Download YEAR 6 GLOSSARY Active Verbs: Active verbs

YEAR 6 GLOSSARY
Active Verbs: Active verbs make it clear what the subject of the sentence is
doing or did. There must be verb agreement between the subject and the action
e.g. Jack flipped the pancake. Ken and Dan build the house.
Active and Passive Voice: Active and Passive versions of a sentence say the
same thing in different ways e.g. The pirates hid the treasure -active voice
versus The treasure was hidden by the pirates – passive voice. In the passive
sentence the words have been moved around. The sentence is about what
happens to the treasure, rather than being about the actions of the pirates. The
verb changes from the active form (hid) to the passive form (was hidden).
Adverbs: Adverbs are words that give extra information about the events
described in a sentence. A lot of adverbs give us information about how things
happen e.g. quickly, sadly, carefully but some adverbs tell us where e.g. here,
outside or when e.g. today, tomorrow, always.
Adjectival Phrase: An adjectival phrase is a word group with an adjective at its
head e.g. “The beautiful house” and “The house that is beautiful” mean the
same thing, but the former has an adjective, whereas the latter has an
adjectival phrase.
Another example is, “the angry dog” and “the dog that is acting very angry.”
The latter phrase uses the phrase “that is acting very angry” to modify the
subject, which is the noun “dog.” Thus, the latter example has an adjectival
phrase.
Apostrophe for Contraction: A contraction apostrophe joins two words
together. The apostrophe goes in place of the missing letters e,g, I am = I’m,
We are = We’re, They have = they’ve
Commas to Separate Clauses: Commas can be used to separate main clauses
from subordinate clauses in a complex sentence. When the subordination comes
first, you use a comma to separate the clauses e.g. Even though it was raining,
we went to the beach. Once I’d eaten my ice-cream, I went home.
Commas for Parentheses: Commas can be used to separate additional
information (called parenthesis) from the rest of the sentence. It is also possible
to use dashes or brackets. When used in this way, commas, dashes and
brackets are called parentheses e.g. The second boat in the race, the 6-berth
Kontarka, was crewed by school children from Pembrokeshire.
Complex Sentences: Complex sentences are made up of at least two parts, or
clauses. One part is the main clause. The main clause makes sense by itself. The
other part is the subordinate clause. The subordinate clause gives extra
information. It does not make sense if you read it without the main clause.
e.g. Screaming wildly (subordinate), she jumped into the pool (main).
I love the summer (main) because we have a long holiday (subordinate).
Conditional Verbs: Conditional verbs are used to express an action or an idea
that is dependent on a condition, on something that is only imagined e.g. If I
had won the lottery, I would be rich now. Conditional verbs are used to
indicate that an action or state of being is dependent on the occurrence of a
condition.
Connectives and Conjunctions: Connectives are words or phrases that help to
link together ideas. Some connectives link together ideas within a sentence and
these are called conjunctions.
Connectives start a sentence. e.g. Next, Eventually, Suddenly, Meanwhile
Conjunctions link ideas together within a sentence e.g unless, although, as,
when, since, because.
Determiners: A determiner is a word that modifies a noun or a noun phrase.
The categories of determiners include the following:
 articles (a, an, and the)
 possessive nouns (for example, John’s, wife’s in “my wife’s,” and doctor’s in
“the doctor’s”)
 possessive pronouns (such as her and our)
 indefinite pronouns (like each, either, all, and fewer)
 demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those, and such)
 numbers (five, “a hundred,” and so on)
Direct and Reported Speech: There are two ways of writing down what
someone says: directed or reported speech.
Directed Speech – when you write down exactly what the person said using
speech marks to show the beginning and end of the spoken words
e.g. “I have no one to help me,” said Mrs Smith
Reported Speech – when you write what has been said but you do not use the
exact words spoken – instead you report it in your own words
e.g. Mrs Smith said she didn’t have anyone to help her.
Ellipsis: Three equally spaced points … used in writing or printing to indicate the
omission of words in a quotation OR to indicate a pause or cliff hanger in
writing
Expanded Noun Phrase: A noun phrase works like a noun but is a group of
words that work together and contain a noun e.g. The girl. A noun phrase can
be expanded to make an expanded noun phrase e.g. The tall girl, the yellow
butterfly etc.
Hyphen: Hyphens are used to link words and parts of words. They are not as
common today as they used to be, but there are three main cases where you
should use them:
1. Hyphens are used in many compound words to show that the component
words have a combined meaning (e.g. a pick-me-up, mother-in-law, goodhearted) or that there is a relationship between the words that make up the
compound: for example, rock-forming minerals are minerals that form rocks.
But you don’t need to use them in every type of compound word.
2. Compound adjectives Many compound adjectives should be hyphenated e.g
accident-prone, computer-aided
3. Hyphens can be used to join a prefix to another word, especially if the prefix
ends in a vowel and the other word also begins with one (e.g. pre-eminent
or co-own). This use is less common than it used to be, though, and oneword forms are becoming more usual (e.g. pre–arrange or co-operate).
Imperative Verbs: Imperative verbs are also known as Bossy verbs because they
tell you what to do. We put imperative verbs at the beginning of a sentence,
which automatically changes them into commands or actions that must be
done. We can leave out a lot of the normal language of a sentence so we get
to the point a lot quicker. The commands are usually very short sentences and
are acted upon immediately e.g. Get, Put, Carry, Help
Interrogative Verbs: Interrogative verbs indicate a state of questioning e.g."Will
you leave me alone now?" One marker of the interrogative is that frequently
the speaker inverts the subject-verb order by placing the helping verb first,
before the subject: "Will you leave me alone?" instead of "You will leave me
alone." Frequently the interrogative verb appears with requests for a course of
action or requests for information.
Main and Subordinate Clause: A main clause makes sense by itself. It can form
a complete sentence standing alone, having a subject and a verb e.g. The man
was happy. A subordinate clause gives extra information. It does not make
sense if you read it without the main clause e.g. when the football was on.
The subordination of the main clause may come at different places in the
