Download Grammar and Punctuation Revision Facts

1. Noun, adjective, verb and adverb
adjective =
describes the
noun
adverb =
describes the
verb
check
with -ly
The happy cat sat lazily on the grass.
Name =
noun
action =
verb
Name =
noun
check
with to
to sit
Note: the form of the verb may
need to be change for the to to
sound correct – sat to sit.
noun = name (of person, place or thing)
adjective = describing word (describes noun)
verb = action (doing word)
adverb = describing word (describes verb)
2. Nouns:
 Common noun – the names of common objects
(table, chair, dog, boy, girl, sun, door etc.)
 Proper noun – the proper names of a person (John),
place (14, Marble Street, Manchester, Davyhulme,
Urmston, England, Europe, Earth, Mars etc.) or thing.
Things may include:
a. shops (Marks & Spencer, Toy Land etc.)
b. cars (Ferrari, Volkswagen, Ford etc. BUT NOT
CAR)
c. job titles (Doctor Edwards, Head Teacher BUT
NOT DOCTOR OR TEACHER if used where there is
no indication of which one - i.e.
I went to see Doctor Edwards – doctor is known
I went to see the doctor – doctor is unknown
I went to see a doctor – doctor is unknown)
d. pens (Biro, Bic, Mont Blanc BUT NOT PEN)
N.B. PROPER NOUNS HAVE CAPITAL LETTERS
 Collective noun – the group names of things (e.g. a
flock of geese, a heard of sheep etc.)
 Abstract nouns – the names of things that can’t be
seen or touched (such as emotions or personality
traits –e.g. happiness, sadness, joyfulness, honesty,
deceitfulness etc.)
Singular and plural:
Nouns may be singular (only one of them) or plural
(more than one of them). You need to know the
common rules for turning singular nouns into their
plurals –
singular may be signified by the verb is – he is
plural may be signified by the verb are – they are
Change the y to an i and add es
Add s (the general rule)
when the singular form ends in
-y
one dog: two dogs
one cherry: two cherries
Add es
when the singular form ends in
–s, -ss, -x, -ch or -sh :
one bus: two buses
one business: two businesses.
one fox: two foxes
one church: two churches
one dish: two dishes
Change the f to a v and add es
when the singular form ends in
-f
one thief: two thieves
Be careful as there are exceptions (i.e. words that don’t
follow the rules – e.g. monkeys, chimneys etc.
Some plurals are the same as the singular – e.g. sheep.
Some plurals follow none of the above rules – e.g.
woman – women.
3. Verbs:
A verb is a doing word / action. It is checked by putting
the words to in front of it – e.g.
ran / run --- to run
laughed / laugh --- to laugh
fell / fall --- to fall
was / is --- to be
NOTE: THE VERB WILL HAVE TO BE CHANGED INTO THE
PRESENT TENSE TO DO THIS.
Verbs have tenses:
past
present
future
was
(to) to be (am, are, is) will be
jumped
rushed
wrote
ran
did
had
(to) jump
(to) rush
(to) write
(to) run
(to) do
(to) have
will jump
will rush
will write
will run
will do
will have
past tense: usually ends in –ed BUT NOT ALWAYS
usually similar in spelling to the present tense
BUT NOT ALWAYS
present tense: happening now (these are the infinitive /
basic form of the verbs)
future tense: needs a ‘helping word’ (e.g. will, shall, may
etc.)
IT IS ACTUALLY MUCH MORE COMPLICATED THAN THAT
BUT IT WILL DO FOR NOW.
modal verbs – are verbs that alter the mode (strength /
probability) of the words being written – e.g. must, will,
can / could, should, would, might, could, may, shall,
ought to
They are usually followed directly by the infinitive (basic
form) of another verb (without adding the word to) – e.g.
must run
will laugh
can jump
subject – verb agreement
Subjects and verbs have to agree – i.e. the correct version
of the verb needs to be pick to agree / match with the
subject of the sentence (the thing the verb refers to) –
e.g.
I / we/ you have
he/ it has
I am
he / it is
we / you are
I / we/ you / they love
he / it loves
4. Adjectives
Adjective are describing words and describe nouns /
names –e.g. happy cat, sad mouse, crazy clown, weird
eyes, blue sky, round hole etc.
NOTE: the adjective does not have to be before the noun
(or pronoun) – e.g.
The car was a deep green and it was long.
5. Adverbs
Adverbs are describing words and describe verbs –e.g.
happily jumping, sadly crying, crazily laughing, weirdly
spiralling etc.
They can be tested by looking for the –ly ending BUT, BE
CAREFUL:
Some adverbs don’t end in –ly – e.g. very happy
Some adjectives do end in –ly –e.g. lonely wolf
Some nouns do end in –ly –e.g. family
THAT MEANS, YOU MUST ALSO CHECK FOR THE VERB
USING ‘TO …’ AS WELL AS LOOKING FOR –LY.
