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accuracy

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The use of correct forms of grammar, vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation. In an accuracy activity, teachers and learners typically focus on using and producing language correctly.

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active voice

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In an active sentence, the subject of the verb usually does or causes the action, e.g. The captain scored the winning goal.

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adjective

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A part of speech that describes or gives more information about a noun or pronoun, e.g. a cold day.

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comparative adjective

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An adjective that compares two things, e.g. He is taller than she is.

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demonstrative adjective

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An adjective that shows whether something is near or far from the speaker, e.g. this (near), that (far).

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superlative adjective

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An adjective that compares more than two things, e.g. He is the tallest boy in the class.

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adverb

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A part of speech that describes or gives more information about how, when, where, or to what degree etc something is done, e.g. he worked quickly and well.

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article

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An article can be definite (the), indefinite (a/an) or zero (-), e.g. I was at (-) home in the sitting room when I heard a noise.

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clause

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It generally consists of a subject and a finite verb relating to the subject and any other elements, e.g. object. It can be a full sentence or a part of a sentence.

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complement

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Words or phrases that complete the meaning of another word or a sentence e.g. in the sentence 'He gave the man a ticket', 'the man a ticket' is the complement. In 'Jane was unavailable', 'unavailable' is the complement.

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complex sentence

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A sentence containing a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses.

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conjunction

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Also called a connector, it is used to connect words, phrases, clauses or sentences, e.g. I like tea but I don't like coffee because it's too strong for me.

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determiner

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It is used to make clear which noun is referred to, or to give information about quantity, and includes words such as the, a, this, that, my, some, e.g. That car is mine.

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direct speech

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The actual words someone says, e.g. He said, 'My name is Ron.', 'What do you mean, Sue?', asked Peter.

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focus on form

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Paying attention to the words/parts of words that make a language structure or to spelling or pronunciation.

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form

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The form of a grammatical structure is the way it is written or pronounced and the parts which combine to make it, e.g. the present perfect (grammatical structure) is made up of have + past participle (the form).

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function

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The reason or purpose for communication, e.g. making a suggestion; giving advice.

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function word

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A word with little semantic meaning that is included in a sentence or utterance mainly to help form its grammatical structure and convey its grammatical meaning e.g. in the sentence 'Bill was spending the evening at home', 'was', 'the' and 'at' are function words. See

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gerund

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A form of a verb functioning as a noun, which ends in -ing, e.g. I hate shopping.

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imperative

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The form of a verb that gives an order or instruction, e.g. Turn to page 10.

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indirect question

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An indirect question is used when someone wants to ask something in a more polite way, e.g. 'I was wondering if you could help me.' (indirect question) instead of 'Could you help me?' (direct question).

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intransitive

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Is a term used to describe a verb which does not take a direct object, e.g. She never cried.

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non-finite verb

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A part of the verb which does not show time or person, e.g. the infinitive (He needed to have a holiday), the present participle (Not understanding the question, he gave the wrong answer).

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noun

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A person, place or thing, e.g. elephant, girl, grass, school.

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collective noun

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A noun that refers to a group of people or things, e.g. the police, the government.

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common noun

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A noun that is not the name of a particular person, place or thing, e.g. table, book.

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compound noun

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A combination of two or more words, which are used as a single word, e.g. a flower shop, a headache.

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countable noun

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A noun that has a singular and plural form, e.g. book - books.

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plural noun

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A noun that is more than one person, place or thing and can be regular or irregular, e.g. boys, women.

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proper noun

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A noun that is the name of a person or place, e.g. Robert, London.

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uncountable noun

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A noun that does not have a plural form, e.g. information.

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noun phrase

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A single word or a group of words that act as the subject, object or complement in a sentence or utterance. It usually contains a noun and words occurring before or after the noun that modify it, e.g. in the sentence 'The tall shy-looking girl on the right is my sister.' the underlined words make up noun phrases.

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object

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This is a noun or phrase that describes the thing or person that is affected by the action of a verb, e.g. I saw Mary in the classroom.

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direct object

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The main object of a transitive verb.

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indirect object

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An object affected by a verb but not directly acted on, e.g. He gave the book to me. In this sentence, the book is the direct object and me is an indirect object.

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part of speech

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A way of categorising words according to their grammatical function and meaning, e.g. noun, verb, adjective, pronoun, adverb, preposition, conjunction.

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participle

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-ed and -ing forms of the verb, they are often used to make tenses or adjectives, e.g. I'm going home. (present participle); I haven't seen him today. (past participle)

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particle

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A small grammatical word, often an adverb or preposition which does not change its form when used in a sentence, e.g. after is a particle in the phrasal verb look after.

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passive voice

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In a passive sentence, something is done to or happens to the subject of the sentence, e.g. They were taken to the airport by taxi.

