Download Punctuation and grammar glossary

PAG Terminology
What it means:
Date
My example:
noun
Words that name people, places, things
or ideas.
A naming word used to name a person (proper noun), place
(proper noun) of thing. E.g. Mrs Brown, Bridport, dog.
noun phrase
Two or more words that act as a noun.
a dog (simple noun phrase)
a cute little dog with pointy ears
(expanded noun phrase)
An adjective gives more information
about (describes) a noun.
A verb names an action.
A word or group of words in a phrase which act as a noun, e.g.
Lily wore a beautiful red dress. The group of words, ‘a beautiful
red dress,’ is a phrase and functions as a noun in this sentence.
adjective
verb
adverb
tense (past,
present)
apostrophe
comma
A word that describes a noun e.g. a blue balloon.
A verb describes what someone is doing, e.g. Jade walked to her
friend’s house. The dog jumped up and down. My dad was
thinking.
A word that describes a verb, usually ending in –ly. For
example, she ran quickly.
An adverb gives more information about
(describes) a verb. How, when, where
and how often.
This shows when the action takes place.
A tense is the form of a verb that shows
the time when an action takes place –
past / present / future.
This shows when either letters are missed
out of a word (contraction) or when
something belongs to someone or
something (possession).
E.g. I am singing (present tense).
I walked (past tense).
I will be going shopping (future tense).
An apostrophe is a mark used to show that a letter has
been left out. Example: he is can be written he’s.
Apostrophes are also used to show ownership.
Examples: the cat’s bowl, the cats’ bowls.
This is used to show a break in a
sentence, or to separate items in a list.
A comma separates units of meaning in a sentence, e.g. Lana
bought some apples, grapes, bananas and plums for her lunch.
Sara, although she was tired, carried on cleaning.
A comma can also be used:

After transitional phrases
like However, Consequently, or As a result (e.g.,
As a result, I now understand.

)
After a long subject if it helps the reader (e.g., A,
B, C, and D, are required to bake this cake.

Before a speech sentence (e.g., She said, "I
understand."
“I understand,” she said.
)
)
inverted commas
These are used to show when someone is
actually speaking.
conjunction
This links words, or groups of words.
preposition
A preposition shows how things are
related….the position of something, the
time something happens, or the way
something is done.
word family
A group of words which are related to
each other by spelling, grammar or
meaning.
clause
A group of words in a sentence that
contains a verb, and can be used as a
complete sentence.
subordinate clause A clause which gives more meaning to
the main clause. (if, that, when,
because, although).
direct speech
but does not make sense on its own. E.g. I like running
although its hard work.
This is where the actual words a
character says is written by using
inverted commas.
present progressive The present progressive tense is used
for an on-going action in the present.
pronoun
A subordinate clause adds detail to the main clause
A pronoun is a word used instead of a
noun.
Caroline is looking for the latest brochure.
Dan and Billy are fishing off the pier.
determiner
A determiner goes in front of a noun and
its adjectives to help to tell you which
person or thing the sentence is about, or
how much or how many of them are.
possessive pronoun Possessive pronouns show 'who owns it,’
(possesses it).
Also, all possessive nouns i.e. Sarah’s
dog was ill (Sarah’s) are possessive
pronouns.
adverbial
This is a word or phrase which gives you
more information about the verb – it
doesn’t necessarily have to be an adverb.
modal verb
This is a helping verb (auxiliary) which is
used to express possibility, as well as the
future.
relative pronoun
This introduces more information about
the noun.
relative clause
This is a type of subordinate clause,
connected to the main clause by words
such as: that, which, who, whom and
whose.
parenthesis
The words inside brackets, commas or
dashes.
bracket
A punctuation mark used to separate a
word or phrase which has been added to
a sentence as an afterthought.
dash
A punctuation mark used to separate a
word or phrase which has been added to
a sentence as an afterthought. Dashes are
more informal than a pair of commas or
brackets.
cohesion
How different parts of a piece of writing
fit together.
e.g. her/hers, his, my/mine, our/ours, your/yours,
their/theirs.
Parentheses are words, phrases or clauses inserted into
sentences which are grammatically complete without them.
The information, which can be removed and the sentence
still make sense, goes inside the brackets. Example:
Andrew (our best goalkeeper) saved the goal.
Dashes (parentheses) can be used instead of commas in these
types of sentences. Simply replace each comma with a dash.
E.g. The flower – which was yellow – grew at the bottom of the
garden.
ambiguity
Something that is open to more than one
interpretation.
subject
This is the person or the thing that does
the action of the verb. Often this is the
noun that comes just before the verb.
object
The object says who or what is acted
upon by the verb. Often this a noun
which comes just after the verb.
active
This is where the subject is doing the
action.
passive
This is where the subject is being acted
on.
What Is Passive Voice?
A verb is said to be in the passive voice when its subject does not
perform the action of the verb. In fact, the action is performed
on the subject.
Look at this example of the passive voice:
Passive voice is a quality of a verb that describes when the
subject of a sentence is acted upon by the verb. When the
opposite is true (i.e., the subject of the sentence is acting
out the verb), it is said to be in active voice.
ellipses
A punctuation mark which shows a word
has been missed out, or a sentence is not
finished.
Ellipsis is leaving out words or phrases which are expected
or predictable.
The ellipsis ( . . . ) shows that words have deliberately been
left out of a text and can be used to create mystery,
suspense or a trailing thought.
E.g. Sarah had been feeling very unsettled recently but
she didn’t know why…
semi-colon
A punctuation mark that can be used in
lists, or to show a break in a sentence.
Often this is more important than using a
comma.
A semicolon contains a comma and a full stop. It is helpful to
remember this. A semicolon is stronger than a comma, but not
as final as a full stop. Semicolons are used to link sentences that
are closely related. For example:
The wood was silent and absolutely still; Little Red Riding Hood
realised that she had not truly seen its beauty until now.
colon
A punctuation mark which introduces the
part of a sentence to give examples or
explanations. Also, using a colon adds
precision to writing. You can think of a
colon as the language version of an equals
sign (=) in mathematics. The information
on the left of the colon equals the
information on the right.
Colons are used to expand a sentence.
A colon is used to introduce an idea that is an explanation or
continuation of the one that comes before the colon.
For example:
There was only one thing the wolf wanted to do now: eat that
juicy Little Red Riding Hood.
The flaw in the wolf’s plan was clear to see: he looked nothing
like Grandma.
bullet points
A punctuation mark used to organize a list
to make it clear. Bullet points, like
numbered lists, help to break down a
set of key ideas or items so that the
reader can see them all easily. We use
bullets instead of numbers when the
items in the list don’t need to go in any
particular order.
Why do we need punctuation in a bullet point list? Aren’t
the bullet points the punctuation?
Well, no – they’re just a way of laying out your
information more clearly for the reader.
However, the information on some bullet point lists needs
to follow specific punctuation rules.
You could put some individual facts about a topic into a
bullet point fact box, for example in a report. Facts are
usually given as statements in a sentence…using a capital
letter and full stop.
E.g. Fascinating Space Facts
- Because of Mars’s lower gravity, you would weigh less
there than you do on Earth.
Questions are typically in sentences, so they need a
capital letter and question mark.
Questions for Queen Victoria
o How many children do you have?
o Which is your favourite palace?
When you make a list of names, for example people in a
team or countries of the world, each name must have a
capital letter at the start.
Netball team