6. All four:
A word that has the same root form (e.g. excite) can be
more than one of the above DEPENDING ON HOW IT’S
WRITTEN. You have to be extremely CAREFUL!
verb --- she was excited
noun --- I shop at Excited Toys (proper noun), he showed
great excitability (abstract noun)
adjective --- the excited boy
adverb --- he ran excitedly
THESE ARE OBVIOUS WAYS TO TRICK YOU IN MORE
COMPLICATED (HIGHER LEVEL) TEST QUESTIONS.
7. Pronouns:
Pronouns are use ‘in place of’ / replace nouns / names –
e.g.
noun
pronoun
John
he / him / I / me / you
Jane
she / her / I / me/ you
John and Jane
we / they / them
John and I
we / us
the dog(s) / book(s) it / this / these / that / those
Possessive pronouns show who owns / has / possesses
an object – e.g. mine, his, hers, its (N.B. A POSSESSIVE
THAT DOESN’T HAVE THE USUAL POSSESSIVE
APOSTROPHE as it’s is already the contraction it is), ours,
yours, their, and theirs (DON’T GET THIS MIXED UP WITH
THE CONTRACTION THERE’S = there is).
There are more complicated ones but you are unlikely to
be asked about them at L3-5. If in doubt, as yourself
‘what does this word replace?’
A relative pronoun (who, which, that) is used to link
information (a phrase or a clause) to another word in a
sentence.
people
things
things
who
which (N.B. animals are things)
that (N.B. animals are things) – often
used to connect essential information.
I and Me
‘I’ refers to the person performing the action of a verb –
e.g.
I want to go.
This is the one I like.
You and I need to get ready.
Tom and I are going to the movies.
‘Me’ refers to the person that the action of a verb is
being done to, or to whom a preposition refers – e.g.
David told me to leave.
He gave me ten dollars.
Between you and me, this is a bad idea.
She needs to talk to Joe or me.
Here’s a way to check if you are correct; try out the
sentence with just I or me (or if you need a plural, we or
us – "we" is equivalent to "I" and "us" is equivalent to
"me."):
He told Tom and (I or me?) to get ready.
He told I to get ready? NO
He told me to get ready? YES
Therefore, He told Tom and me to get ready.
If John and (I or me?) get married, we’ll have two kids.
If me get married? NO
If I get married? YES
Therefore, If John and I get married, we’ll have two
kids.
Just between you and (I or me?), this is a bad idea.
Because "between" needs to be followed by a plural,
we’ll use "we" and "us" to figure this out.
Just between we? NO
Just between us? YES
Just between you and me, this is a bad idea.
8. there – their – they’re
there – ‘over there’
their – ‘belonging to them’ – possessive
they’re – they are – omission
9. our – are
our cup – ‘belonging to us’ – possessive noun
are – ‘they are’ – verb for state of being (to be)
10. Question or command:
question - Are you smiling? (Question mark)
command – You must smile! (exclamation mark which
may be missed off
depending on the strength
of the command)
Be quiet!
Silence!
Sit down over there.
11. Articles of speech:
The articles of speech are the following words –
a, an, the
a / an – indefinite article (the listener / reader doesn’t
know which one)
the – definite article (the listener / reader does know
which one)
An article will always have a noun with it.
12. Connectives and conjunctives:
Connectives (including conjunctions and time
connectives) join clauses or thoughts together. They are
joining words –e.g.
Examples of conjunctions:
and, but, so, if, because, as, or, when, after, as,
since, before although, unless, provided that
Conjunctions often occur in the middle of a
sentence.
NOTE: Most of them can be rearranged to be at the
beginning of a sentence (APART FROM AND, BUT
and SO). BE CAREFUL!
I went home because I was scared.
Because I was scared, I went home.
Examples of connectives:
therefore, however, also, as well as, moreover,
furthermore, firstly, secondly, thirdly, finally,
eventually, then, next, meanwhile, afterwards
Likewise Similarly, in addition, nevertheless
13. Commas:
Commas as use to separate items in lists or clauses in a
sentence - e.g.
,
Items in a list – The boy found some cheese eggs
,
beans and fried fish.
1. No
comma
before first
item
3. No
comma
before the
connective
2. Comma
after each
item
Commas used to separate clauses –
clause 1: The boy is fishing.
clause 2: The boy is aged ten.
,
,
The boy who is aged ten is fishing.
2. Commas to
separate clauses
,
N.B. MAIN CLAUSE SUBORDINATE CLAUSE (less important)
MAIN CLAUSE
N.B. Brackets or hyphens can be used to do exactly
the same job – e.g.