sentence to create varied, interesting sentences e.g. The man became
angry(main)when no one let him in(subordinate) OR Screaming
wildly(subordinate)she ran from the house(main).
Modal Verbs: A verb that indicates a degree of possibility in writing e.g. might,
should, will, must, or , could, may
Paragraph: A paragraph is a self-contained unit of writing dealing with a
particular point or idea. A paragraph consists of one or more sentences. It is
used to organize longer prose.
Parentheses: Parentheses is used to include information that you want to
include but de-emphasise or that wouldn't normally fit into the flow of your text
but you want to include nonetheless. This may include the use of brackets,
commas or dashes.e.g. Thirty-five years after his death, Robert Frost (we
remember him at Kennedy's inauguration) remains America's favourite poet.
Passive Verbs: Passive verbs make it clear what the subject of the sentence is
having done to it. The subject and object of the sentence swap over. There must
be verb agreement between the subject and the action e.g. The pancake was
flipped by Jack. The house was built by Ken and Dan.
Personal or Impersonal Voice: The writer must decide when to write in the
personal or impersonal voice. You determine the appropriateness of one or the
other based on the circumstances. Generally speaking, if you want to emphasize
who is involved in the situation you are discussing, go with personal writing
and aim for positive or neutral tone. If you want to be less direct and simply
state the facts of a situation, without reference to the parties involved, go with
impersonal writing and aim for neutral tone.
Phrases and Clauses: Longer sentences are made up of phrases and clauses.
A clause is a group of words that includes a verb – it usually tells you about an
event
A phrase is a group of words that does not contain a verb – it gives extra
information about an event in a sentence.
A simple sentence can be made more interesting by adding phrases.
E.g. Once there lived a wise man.
Once, in a far and distant land, there lived a wise man with three daughters.
Possessive Apostrophe: A possessive apostrophe shows something belongs to
something/ someone. To show possession, you add an apostrophe and an ‘s’ to
the owner or the owner’s name e.g. the boy’s computer. If something belongs to
a group of people or things that ends in an ‘s’ then just add an apostrophe e.g.
the neighbours’ new car. If the group does not end in an ‘s’ then add an
apostrophe and an ‘s’ e.g. The children’s new hula hoops
Possessive Pronoun: Certain pronouns called possessive pronouns show
ownership. Some are used alone; some describe a noun. Used alone: mine,
yours, his, hers, ours, theirs, whose Modify noun: my, your, his, her, its, our,
their, whose
Precise Noun: A precise noun is a word that we use to give the reader a much
clearer picture e.g. The man ran out of the building could become The firefighter ran out of the tower block
Prepositions: A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in
a sentence. The word or phrase that the preposition introduces is called the
object of the preposition.
A preposition usually indicates the temporal, spatial or logical relationship of its
object to the rest of the sentence as in the following examples:
The book is on the table.
The book is beneath the table.
The book is leaning against the table.
The book is beside the table.
She held the book over the table.
She read the book during class.
In each of the preceding sentences, a preposition locates the noun "book" in
space or in time. The most common prepositions are:
"about," "above," "across," "after," "against," "along," "among," "around," "at,"
"before," "behind," "below," "beneath," "beside," "between," "beyond," "but,"
"by," "despite," "down," "during," "except," "for," "from," "in," "inside," "into,"
"like," "near," "of," "off," "on," "onto," "out," "outside," "over," "past," "since,"
"through," "throughout," "till," "to," "toward," "under," "underneath," "until,"
"up," "upon," "with," "within," and "without."
Prepositional Phrases: A prepositional phrase is made up of the preposition, its
object and any associated adjectives or adverbs. A prepositional phrase can
function as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb.
There can be prepositions or prepositional phrases of where something
happened e.g. on, off, over, under, through, by, into, behind
There can be prepositions or prepositional phrases of when something happened
e.g. on Saturday, at midnight, during the night, before breakfast
Prepositional phrases that tell us when something happened can be moved to
different places in the sentence e.g. The game was over by half time or By half
time the game was over.
Pronouns: Pronouns are words we use in place of nouns. Words like I, she, him
and it are all examples of pronouns. Pronouns are useful because they stop you
from repeating the same words over and over again e.g. Jack tried to carry
Jack’s bag but Jack’s bag was too heavy for Jack would be written as Jack
tried to carry his bag but it was too heavy for him.
Relative Clause: A clause introduced by a relative pronoun e.g. ‘who visits
frequently’ is a relative clause in the sentence ‘John, who visits frequently, is
ill.’ We use relative clauses to give additional information about something
without starting another sentence. By combining sentences with a relative
clause, your text becomes more fluent and you can avoid repeating certain
words.
A relative clause is one connected to a main clause by a word such as which,
that, whom, whose, when, where, or who:
I first saw her in Paris,
[main clause]
where I lived in the early
nineties.
[relative clause]
She wants to be with who is best suited to take
Thomas,
care of her.
[main clause]
[relative clause]
I was wearing the dress
that I bought to wear to Jo's
party.
[relative clause]
[main clause]
Relative Pronoun
relative pronoun use
example
who
subject or object pronoun for people
I told you about the woman who
lives next door.
which
subject or object pronoun for animals and Do you see the cat which is lying
things
on the roof?
which
referring to a whole sentence
He couldn’t read which surprised
me.
whose
possession for people animals and things
Do you know the boy whose
mother is a nurse?
whom
object pronoun for people, especially in non- I was invited by the professor
defining relative clauses (in defining relative whom I met at the conference.
clauses we colloquially prefer who)
that
subject or object pronoun for people, animals I don’t like the table that stands in
and things in defining relative clauses (who the kitchen.
or which are also possible)
Subjunctive:The Subjunctive is used to emphasize urgency or importance. It is
used after certain expressions e.g. I suggest that he study. Is it essential that we
be there? Don recommended that you join the committee.
The Subjunctive is used after the following verbs:
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to urge (that)



