AQA - A-Level - English Language - Lexis

Common Nouns

  • Common nouns are general, like dogs, writers and feelings.
  • Do not need capital letters unless they are starting a sentence.

Examples:
'I really like that writer!' - 'writer' is the common noun.
'My horse is so sweet.' - 'horse' is the common noun.

Proper Nouns

  • Proper nouns are specific objects, people or things.
  • These always need a capital letter.

Examples:
'I really like Shakespeare!' - 'Shakespeare' is the proper noun.

  • 'London is my home.' - 'London' is the proper noun.

Concrete Nouns

  • Concrete nouns can be touched.

Examples:

  • 'I put my pen on the table.' - 'pen' and 'table' are concrete nouns.
  • 'The saddle is too big for the horse.' - 'saddle' and 'horse' are concrete nouns.

Abstract Nouns

  • Feelings and states of being.

Examples:

  • ‘I felt the anger burn me up.’ - ‘anger’ is the abstract noun.
  • ‘I felt sadness when he left.’ - ‘sadness’ is the abstract noun.

Collective Nouns

  • Collective nouns are nouns used to describe groups.

Examples:

  • An 'army' of ants.
  • A 'swarm' of bees.
  • A 'litter' of puppies.
  • A 'gaggle' of geese'

Base Adjectives

  • Base adjectives are just plain adjectives without anything suffixed (added onto the end) onto the word.

Examples:

  • 'James is handsome.' - 'handsome is the base adj.
  • 'It is such a sunny day.' - 'sunny' is the base adj.

Comparative Adjectives

  • Base adj's become comparative when an -er suffix is added onto the end.

Examples:

  • 'The supermarket is nearer to my house than yours.' - 'nearer' is the comp adj.
  • 'Sally is taller than Pam.' - 'taller' is the comp adj.

Superlative Adjectives

  • Base adj's become superlative when an -est suffix is added onto the end.

Examples:

  • ‘Susan is the wisest woman I know.’ - ‘wisest’ is the superlative adj.
  • ‘That library is the oldest library in the world.’ - ‘oldest’ is the superlative adj.

Main Verbs

  • Describes the action of the clause.

Examples:

  • 'Thomas owns a car.' - 'owns' is the main verb.
  • 'Harry loves Jane.' - 'loves' is the main verb.

Auxiliary Verbs

  • Helps the main verb of a sentence.
  • Can also be used to express possibility.

Examples:

  • 'I am waiting for the bus.' - 'waiting' is the main verb and 'am' is the auxiliary verb in the present progressive tense.
  • 'Tim may walk the dog this afternoon.' - 'walk' is the main verb and 'may' is the modal auxiliary verb.
  • 'I should visit my grandmother this weekend.' - 'visit' is the main verb and 'should' is the modal auxiliary.

Copular Verbs

  • A copular verb links the subject to a noun or adjective that complements the subject.
  • The most common copular verb is the verb ‘is’ (and all of its conjugations like am, were and are).
  • Other examples are: appear, seem, look, sound, smell, taste, feel, become and get.

Examples:

  • ‘The food tastes amazing.’ - ‘'food’ is the subject and ‘amazing’ is the adjective complementing the ‘food’, so ‘tastes’ is the copular verb.
  • ‘Henry is bad at football.’ - 'Henry' is the subject and 'bad' is the adjective complementing 'Henry', so 'is' is the copular verb.
  • ‘Margaret feels angry.’ - 'Margaret' is the subject and 'angry' is the adjective that complements 'Margaret', so 'feels' is the copular verb.

Dynamic Verbs

  • Actions that can start and end.
  • Can either be material or verbal.

Material verbs - concerned with events.
Examples:

  • 'Anna drove to work.' - 'drove' is material dynamic verb.
  • 'James parked his car.' - 'parked' is the material dynamic.

Verbal verbs - concerned with communication.
Examples:

  • 'Anna sang the song on her way to work.' - 'sang' is the verbal dynamic.
  • 'Mollie and Billie spoke for hours.' - 'spoke' is the verbal dynamic.

Stative Verbs

  • Stative verbs describe actions/states which are quite constant.
  • These can be broken down into mental (or cognitive) or relational.

Mental verbs - describe an intrinsic process.
Examples:

  • 'Ellie thought about writing a book.' - 'thought' is the stative mental verb.
  • 'I believe in Santa Clause.' - 'believe' is the stative mental verb.

Relational verbs - show the relation between things or show a state of being.
Examples:

  • 'The box contains my socks.' - 'contains' is the stative relational verb.
  • 'Ellie became an author.' - 'became' is the stative relational verb.

Transitive Verbs

  • When verbs have a direct object.

Examples:

  • 'Sally ate all the cupcakes.' - 'ate' is the transitive verb.
  • 'Stephen baked banana bread.' - 'baked' is the transitive verb.

Intransitive Verbs

  • When verbs do not have a direct object.

Examples:

  • 'Bertie wept.' - 'wept' is the intransitive verb.
  • 'The teacher smirked and the student laughed.' - both 'smirked' and 'laughed' are intransitive verbs.

Active Voice (verbs)

  • When a subject is performing the action.

Examples:

  • 'Ryan played the character well.' - 'played' is being performed by Ryan so is the active voice.
  • 'I want to sleep.' - 'want' is being performed by I so is the active voice.

Passive Voice (verbs)

  • When the subject is being acted on (it is passive to the action).

Examples:

  • 'The character was played well by Ryan.' - the character is now the subject and is being impacted on, and so the verb is in the passive voice.
  • 'I was overcome by sleep.' - I am the subject and am being impacted on, and so the verb is in the passive voice.