Year 5 and 6 Grammar definitions
Noun- A naming word for things, animals, people, places and feelings
The ravenous lion pounced but the gazelle bolted courageously.
Adjective- A word which describes a noun
The ravenous lion pounced but the gazelle bolted courageously.
Verb- A word used to describe an action, occurrence or state.
Miss Jones, who is our music teacher, always makes us laugh.
Modal verbs- a verb that expresses necessity or possibility
We should all put our coats on to stop us getting cold.
Relative pronoun- A pronoun used in a relative clause (who, that, which).
Miss Jones, who is our music teacher, always makes us laugh.
Relative clause- a type of subordinate clause that adapts, describes or modifies a noun by using a relative pronoun (who, that or which).
Miss Jones, who is our music teacher, always makes us laugh.
Parenthesis (bracket/ dash)- a word or phrase inserted as an explanation or afterthought into a passage. It is marked with brackets, dash or commas
My brother- Jason- never brushes his hair.
My brother (the scruffiest boy in history) never brushes his hair.
Cohesion- A sentence will have cohesion if all its parts fit together, for example if tenses and pronouns are consistent.
Andrew was never really keen on PE. He always tried to hide at the back of the line.
Solemnly the man starred out to sea. He had never felt so alone.
Why don’t we go the shops to get some milk? While we are there we can see if the stickers are back in too.
Ellipsis- to show missing words or to create a pause for effect.
I know that I have seen my keys somewhere…
Hyphen- A punctuation mark used to link and join words, and often used to reduce ambiguity in sentences
The daring, athletic diver on the ten-metre board boldly leapt off.
Colon- used to expand the sentence by introducing an idea, list or quotation
There was only one thing the wolf wanted to do now: eat that juicy Little Red Riding Hood.
Little Red Riding Hood carried a selection of provisions for Grandma: a loaf of bread, some apples and a freshly-wrapped pat of butter.
Semi-colon- to link two sentences together that are closely related and to separate items in a list
The wood was silent and absolutely still; Little Red Riding Hood realised that she had not truly seen its beauty until now.
There are lots of characters in the story: Big Bad Wolf, the baddie; Little Red Riding Hood, the heroine; Grandma, the victim and Mr Woodcutter, the rescuer.
Bullet points- to make lists and organise information
What you need
Synonyms – words which have a similar meaning
Big, large, giant, immense, vast
Antonyms- words which have the opposite meaning
Hot = cold
Near = far
Up = down
Active voice- has the subject of the sentence carrying out the main action.
Daniel broke his finger.
Passive voice- the subject is having something done to it
Daniel’s finger was broken.
(Remember if you can add ‘by a zombie’ after the verb it is passive)
Subject- the thing or person carrying out the main action
The man ate a cream cake.
Object- The object of a sentence is involved in the action but does not carry it out.
The man ate a cream cake.
Prepositions- used to show where things are in time or space
The daring, athletic diver on the ten-metre board boldly leapt off.
Expanded noun phrase- tells you more about the noun
The daring, athletic diver on the ten-metre board boldly leapt off.
Adverbs- describes how a verb action is being carried out.
Sarah quickly packed up her belongings and headed to the door.
Conjunctions- a word which joins clauses together. There are two types: subordinating and co-ordinating.
Subordinating
Even though
As
If
While
When
Because
Until
Though
Co-ordinating
For
And
Nor
But
Or
Yet
So
Pronoun- Any word which can be used to replace a noun
Miss Jones, who is our music teacher, always makes us laugh.
Proper noun- A noun which names a particular person, place or thing
I am writing to you to complain about my recent visit to your supermarket, Costsavers, on Thursday 12th January, 2017
Determiners (the, a, an)- A word that introduces a noun and identifies it in detail.
The ravenous lion pounced but the gazelle bolted courageously.
Common noun- Describes a class of objects (e.g. dog, man, day) which do not have a capital letter
The children sat down at their tables.
Subordinate clause- A clause (sentence) that does not make sense on its own but is joined to a main clause.
After she picks me up, mum is taking me to buy some shoes.
Mr. Smith bought the paper, when he was on the train.
Embedded clause- A clause used in the middle of another clause
The man, walking along with his dog, whistled a tune to himself.
Fronted adverbial- Words or phrases used at the beginning of a sentence, used like adverbs to describe the action that follows
Beyond the forest, the troll hid menacingly under the rickety bridge.
Inverted commas- speech marks
“Quick”, shouted Mrs Brown.
“I’m going as fast as I can”, replied Sarah.
Subjunctive- a verb form or mood used to express things that could or should happen
If I were you I would go right now.
I demand that they be counted again.
Present perfect tense-
Happened in the past and there is still something about it that connects it to now (present tense).
It uses the word have/has with the verb in the past tense.
The children have sprinted.
The dog has jumped into the pool.
Past perfect tense
An event completed in the past before something else happened. It uses ‘had’ with the verb in the past tense
I had walked.
Past progressive
Uses ‘was’ or ‘were’ and present tense of the verb with suffix -ing
I was walking to school
You were talking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhSXk0awQAA
Present progressive
Uses ‘is’, ‘am’ or ‘are’ with present tense of the verb with suffix -ing
I am walking to school.
She is singing.
We are singing.
Simple past
The verb is in the past tense
Erin finished first.
Sarah walked a long way.