Grammatical knowledge

Words
Words can have more than one classification depending on the sentence. It's function changes eg: I rock the cradle (Verb) I went to a rock concert (Adjective) I bought some rock at the beach (Noun)

Nouns: Names of people, places, feelings, things etc. - Common Nouns: Name things e.g. Cream, strawberries, house etc. - Proper Nouns: Names with capita initials e.g. Elizabeth, Lincoln, January etc. - Abstract Nouns: Name feelings, qualities, thoughts e.g. love, inspiration etc. - Collective Nouns: Name groups e.g. team, flock, pride etc. Pronouns: Words that substitute for nouns usually stand in for Proper Nouns e.g. He, she, it - Possessive Pronouns: Indicates ownership without using names e.g. Her, its etc Adjectives: Add information to the noun - Comparative Adjectives: When only 2 items are compared e.g. Your house is larger than mine. Adjectives are changed into comparative adjectives by adding 'er' to the end or 'more' in front. - Superlative Adjectives: When 3 or more items are compared by adding 'est' or 'most'. e.g. Jane's house is the largest. (Large, larger, largest) Verbs: Give a sentence action Adverbs: Add information to the verb Clarify HOW something is done e.g. quickly, gently. They do not always have 'Ly' at the end e.g. The canary seldom sings. Verb tenses: Verbs change based on the tense: - Regular Verbs: Change ending by adding 'd' or 'ed' for past tense. e.g. talked, walked, arrived etc. - Irregular Verbs: Change their spelling e.g. Run Ran, Leave left Auxiliary verbs: Words that help add subtle changes to the tense and voice Determiners: Determine number, quantity and ownership of a noun. They do not describe it. Words such as: a, an, the, this, those, her, his, my, one, two, each, second, third etc. Active & Passive Voice: - Active sentences: The subject performs the action of the verb e.g. The teacher returned the books. - Passive sentences: The object comes before the verb and the subject receives the action. e.g. The books were returned by the teacher.

Phrases & Clauses:

Phrases: A group of words with no verbs - Does not make sense on its own. e.g. the foreign girl blue book - When put together with a verb, they make sense e.g. The foreign girl read the blue book. Clauses: - Main Clause: A group of words with a verb that make sense and can stand alone as a sentence. e.g. The foreign girl read the blue book. - Subordinate Clause: Words with a verb and a subject that do not make sense so cannot stand alone as a sentence e.g. When she visited the school. - Main Clause + Subordinate Clause: This makes a perfect sentence e.g. The foreign girl read the blue book when she visited the school.

Sentences:
A sentence is a group of words which: Is sequenced in a way which makes a complete sentence Contains a subject and a verb Is punctuated by a capital letter at the beginning and a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark at the end. There are 4 types of sentences: Statements Provide information Questions Ask a question Commands - Instruct Exclamations Exclaim

Simple sentence: Makes complete sense on its own, uses one verb and makes one statement. e.g. The cat catches the mouse. (Main clause) - Usually begins with a noun (subject) - Followed by a verb (action) - Ends with another noun (object) - S V O Pattern: Subject, verb, object - Useful for instructions, building suspense, often used in children's books. The Predicate: Parts of a sentence that are not the subject i.e. The verb, the object. e.g. Laura (s) reads (p) Laura (s) reads the book (p) The clever little boy (s) read the difficult text (p) Later, (p) the boy (s) was able to answer questions easily. (p) Compound sentences: Two or more simple sentences joined together with: and, but, either, or, neither, nor. e.g. The cat catches the mouse. The cat eats the mouse = The cat catches the mouse and eats it. - Useful for presenting a balanced argument. - Able to introduce more than one idea whilst still retaining the simple structure. Complex sentences: Contains one main clause together with one or more subordinate clause joined together with a conjunction: When, because, so, as etc. e.g. When the cat caught the mouse, it threw it in the air The girl visited the doctor's because she was not feeling well. - Communicate shades of meaning