Glossary of Language Arts Terms

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A short form of a word

Abbreviation

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A word that tells what people or things did

Action verb

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A word that describes a noun and can tell what kind or how many

Adjective

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A word that describes a verb and tells how, when, or where

Adverb

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The use of a singular verb with a singular subject and a plural subject with a plural verb

Agreement

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A punctuation mark (‘) used in contractions and used to form possessive words

Apostrophe

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A word or phrase that directly follows another noun and explains or identifies it

Appositive

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The adjectives a, an, and the

Articles

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Person or people who read or listen to something

Audience

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To think of different ideas

Brainstorm

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Words in connected circles that show how ideas are related

Cluster

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A punctuation mark (,) used to separate words in a sentence

Comma

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Names any person, place, or thing

Common noun

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Includes all the words in the predicate

Complete Predicate

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Two related, short sentences that have been combined using a comma and the connection word and, but, or or

Compound sentence

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Formed by using and to join the subjects of two sentences with the same predicate

Compound subject

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A word that connects words or groups of words in a sentence

Conjunction

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A shortened form of two words joined together. An apostrophe replaces the missing letter or letters

Contraction

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Standard rules of spelling, grammar, usage, capitalization, and punctuation

Conventions

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Makes a statement and ends with a period

Declarative sentence

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Tells which one (this, that, these, and those)

Demonstrative adjective

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Exact facts Details

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Someone’s exact Direct quotation

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The part of the writing process when the writer first puts ideas on paper in the form of a composition

Drafting

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To give more details

Elaborate

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Shows strong feeling. It ends with an exclamation mark (!)

Exclamatory sentence

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Shows action that will happen in the future

Future tense

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A verb that comes before the main verb, such as have, has, had

Helping verb

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Thoughts that form the main points of a composition

Ideas

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Gives a command and ends with a period (.)

Imperative sentence

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To begin the first line of a sentence a few spaces in from the margin

Indent

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A word that shows strong feelings

Interjection

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Asks a question and ends with a question mark (?)

Interrogative sentence

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Verbs that do not add –ed to show past action

Irregular Verb

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The most important thought

Main idea

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The most important verb

Main verb

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A word that means “no”

Negative

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Word that names a person, place, or thing

Noun

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Words that signal sequence, such as first, next, or last

Order words

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The structure of a composition

Organization

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A group of sentences that tell about the main idea

Paragraph

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A verb that shows action that has already happened

Past tense

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A group of words that does not have a subject or a predicate

Phrase

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Names more than one person, place, or thing

Plural noun

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Shows ownership. It is formed by adding an apostrophe to a plural noun

Plural possessive noun

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A noun that shows ownership. It is formed by adding an apostrophe and s to a singular noun

Possessive noun

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May be used in place of a possessive noun

Possessive pronoun

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Tells what the subject of a sentence does or is

Predicate

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A word that shows the connection between other words in a sentence, such as at, for, with, or after

Preposition

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A group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun

Prepositional phrase

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A verb that shows action that is happening now

Present tense

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The way in which writers share their writing with an audience

Presentation

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The part of the writing process when the writer chooses a topic and plans the composition

Prewriting

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A word that replaces one or more nouns

Pronoun

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The part of the writing process when the writing is checked for mistakes

Proofreading

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An adjective formed from a proper noun and capitalized

Proper adjective

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A word that names a particular person, place, or thing and is capitalized

Proper noun

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The part of the writing process when writers make the final copy of their composition

Publish

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The goal of the composition

Purpose

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Punctuation used before (“) and after (“) a direct quotation

Quotation marks

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The part of the writing process when the writer tries to improve the working draft

Revising

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Has two complete thoughts that run into each other

Run-on sentence

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Words that describe how something looks, sounds, feels, tastes, or smells

Sensory words

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A group of words that tells a complete thought Sentence

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The structure and order of sentences so that a composition reads smoothly

Sentence fluency

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A list of three or more words in a sentence Series

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The main word in the complete predicate Simple predicate

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The main word in the complete subject Simple subject

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Names one person, place or thing Singular noun

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Tells whom or what a sentence is about Subject

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Tell more details or information about a main idea

Supporting sentences

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The form of a verb that identifies whether something happens in the present, past, or future

Tense

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The subject of a discussion or a composition

Topic

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States a main idea Topic sentence

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Words that connect sentences or ideas, such as also

Transitional words

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The use of words to show the writer’s personality

Voice

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Words in connected circles that show how ideas are related

Web

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The selection of interesting , exact words Word choice

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A composition that is not yet a final Working draft

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A discussion between a writer and a reader about the writer’s composition

Writing conference

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A series of steps (prewriting, drafting, revising, proofreading, publishing) that a writer follows to write a composition

Writing process

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The End