FY12CE English cheat sheet

Capital letters begin a sentence and every proper noun: names of people, days, months, and places (Monday, March, Leeds).

A full stop (.) ends a statement; a question mark (?) ends a question; an exclamation mark (!) shows strong feeling.

Every sentence needs a subject and a verb: 'The bus stopped.' A group of words without a verb is not a sentence.

The pronoun 'I' is always written as a capital letter, wherever it appears in the sentence.

Common plural rule: add -s to most nouns (cat → cats); add -es after s, x, ch, sh (box → boxes, dish → dishes).

The alphabet has 26 letters: 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and 21 consonants; each letter has an upper and lower case form.

Read a simple form by matching each label to one piece of information: name, address, date of birth, signature.

Words are read left to right, top to bottom; a list is read in order down the page.

Commas separate items in a list and mark a pause before a joining word such as 'but' or 'so'.

Apostrophe rules: -'s shows possession (Sam's bag); -s' for plurals already ending in s (the girls' coats); do not use an apostrophe for a simple plural.

Past tense regular verbs add -ed (walk → walked); irregular verbs change form (go → went, buy → bought, see → saw).

Capitalise the first word of a sentence, the pronoun I, proper nouns, and the days of the week and months of the year.

Apostrophe in contractions marks missing letters: do not → don't, I am → I'm, they are → they're.

Use 'a' before a consonant sound and 'an' before a vowel sound: a book, an apple, an hour.

To find a word in a dictionary or index, use alphabetical order; compare the second, third letters only when the first letters match.

A simple text has a purpose: instruct, inform, invite, or persuade - identify the purpose before answering questions on it.

A paragraph develops one main idea; a new paragraph starts when the topic, time, place, or speaker changes.

Direct speech uses inverted commas around the spoken words: "Where are you going?" she asked. Punctuation sits inside the closing inverted comma.

Colons introduce a list or explanation; semicolons join two closely related complete statements.

Subject–verb agreement: singular subject takes a singular verb (The list is long); plural subject takes a plural verb (The lists are long).

Common homophones must be chosen by meaning: their/there/they're, your/you're, its/it's, to/too/two.

Prefixes change meaning (un-, dis-, re-, pre-); suffixes change word class (-ful, -less, -ly, -ness, -tion).

Skimming reads for the gist; scanning searches for one specific detail such as a date, price, or name.

Formal writing avoids slang and contractions and uses full sentences; informal writing may use contractions and direct address.

Complex sentences join a main clause to a subordinate clause with a conjunction (because, although, while, if); the subordinate clause cannot stand alone.

The apostrophe distinguishes its (possession: the dog and its bone) from it's (it is / it has).

Active voice names the doer (The manager signed the form); passive voice moves the doer later or omits it (The form was signed).

Comprehension answers must be supported by evidence in the text - quote or paraphrase the exact line, not general knowledge.

Fact is verifiable; opinion expresses a judgement or belief. Signal words for opinion include 'should', 'best', 'beautiful', 'I think'.

Cohesive devices link ideas: pronouns (it, they), connectives (however, therefore, in addition), and repeated key words.

A formal letter follows a layout: sender's address, date, recipient's address, salutation, body paragraphs, sign-off and name.

Inference means working out meaning not directly stated, using clues in the text plus the reader's own knowledge.

Punctuation hierarchy: full stop > semicolon > comma; a semicolon can replace a full stop between two related main clauses but a comma cannot.

A dangling modifier has no logical subject in the main clause: 'Walking home, the rain started' is wrong because rain was not walking.

Formal register uses the passive, modal hedging (may, could), nominalisation (decision from decide), and avoids contractions and slang.

Persuasive techniques include rule of three, rhetorical questions, emotive language, statistics, anecdote, and direct address ('you').

Bias detection: check who is quoted, what is omitted, which adjectives carry judgement, and whether counter-arguments appear.

Comparison and contrast texts use connectives of similarity (similarly, likewise) and difference (whereas, in contrast, conversely).

Summarising condenses to main points only; it removes examples and repetition but keeps the original's stance and key facts.

Colons and semicolons in lists: use a colon to introduce the list and semicolons to separate items that already contain commas.

Proofreading checks for meaning and structure as well as spelling; a spell-checker will not catch wrong-word errors such as their/there.