Key Stage 2

Year 3

Word

Definition

Example

preposition

 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.

These phrases often act as adverbials answering questions such as ‘when’.

These phrases often act as adverbials answering questions such as ‘where’.

These phrases often act as adverbials answering questions such as ‘how’.

e.g.  at, through, by, of, with etc

e.g. for ages, at midnight, before lunch, etc

e.g. in the kitchen, over the rainbow etc

e.g. without a care in the world, at top speed

conjunction

‘link ideas together’

Coordinating conjunctions, such as and, but, or and so, can link words, phrases or clauses.

Subordinating conjunctions (e.g. because, when, until, although) open subordinate clauses, linking them to a main clause

black and white (words)

over the hills and far away (phrase)

I like coffee but I hate tea (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 family

Word families are groups of words that are sufficiently closely related to each other to form a 'family'

Words can be grouped into families in two main ways:

they are similar in form

their meanings are related.

Here are two examples of form-based word families:

word - wordy - word (verb) - wording - word-list … (but not: worth, worry)

family - familiar - unfamiliar - familiarity - familiarise … (but not: famine, famous)

prefix

A prefix is added at the beginning of a word in order to turn it into another word.

overtake, disappear

clause

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 single-clause 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.

The monster was happy.

subordinate clause

Some clauses do not make sense on their own, so cannot stand as complete sentences; these are subordinate clauses.

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.

direct speech

Direct speech is used to give the exact words used by another speaker. The words are given between inverted commas(" ") in writing.

"I'm coming now," he said.

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.

Most of the letters of the alphabet represent consonants.

vowel letter

a, e, i, o and u are vowel letters.

inverted commas

Inverted commas are the punctuation marks (` ') or (" ") which are used in writing to show where speech or a quotation begins and ends.

"I'm coming now," he said.

Year 4

Word

Definition

Example

determiner

‘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

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

pronoun

‘stand in place of a noun (or noun phrase)’

There are different types of pronouns (e.g. personal pronouns, singular,  plural and relative pronouns)

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. 

They are an important element in cohesion, since they make links between one part of a text and another.

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.

I like Lassie. She is a good dog.

possessive pronoun

‘stand in place of a noun (or noun phrase)’

Possessive pronouns do not need apostrophes.

The dog ate its dinner.

This is hers.

adverbial

Adverbials can be added to a clause, and are mobile.

On Sundays, we eat cake in the garden.

We eat cake in the garden on Sundays.

In the garden, on Sundays, we eat cake.

Year 5

Word

Definition

Example

modal verb

Modal verbs are used to change the meaning of other verbs. They can express meanings such as certainty, ability, or obligation.

will, would, shall, should, can, could, might, may, must

relative pronoun

Relative pronouns (who, which, whose, whom, that, where) refer back to the noun.

The dog that saved its owner’s life is called Lassie.

parenthesis/brackets

Brackets (also known as parenthesis) are often found in informal or technical writing.

John and Jane (who were actually half brother and sister) both have red hair.

dash

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.

She was really tired – the only thing to do was sleep.

cohesion

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.

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

ambiguity

Something that does not have a single clear meaning.

Year 6

Word

Definition

Example

subject

The subject of a verb is normally the noun, noun phrase or pronoun that names the ‘do-er’ or ‘be-er’.

The subject’s normal position is:

just before the verb in a statement

just after the auxiliary verb, in a question.

Sam’s mother went out.

That is uncertain.

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.

Objects can be turned into the subject of a passive verb, and cannot be adjectives.

Year 2 designed puppets. [noun acting as object]

I like that. [pronoun acting as object]

Some people suggested a pretty display. [noun phrase acting as object]

active

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.

The Romans invaded Britain; The sun warms the earth.

passive

The passive voice is often found in formal writing.

Britain was invaded by the British; The earth is warmed by the sun.

synonym

Two words are synonyms if they have the same meaning, or similar meanings.

talk – speak

old – elderly

antonym

Two words are antonyms if their meanings are opposites.

hot – cold

light – dark

light – heavy

ellipsis

Ellipsis is the omission of a word or phrase which is expected and predictable.

Frankie waved to Ivana and [she] watched her drive away.

She did it because she wanted to. [do it]

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.

thirty-two, odd-looking, mother-in-law

re-cover as opp recover

colon

The colon suggests that the clauses ‘balance’ each other in some way: the second may explain or exemplify the first.

She was really tired: the only thing to do was sleep.

semi-colon

The semi-colon is an extra strong comma.

She was really tired; the only thing to do was sleep.

bullet points

Bullet points are used when listing complex information; a colon is used to introduce the bulleted list.

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.