PSEB Matric English key terms

A naming word that refers to a person, place, thing, quality, or idea, such as 'teacher', 'Lahore', 'honesty' or 'book'. It can be the subject or object of a sentence.

A word used in place of a noun so that the noun need not be repeated, for example 'he', 'she', 'it', 'they' or 'myself'. The noun it replaces is called its antecedent.

The noun or noun phrase that a pronoun stands for in a sentence. In 'Ali lost his pen', the word 'Ali' is the antecedent of the pronoun 'his'.

A describing word that gives more information about a noun or pronoun, telling us its quality, size, colour or number, as in 'a brave soldier' or 'three apples'.

A word that modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb, usually telling how, when, where or how often something happens, such as 'quickly', 'yesterday' or 'very'.

A word that expresses an action, an event or a state of being, such as 'run', 'happen' or 'seem'. Every complete sentence must contain at least one verb.

A small linking word placed before a noun or pronoun to show place, time, direction or relationship, for example 'in', 'on', 'under', 'after' or 'between'.

A joining word that connects words, phrases or clauses, such as 'and', 'but', 'or', 'because' and 'although'. It helps combine ideas into one smooth sentence.

A determiner placed before a noun: the definite article 'the' points to a specific thing, while the indefinite articles 'a' and 'an' refer to one non-specific thing.

The person or thing that performs the action of the verb or about whom the sentence gives information. In 'The girls sang a song', 'The girls' is the subject.

The part of a sentence that says something about the subject, containing the verb and its objects or complements. In 'Birds fly high', 'fly high' is the predicate.

The noun or pronoun that receives the action of a transitive verb, or follows a preposition. In 'She wrote a letter', 'a letter' is the object of 'wrote'.

A group of words containing its own subject and verb. An independent clause can stand alone as a sentence, while a subordinate clause depends on a main clause.

A group of related words that works as a single unit within a sentence but lacks both a subject and a finite verb, such as 'in the morning' or 'a very tall boy'.

The form of a verb that shows the time of an action or state, mainly present, past or future, each with simple, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous aspects.

A verb form used as an adjective or to build compound tenses. The present participle ends in '-ing' (running); the past participle usually ends in '-ed', '-en' or is irregular (broken).

A verb form ending in '-ing' that functions as a noun, as in 'Swimming is good exercise' or 'I enjoy reading'. It names an activity rather than showing action.

The base form of a verb, usually preceded by 'to', used as a noun, adjective or adverb, as in 'to forgive is noble'. It can also follow certain verbs like 'want' or 'decide'.

The sentence pattern in which the subject performs the action, as in 'The boy kicked the ball'. It is usually clearer and more direct than the passive.

The sentence pattern in which the subject receives the action, formed with a form of 'be' plus the past participle, as in 'The ball was kicked by the boy'.

The exact words spoken by a person, placed inside quotation marks with reporting verbs like 'said', as in: He said, "I am tired."

A report of what someone said without quoting the exact words, with pronouns and tenses often shifted, as in: He said that he was tired. Also called reported speech.

A word that has the same or nearly the same meaning as another word in the same language, such as 'begin' and 'start' or 'happy' and 'glad'.

A word that expresses the opposite meaning of another word, such as 'hot' and 'cold', 'brave' and 'cowardly', or 'increase' and 'decrease'.

One of two or more words that sound the same but differ in spelling and meaning, such as 'write' and 'right', 'sea' and 'see', or 'their' and 'there'.

One of two or more words spelled alike but different in meaning, and sometimes in pronunciation, such as 'lead' (metal) and 'lead' (to guide) or 'bow' and 'bow'.

A letter group added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning, as 'un-' in 'unhappy', 'dis-' in 'disagree', or 're-' in 'rewrite'.

A letter group added to the end of a word to change its meaning or part of speech, as '-ness' in 'kindness', '-ful' in 'hopeful', or '-ly' in 'quickly'.

The basic form of a word to which prefixes and suffixes are added, carrying the core meaning, as 'care' in 'careful', 'careless' and 'uncaring'.

The marks used in writing to separate sentences and clarify meaning, including the full stop, comma, question mark, exclamation mark, colon, semicolon and quotation marks.

The use of capital letters at the start of a sentence, for proper nouns, the pronoun 'I', titles, days, months and the first word of a quotation.

A group of sentences developing one main idea, usually beginning with a topic sentence and kept separate from other groups by indentation or a line break.

The sentence, usually first in a paragraph, that states the main idea the rest of the paragraph explains or supports with details and examples.

A short piece of writing on a particular subject, organized into an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion, presenting the writer's ideas in a clear order.

A brief statement of the main points of a passage or text, written in one's own words and leaving out details and examples. It is shorter than the original.

A restatement of a passage in different words while keeping the original meaning, often used to show understanding or to simplify a difficult text.

The ability to read a passage and understand its meaning, main idea, details and the writer's purpose, then answer questions about it accurately.

A fixed expression whose meaning cannot be worked out from its individual words, such as 'to let the cat out of the bag' meaning to reveal a secret.

A short, well-known saying that expresses a general truth or piece of practical wisdom, such as 'A stitch in time saves nine' or 'Honesty is the best policy'.

A figure of speech that describes one thing as if it were another, without using 'like' or 'as', as in 'Life is a journey' or 'The classroom was a zoo'.

A figure of speech that compares two different things using 'like' or 'as', as in 'as brave as a lion' or 'her smile was like sunshine'.

A figure of speech in which a non-human thing or idea is given human qualities, as in 'The wind whispered through the trees' or 'Opportunity knocked at the door'.