,
The boy
(who is aged ten) is fishing.
2. Brackets to
separate clauses
The boy
- who is aged ten - is fishing.
2. Hyphens to
separate clauses
14. Clauses and phrases:
The hard way:
Phrases are put together to make clauses.
Clauses are put together to make sentences.
Phrases may have a noun or a verb but no subject
doing the verb.
Clauses have a verb and a subject doing the verb. This
is why they seem to make sense on their own.
The easy way (but not strictly true):
Phrases often don’t make sense on their own
Clauses often do make sense on their own.
clause – I’ll run home (brown = subject)
phrase – after school (no subject doing a verb)
Clauses can be dependent (subordinate) or
independent:
clause – I’ll run home (brown = subject)
clause – after I leave school (brown = subject)
If they are dependent, they are not sentences. ‘After I
leave school’ above is a clause, but it depends on the
rest of the sentence to make sense. These, like all
clauses, have a subject and a verb but are not complete
by themselves.
Sentences are independent clauses (they make sense
without another part) e.g.
Birds learn to fly when they are young.
Ted Jones is the Head Teacher of our school. He’s been
at the school for five years.
15. Simple, compound and complex sentences:
Simple sentences are independent clauses –e.g.
Ted Jones is the Head Teacher of our school.
Compound sentences use conjunctions / connectives to
join two independent clauses – e.g.
Ted Jones is the Head Teacher of our school and he’s
been at the school for five years
Complex sentences involve joining an independent
clause and one or more dependent (subordinate
clauses) e.g.
Ted Jones has been the Head Teacher of our school for
five years.
An embedded subordinate clause puts the dependent
clause in the middle of the independent one – e.g.
,
,
(
)
Ted Jones has been for five years the Head Teacher
of our school.
Ted Jones has been for five years the Head Teacher
of our school.
Ted Jones has been
- for five years - the Head
Teacher of our school.
16. Prepositions:
Prepositions show the position of a person, place or
thing – e.g.
about before down into through above behind
during like next to across below toward after
beneath under among beside on up around
between in over at by
17. Inverted Commas (speech marks / direct speech):
Speech are only placed around the spoken words – e.g.
The boy said, “The happy cat sat lazily on the grass.”
always in a pair (two of them) and
always in this order – punctuation
mark then speech mark
The marks are always in pairs UNLESS they are before
the first words spoken in a paragraph.
Only one
“The happy cat sat lazily on the grass,” the boy said.
The speech marks must be CLEARLY AFTER the
punctuation.
The speech marks MUST NOT BE ABOVE THE
LETTERS.
Speech marks are closed only after the person has
stopped speaking (not after each line on the page)
and are opened again if they resume (start again)
speaking.
The boy said, “The happy cat sat lazily on the grass.” He
always in a pair (two of them) and
always in this order – punctuation
mark then speech mark
then laughed and yelled, “The dog is happy too!”
Open again
NOTE: the first word of the
speaker’s sentence is always
begins with a capital letter
Now, the hardest example The boy said, “The happy cat sat lazily on the grass,” to
Comma, as
the boy has
not finished
his sentence
his Mother, “and the dog is happy too!”
Comma, as
the boy has
not finished
his sentence
no capital,
as the
sentence
isn’t finished
yet
no capital, as
the sentence
isn’t finished
yet
This is really a complicated example of subordination –
i.e. clauses within clauses.
. Punctuation in speech (other than speech marks) –
Question marks are placed after questions – e.g.
I’m extremely happy. Are you?
In speech, a question mark is placed directly after
the spoken part (NOT THE ‘HE / SHE SAID’) – e.g.
“I’m extremely happy. Are you?” she asked.
This is also true of other punctuation, such as
exclamation marks (!), ellipsis (…) etc.
THINK – the character is asking the question, not the
Narrator.
18. Quotation marks:
Quotation marks are used to warn the reader that the
words inside them have to be READ CAREFULLY and
THOUGHT ABOUT as they are NOT EXACTLY WHAT
THEY SEEM – e.g.
 quotation (indirect / reported speech) – As
Professor Smith said, the world is not ‘as it seems
on the surface’ to the untrained. [warning that
the words in quotation marks are not the
Authors]
 sarcasm – ‘that’s great’ [warning that the words
in quotation marks are not true – i.e. it’s not
great: it’s bad]
 nicknames – Barry ‘The Bull’ ran … [warning that
the words in quotation marks are not Barry’s real
name]
 indirect / reported speech - We interviewed Toby
Jones and he told us he was ‘amazed by the new
building’ and, “hoped it stood tall.” [warning that
Toby’s first words were not actually spoken,
though Toby did say words that meant this]
There are other uses but they all follow the same idea
of a warning.
