KSEAB SSLC English NCERT (15E) flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Main idea

The central point a passage makes about its topic. It is usually stated in the opening or closing sentence, or must be inferred from repeated details across paragraphs.

Inference

A conclusion drawn from textual clues rather than stated directly. Signalled by words such as suggests, implies, or probably; the answer must be defensible from the passage alone.

Tone vs. mood

Tone is the writer's attitude toward the subject, shown by word choice. Mood is the feeling created in the reader. A passage can have a critical tone but a sombre mood.

Simile

A comparison between two unlike things using like or as, for example 'her voice was like a bell'. It clarifies an image by linking it to something familiar.

Personification

A figure of speech giving human qualities to non-human things, as in 'the wind whispered'. It creates vivid imagery and often conveys mood or theme.

Theme

The underlying comment on life or human nature that a literary work conveys, such as the value of honesty. It is expressed as a general statement, not a plot summary.

Character motivation

The reason behind a character's action, arising from a want or fear. Answers should name the desire, the obstacle, and the resulting deed in one linked statement.

First-person narrator

A narrator who tells the story using I or we and participates in the events. Their account may be limited, biased, or incomplete, which affects how readers judge other characters.

Title justification

An answer explaining why a work is named as it is. It must link the title to a literal event and to a symbolic or thematic meaning within the text.

Sonnet

A fourteen-line poem with a fixed rhyme scheme, usually in iambic pentameter. Shakespearean sonnets rhyme abab cdcd efef gg; Petrarchan sonnets divide into octave and sestet.

Rhyme scheme

The pattern of end rhymes in a poem, labelled with letters so that matching sounds share a letter. abab is alternate rhyme, aabb is couplet rhyme, abba is enclosed rhyme.

Iambic pentameter

A metrical line of five iambs, each an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, giving ten syllables with five beats. Common in sonnets and blank verse.

Refrain

A line or phrase repeated at intervals in a poem, often at the end of stanzas. It emphasises a key idea or marks a shift in mood when its wording changes.

Symbol

An object, person, or image that stands for a larger idea beyond its literal meaning, such as a caged bird representing confinement. Distinct from a mere sensory image.

Elegy

A poem of mourning for someone who has died. It moves through grief, praise of the dead, and often consolation, and is usually solemn in tone.

Ballad

A narrative poem in short stanzas, often with a refrain and simple rhyme, telling a dramatic story. It frequently deals with love, death, or the supernatural.

Plot turning point

The incident where the course of events changes decisively, often a moral choice or revelation. Non-detailed text questions frequently target this moment.

Situational irony

A gap between what a character or reader expects and what actually happens. Identify both the expectation and the outcome when answering questions about irony.

Reported speech tense shift

When converting direct to indirect speech, present becomes past, present perfect and past become past perfect, and will becomes would. Pronouns and time words also change.

Passive voice formation

Formed with a form of be plus the past participle of a transitive verb, with the original object as subject. The agent appears after by only when relevant.

Third conditional

An unreal past condition: if plus past perfect in the if-clause, and would have plus past participle in the main clause, as in 'If I had known, I would have come.'

Subject-verb agreement

The verb must match its subject in number. Each, every, either, and neither are singular; with neither…nor the verb agrees with the nearer subject.

Relative pronouns

Who refers to people, which to things, and that to either in defining clauses. A comma before the clause makes it non-defining, where that is not used.

Articles a, an, the

A and an are indefinite, chosen by sound not spelling: an hour, a university. The is definite, used for unique or already mentioned nouns.

Negating prefixes

Un-, in-, im-, dis-, and non- reverse or deny meaning, as in unfair, invisible, impossible, disagree, non-violent. The correct prefix is fixed by usage, not by rule.

Noun-forming suffixes

-ness, -ity, -ment, -tion, and -ance turn adjectives or verbs into nouns: kind to kindness, able to ability, move to movement, inform to information.

Doubling final consonant

A final consonant is doubled before a vowel suffix when it follows a single short stressed vowel: run to running, big to bigger. It is not doubled after a long vowel or two consonants.

Homophones

Words that sound alike but differ in spelling and meaning, such as principal and principle or their, there, and they're. Grammatical role in the sentence decides the choice.

Collocation

The conventional pairing of words, such as make a decision, take an exam, or heavy rain. Correct collocation is judged on the whole phrase, not on a single word's meaning.

Formal letter subscription

The closing line of a formal letter: Yours faithfully when the salutation is Dear Sir or Madam, and Yours sincerely when the recipient is named in the salutation.

Report writing structure

A headline, an optional byline, and a body answering what, where, when, who, why, and how. Written in the third person and past tense, without personal opinion.

Topic sentence

The sentence stating a paragraph's controlling idea, usually placed first. All remaining sentences support it with detail, example, or explanation, followed by a closing sentence.