a VOWEL, and usually one or more CONSONANTS before and/or after it.

SYNONYM > A word with the same meaning as another word in the same language – e.g. shut is a
synonym of closed.

TABOO WORD > A word that many people consider offensive or shocking, for example because it
refers to sex, the body or people’s race (e.g. bitch, asshole, nigger).

TENSE > Any of the forms of a verb that show the time, duration, or completion of an action or state
that is expressed by the verb. There are three main verb tenses in English: present (e.g. I walk), past
(e.g. I walked) and future (e.g. I will walk). The present, past and future tenses are divided into four
aspects: the simple, continuous (also called ‘progressive’), perfect (simple), and perfect continuous.
There are 12 major verb tenses that English learners should know.

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TRANSITIVE VERB (the opposite of INTRANSITIVE VERB) > A transitive verb is one that can have an
object – e.g. eat (a meal), drive (a car), give (a present)

UNCOUNTABLE NOUN (the opposite of COUNTABLE NOUN) > A noun which has no plural form and
cannot normally be used with an indefinite article – e.g. mud, rudeness, furniture (see PARTITIVE
EXPRESSION)

VERB > A word like ask, play, be, can, which can be used with a SUBJECT to form the basis of a
CLAUSE. Most verbs refer to actions, events or states. Verbs are CONJUGATED

VERB PHRASE > see PHRASE

VOICE > The tense that shows whether the subject of a sentence does an action or has an action
done to it (> see ACTIVE & PASSIVE VOICE)

VOWEL (the opposite of CONSONANT) > In English the vowels are a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y

WORD CLASS > see PART OF SPEECH

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