English Language key terms

Writing that develops a reader’s impression of a person, place or moment through carefully selected details.

A variety of language associated with a region or social group, which may have distinctive grammar and vocabulary as well as pronunciation.

Speech between characters, which can reveal their attitudes, feelings and relationships.

Words identifying who speaks and sometimes how they speak, such as ‘she whispered’.

Speaking or writing directly to the audience, often using ‘you’ or naming the people being addressed.

Someone's exact words reproduced accurately and identified as coming from that person or source.

The exact words a person or character speaks, enclosed in quotation marks.

A word or phrase that signals a relationship between ideas, such as contrast, addition or consequence.

Writing that explores a topic through reasoned discussion of different ideas or viewpoints.

A shared feature that is meaningfully different from the other similarities selected.

Two identical consonant letters next to one another within a word, such as ‘ss’ in ‘necessary’.

A contrast between what a character believes and what readers understand, often making the character’s confidence seem mistaken.

The time that has passed since the examination began.

Three dots (…) that can indicate hesitation, a trailing-off thought or something left unsaid. In an edited quotation, they can indicate omitted material.

A short quotation fitted into the grammar of your own sentence.

Language chosen to encourage a particular emotional response, such as sympathy, anger or hope.

An evidence-based judgement about a text’s ideas and how the writer’s choices influence the reader.

A fact, observation, example or quotation used to support a claim.

A sentence or utterance expressing strong feeling. An exclamation mark can also give emphasis to a statement or command.

Information stated directly in a text.

An opinion stated directly rather than left for the reader to infer.

Writing about imagined characters and events, such as a novel or short story.

Information or observations established through an enquiry or examination of evidence.

A narrative perspective in which a narrator uses ‘I’ or ‘we’ to describe events they experience or observe.

Narration in which the speaker refers to themselves as ‘I’ or as part of ‘we’.

A narrator who tells the story using ‘I’ or ‘we’, usually as someone involved in its events.

A perspective in which a narrator speaks as ‘I’ or ‘we’, presenting their own experience.