NECO English flashcards

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

Formal letter closing

A formal letter ends with 'Yours faithfully' followed by the writer's full name, because the recipient is unknown personally and is addressed as 'Dear Sir/Madam'.

Informal letter closing

'Yours sincerely' closes an informal letter and is followed by the writer's first name only; the recipient is addressed by first name after 'Dear'.

COEMA essay marking

NECO essay scripts are scored on Content, Organisation, Expression and Mechanical Accuracy, so spelling and punctuation errors reduce the mechanical accuracy mark even when the ideas are strong.

Argumentative essay structure

State a clear position in the introduction, devote one paragraph to each supporting reason with evidence, refute the opposing view, then restate the position in the conclusion.

Narrative essay tense

A narrative is told mainly in the past tense; present tense appears only inside direct speech, in a flashback frame, or in statements of general truth.

Speech opening vocatives

A formal speech opens by addressing the audience in order of seniority, for example 'The Chairman, the Principal, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen', before the main point.

Descriptive dominant impression

A descriptive essay organises all details around one dominant impression and appeals to sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, arranged in spatial order.

Expository essay purpose

An expository essay explains or informs: it defines the topic, breaks it into parts, and illustrates each part with examples, without arguing for a side.

Pronoun reference question

When asked what 'it' or 'they' refers to, answer with the exact noun phrase from the passage and check that it fits grammatically when substituted back.

Vocabulary-in-context question

The question 'which word in the passage means…' requires one word or phrase copied from the passage, not a synonym invented by the candidate.

Inference in comprehension

An inference answer must be supported by clues in the passage; answers resting on general knowledge rather than the text are marked wrong.

Tone and attitude questions

Answer with an adjective such as humorous, sarcastic, sympathetic or critical, then quote the words or incidents in the passage that create that tone.

Figures of speech identification

A simile uses 'like' or 'as', a metaphor states one thing is another, personification gives human qualities to non-human things, and hyperbole exaggerates for effect.

Complete-sentence rule

Comprehension answers should be full sentences unless the question asks for a word or phrase; a bare phrase often loses part of the mark.

Lifting in summary

Lifting means copying whole sentences from the passage; summary marks are earned by re-expressing points in the candidate's own vocabulary and sentence structure.

Summary point sentence

Each summary point must be a complete sentence with a subject and finite verb, and must never begin with 'That', 'Because' or 'Which'.

What to omit in summary

Leave out examples, illustrations, statistics, dialogue, repetition and minor detail; keep only the main ideas of the section named in the question.

Summary tense and person

A summary is written in the third person and in the tense of the passage, with no personal opinion, comment or added outside information.

Summary word limit

When a word limit is set, count the words and stay within it; exceeding the limit attracts a penalty even when the points are accurate.

Concord with 'one of'

In 'one of the boys who…', the relative clause verb is plural because 'who' refers to 'boys', while the main clause verb remains singular.

Question tag rule

A positive statement takes a negative tag and a negative statement takes a positive one; the tag repeats the auxiliary and the subject pronoun, as in 'She can swim, can't she?'

Type 3 conditional

The third conditional uses 'if' plus the past perfect in the condition and 'would have' plus the past participle in the result, expressing an unreal past situation.

Congratulate preposition

'Congratulate' is always followed by 'on', as in 'congratulate him on his success'; the pattern 'congratulate for' is nonstandard and marked wrong.

Comparatives taking 'to'

Senior, junior, superior, inferior and prefer take 'to' rather than 'than', giving sentences such as 'He is senior to me in the office'.

Reported speech backshift

In indirect speech the present becomes past, the past becomes past perfect, and time words shift: today becomes that day, tomorrow becomes the next day.

Tags for 'Let's' and imperatives

'Let's' takes the tag 'shall we', imperatives take 'will you', and 'I am' takes 'aren't I' in question-tag formation.

Idiom: bury the hatchet

'To bury the hatchet' means to end a quarrel and become friendly again; idioms must be used in their fixed form and cannot be altered.

The /θ/ sound

/θ/ is a voiceless dental fricative heard in 'think', 'three' and 'bath'; replacing it with /t/ produces 'tink' and 'tree', which is marked wrong.

Silent letters

Letters are written but not pronounced in words such as comb, debt, doubt, honour, hour, island, knight, psychology and write.

Falling intonation use

Falling intonation marks statements, wh-questions and commands; rising intonation marks yes/no questions and non-final items in a list, with the last item falling.

-ed ending pronunciation

The past ending '-ed' is pronounced /t/ after voiceless sounds, /d/ after voiced sounds, and /ɪd/ after the sounds /t/ or /d/.

Emphatic stress

Emphatic stress falls on the word that contrasts with an implied alternative, so in 'I said the BLUE pen' the stress corrects a mistaken colour.