Summary A-Level English Language: Grammatical Terminology
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Course
Grammar
Institution
AQA
During your English Language A-Level (AQA), grammar is at the forefront of everything you do. You need to learn this to get marks in your essays to achieve different AO (Assessment Objective) levels in the mark schemes.
Unit: Grammatical Terminology
Nouns:
Nouns label/name things, people, or concepts there are 4 main types of nouns:
Concrete noun – refers to things that can be perceived by the 5 senses.
Proper noun – begin with a capital letter; refers to specific people; places; occasions; times,
etc.
Abstract noun – refers to things that do not physically exist, for example, feelings, ideas,
qualities, time, etc.
Collective nouns – refers to groups of people, animals, or objects.
Possessive noun endings – to show possessive qualities/’belonging to’ a noun, we add an
apostrophe and an s (–‘s) for most nouns but just an apostrophe (-‘) for words that already
end in an ‘s’.
Vocatives – words/phrases used to address people but not describe them, e.g., babe
Phrases:
A phrase is two or more words functioning as a unit in a sentence. Phrases do not have
verbs in them (with the exception if verb phrases).
Noun phrases – determiner + premodifier + noun
e.g., the ginger Vizsla.
There are 3 types of noun phrase, concrete noun phrase, abstract noun phrase and proper
noun phrase, which simply depends on what type of noun is used.
Adjectives:
Adjectives are words that describe nouns. A word is an adjective if:
- It can appear before a noun
- It can be used on its own
- It can be preceded by an intensifier
There are 4 main types of adjectives:
Qualitative adjectives – physical qualities, like the red chair.
Evaluative adjectives – evaluative, subjective judgements, like the pretty picture.
Comparative adjectives – comparing nouns using ‘-er’ or more; funnier, more beautiful.
Superlative adjectives – comparing nouns using ‘-est’ or most; funniest, most beautiful.
, Some words do the jobs of adjectives, such as the running boy, or the garden wall. These are
called premodifiers.
Adjective phrases – intensifier + adjective
e.g., very pretty.
Likewise with other type of phrase (like noun phrases), there are different types of adjective
phrase. Qualitative adjective phrase and evaluative adjective phrase. Again, like noun
phrase, it just depends on what type of adjective you use.
Comparative adjectives and superlative adjectives can’t be in an adjective phrase by itself,
as an intensifier is part of the adjective itself.
Verbs:
Verbs indicate an action.
Types of verbs:
Infinitive verb – to + verb; to run, to sneeze
Main verbs – express meaning of their own, the idea of possession or physical action; they
also show the tense of the verb.
Auxiliary verbs – these are “helping” verbs. They help form a tense. The auxiliary verbs all
stem from the three infinitives to be, to have, to do. (is/am/are/was/were, has/have/had,
do/does/did).
Modal auxiliary verbs – modal auxiliaries cover a wide range of possibilities, including
obligation, permission, disapproval, advising, ability, possibility, necessity, etc. There are 10
modal verbs – can/could, shall/should, will/would, may/might, ought/must.
There are 3 main simple tenses:
Present simple tense – express what currently is; I have a sister.
Past simple tense – express actions that happened in the past; I walked yesterday.
Future simple tense – express actions that will happen in the future; will + verb, e.g., I will go
later.
Participles:
Present participle – an ‘-ing’ word
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