19. Colons and semi-colons:
semi colons – are stronger than a comma and less
strong than a full stop. They join two independent
clauses. They are used when two ideas are closely
linked and the writer wishes to make that clear – e.g.
The rain fell endlessly; the houses were flooded.
colons – have two uses:
lists – colons are used to introduce a comma list –
e.g.
She bought four items: a large car, a blue bicycle,
an expensive house and a small pen.
strong links: when the link is stronger than a semicolon would indicate and the writer wishes to
emphasis this. It may be an explanation or a
definition – e.g.
There was utter devastation: no one remained
alive due to the earthquake!
In each case, the punctuation REPLACES other joining
words – i.e.
The rain fell endlessly
and the houses were flooded.
She bought four items, which were a large car, a
blue bicycle, an expensive house and a small pen.
There was utter devastation
and, as a
consequence, no one remained alive due to the
earthquake!
CHECK the punctuation REPLACES other joining words
before using it
20. Apostrophes (Contraction / Omission and Possession):
Apostrophes may be used to show contraction /
omission (missing letters) or possession (something
belongs to / is owned by something else).
omission –
do not – don’t (missing letter o)
cannot – can’t (missing letters no)
I am – I’m (missing letter a)
where is – where’s (missing letter i)
who is – who’s (missing letter i)
is not – isn’t (missing letter o)
Hallow Evening - Hallowe’en (a more complex
example that isn’t often used in modern times)
Would not – wouldn’t (missing letter o)
will not – won’t – (notice that some of the original
letters are changed)
of the clock - o’clock
having – havin’ (missing letter g - when used in a way
to imitate certain types of speech)
shall not – shan’t (notice – ONLY the missing letter o
is shown, not the ls)
and - ‘n’ (notice – two apostrophes to show missing
letters a and d - when used in a way to imitate
certain types of speech)
N.B. it is – it’s (this is the correct contraction – the
possessive SEE BELOW doesn’t follow the usual rule
for possession – i.e. it has NO apostrophe)
N.B. The apostrophe always ‘sits in’ the place of the
missing letter:
Can’t - correct
Ca’nt – incorrect (often done by children – they have
separated the two original words rather than
SHOWING THE MISSING LETTER)
possession –
Possessive apostrophes show that something belongs
/ is owned by something else – i.e.
the cat’s tail (the tail belonging to one cat)
the cats’ tails (the tails belonging to more than one
cat)
N.B. No s is added after the apostrophe if the
owners are plural.
Examples where Proper names end in s are
extremely controversial and different authorities
suggest wildly different rules. I’d suggest following
the basic rule above.
... and then there are extremely tricky examples –
e.g. is the following singular or plural? I’ve written
it as it’s usually punctuated –
All Hallows' Eve – the evening belonging to All
Hallows
Possessives when the owner is implied (suggested)
but not stated – e.g.
The car’s are in the house – meaning (The car keys
are in the house.) NOT, ‘more than one car’.
N.B. its (this is the correct possessive – the
possessive SEE BELOW doesn’t follow the usual rule
for possession – i.e. it has NO apostrophe as the
contraction it is – it’s has already used it – SEE
ABOVE)
In general: Never use an apostrophe with possessive
pronouns: his, hers, its, theirs, ours, yours, whose.
They already show possession so they do not require
an apostrophe.
21. Prefix and suffix:
Prefixes and suffixes are added to the beginnings or
endings of words. They are infrequently used as words
in their own right but were many years ago (They are
often of Greek or Latin origin – and have meanings in
those languages. You are supposed to know the
meanings of common ones.)
Prefixes are added to the beginning of an existing word
in order to create a new word with a different
meaning. For example:
word
new word
meaning
happy
ununhappy
not happy
purpose
multipurpose many purposed
market
supermarket
above / beyond a market
space
cyberspace
skilled / controlled space
NOTE: Some prefixes sound similar and have similar
meanings. You are expected to know which is which
and the correct spellings – these have to be learned ‘by
heart’ – an example is words beginning in:
in- (incredible), un – (unhygienic), im- (impossible)
Suffixes are added to the end of an existing word. For
example:
word
new word
meaning
child
childish
child like
work
worker
one who works
taste
tasteless
lacking in taste
like
likeable
fit / worth of / able to be
liked
The addition of a suffix often changes a word from one
word type to another. In the table above, the verb like
becomes the adjective likeable.
22. Synonyms and antonyms:
A synonym has the same meaning as another word –
e.g. close --- shut
N.B. hot --- warm are NOT synonymous as they have
similar meanings (so are not ‘the same’).
An antonym has the opposite meaning to another
word – e.g. small --- big
The prefixes: un-, in-, im- can be used to create
antonyms – e.g. happy --- unhappy (BUT, as mentioned
above, you need to know the correct one to use in
each case).