advise
ask
command
demand
desire
insist
propose
recommend
request
suggest
(that)
(that)
(that)
(that)
(that)
(that)
(that)
(that)
(that)
(that)
Dr. Smith asked that Mark submit his research paper before the end of
the month.
Donna requested Frank come to the party.
The teacher insists that her students be on time.
The Subjunctive is used after the following expressions:
It
is
It
is
It
is
It
is
It
is
It
is
It
is
It
is
It
is
It
is
It is a bad idea (that)



a
best
crucial
desirable
essential
imperative
important
recommended
urgent
vital
good
idea
It is crucial that you be there before Tom arrives.
It is important she attend the meeting.
It is recommended that he take a gallon of water with him if he wants
to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
The Subjunctive can be used in negative, continuous and passive forms.
Negative Examples:

(that)
(that)
(that)
(that)
(that)
(that)
(that)
(that)
(that)
(that)
The boss insisted that Sam not be at the meeting.


The company asked that employees not accept personal phone calls
during business hours.
I suggest that you not take the job without renegotiating the salary.
Passive Examples:



Jake recommended that Susan be hired immediately.
Christine demanded that I be allowed to take part in the negotiations.
We suggested that you be admitted to the organization.
Continuous Examples:



It is important that you be standing there when he gets off the plane.
It is crucial that a car be waiting for the boss when the meeting is over.
I propose that we all be waiting in Tim's apartment when he gets home.
After many of the above expressions, the word "should" is sometimes used to
express the idea of subjunctiveness. This form is used more frequently in British
English and is most common after the verbs "suggest," "recommend" and
"insist."


The doctor recommended that she should see a specialist about the
problem.
Professor William suggested that Wilma should study harder for the
final exam.