Jamie D

Stefano
A bullet point list is a really clear way to show a set of resources
or equipment needed.
These items are usually just words or phrases, so they don’t
need sentence punctuation. If your list has a stem
followed by a colon, each item needs a semi-colon
except the last, which has a full stop.
You will need:
• tea bags;
• milk;
hyphen
This is used to join two or more words,
and to avoid any confusion over meaning.
Hyphens join together words or parts of words. E.g. small-scale,
re-formed.
Hyphens are very useful as they can help to clarify the meaning
of a word or phrase and avoid ambiguity in writing. E.g. Paula
decided to resign from her job. Steve re-signed his contract.
Hyphens are joiners. They join the words in a compound
adjective (e.g., six-foot table, silver-service waitress), and
they join the words in compound nouns (e.g., paper-clip,
cooking-oil). They can also join prefixes to words (e.g.,
ultra-expensive, re-establish).
Their main purpose is to show the joined words are a
single entity (e.g., a single adjective or a single noun). They
are also useful to avoid ambiguity (e.g., a hyphen makes it
clear that a paper-clip is a clip for paper and not a clip
made of paper).
Why do we use hyphens?
(1) To make it easier to read.
(2) To showcase your writing skills a little.
(3) To make the meaning of your writing clearer.
More examples can be found at:
http://grammar-monster.com/punctuation/using_hyphens.htm
present perfect
Perfect tenses add information to the
verb in order to be more precise about
when the action happened.
I have walked down this street before.
Present perfect: I have lived in London since I was born.
have lived tells us that the action began in the past, but is
still continuing in the present. In contrast, I lived in London
indicates that the action is finished, and means I no longer
live in London.
She has swam in the sea.
They have chatted since their meeting
last Tuesday.
fronted adverbials
to be
An adverbial is a phrase that tells us
more about the verb. A fronted
adverbial is placed at the START of
the sentence with a comma at the end
of it. It tells us how, why, when or
where an action is done.
When the singer stopped, everyone clapped
The verbs that express a state of being take a little practice
to spot, but, actually, they are the most common. The most
common verb is the verb to be. Below is the verb to be in
the different tenses:
Subject
Verb to be in
Verb to be in
Verb to be in
the past tense
the present
the future tens
tense
I
was
am
will be
The 4 Present Tenses
Example
simple present tense
I go
present progressive tense
I am going
present perfect tense
I have gone
present perfect progressive tense I have been going
You
were
are
will be
He / She / It
was
is
will be
We
were
are
will be
You
were
are
will be
They
were
are
will be