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preposition

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A word used before a noun, pronoun or gerund to connect it to another word, e.g. He was in the garden.

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dependent preposition

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Many nouns, verbs and adjectives are followed by a particular preposition. These prepositions are dependent prepositions, e.g. interested in, depend on, bored with.

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pronoun

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A word that replaces or refers to a noun or noun phrase just mentioned.

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demonstrative pronoun

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A pronoun which refers to a noun (phrase) and shows whether it is near or far from the speaker, e.g. this, that, these, those.

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object pronoun

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A pronoun which replaces an object noun or an object noun phrase, e.g. him, her.

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personal pronoun

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A pronoun which is used instead of the name of a person, e.g. I (subject pronoun), me (object pronoun).

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possessive pronoun

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A pronoun used to replace a noun and shows something belongs to someone, e.g. the house is mine.

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reflexive pronoun

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A pronoun used when the object of a sentence refers to the same person or thing as the subject of the sentence, e.g. He cut himself.

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relative pronoun

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A pronoun that introduces a relative clause, e.g. the book which I'm reading is interesting.

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punctuation

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The symbols or marks used to organise writing into clauses, phrases and sentences to make the meaning clear.

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quantifier

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A word or phrase such as much, few or a lot of which is used with a noun to show an amount, e.g. I don't have much time; I have a lot of books about music.

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question tag

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A phrase that is added to the end of a sentence to make it a question, or to check that someone agrees with the statement just made, e.g. It's very cold, isn't it? It isn't very far, is it?

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reported speech

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When someone's words are reported by another person, e.g. She said she was sorry.

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state/stative verbs

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Verbs which describe a state or situation rather than an action. They tend not to be used in the progressive/continuous e.g. to want, to contain.

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subject

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This is the noun or phrase that goes before the verb to show who is doing the action in an active sentence, e.g. John plays tennis every Saturday, or who or what the action is done to in a passive sentence, e.g. The food was cooked yesterday.

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subject-verb agreement

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When the form of the verb matches the person doing the action of the verb, e.g. I walk, he walks. If a learner writes 'I walks', then it is wrong because there is no subject-verb agreement.

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subordinating conjunction

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A conjunction that links a main clause with a subordinate clause e.g. though, while, because.

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tense

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A form of the verb that shows whether something happens in the past, present or future.

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transitive

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A verb which takes a direct object, e.g. She wrote a letter.

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verb

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A word used to show an action, state, event or process, e.g. I like cheese; He speaks Italian.

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auxiliary verb

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A verb that is used with other verbs to make questions, negatives, tenses, etc. e.g. be, do, have.

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base form of a verb

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The infinitive form of a verb without 'to', e.g. go.

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infinitive form

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The base form of a verb with 'to'. It is used after another verb, after an adjective or noun or as the subject or object of a sentence, e.g. 'I want to study.', 'It's difficult to understand.'

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irregular verb

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A verb that has its own way of forming the past simple and past participle, e.g. go - went (past simple) - gone (past participle).

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modal verb

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A verb that is used with other verbs to show ideas such as ability or obligation or possibility. They include can, must, will, should, e.g. I can speak French, but I should study even harder.

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multiword verb

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A verb that is made up of a verb and one or more particles (adverbs and/or prepositions). Its meaning is not the same as the meaning of the individual verbs and participles that make it. It may have more than one meaning, e.g. Get your coat on and then we can leave (wear), How are you getting on with that job (progressing).

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phrasal verb

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A type of multiword verb which is made up of a verb + an adverb particle, e.g. look after - A mother looks after her children.

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regular verb

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A very that changes its forms by adding -ed in the past simple and past participle, e.g. walk - walked.

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reporting verb

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A verb such as tell, advise, suggest used in reported speech to report what someone has said, e.g. Jane advised John to study harder.

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verb pattern

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The form of the words following the verb, e.g. He advised me to get there early. (advise + object pronoun + to + base form).

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verb phrase

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The part of a sentence containing a main verb and any other verbs that qualify it, e.g. He must have heard me; Those fantastic things couldn't have been made by machine.

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verbs of perception

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Verbs related to the senses or emotions, e.g. hear, see, smell, taste, feel. These verbs follow distinctive grammatical patterns

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wh- question

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Wh- questions start with a wh- word and expect information in reply; not just yes or no, e.g. Where do you live? I live in France.

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wh- word

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Wh- words introduce wh- questions and indirect questions. Wh- words include who, whom, what, which, whose, how, why, where, when.

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finite verb

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A part of the verb which shows time or person e.g. in the sentence 'He goes away, laughing, 'goes' shows time and person whereas 'laughing' shows neither.

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dynamic verb

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Verbs referring to actions, events or bodily sensations and that express some kind of action. They can be used in the progressive/continuous form e.g. His leg is hurting him; They're eating their supper; It's changing shape.

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