Download Grammar Booklet for Parents

Semi-colon
A semi-colon can link two complete sentences and turn them into one.
The door swung open; a masked figure strode in.
A semi-colon separates items in a detailed list.
The attractions of the park included: a new roundabout; a short pony
ride; a long slide and an ice-cream stall.
Bullet points
Bullet points are used to draw attention to important information. They are
there so the reader can see the key facts quickly.
Matilda was:
· intelligent
· caring
· unloved
Supporting your child at home
Grammar and Punctuation
Y1-Y6
The following guide is a useful tool to help you support your child
with the grammar and punctuation aspects of the English
curriculum. It sets out the objectives that most children should be
able to achieve by the end of each year.
In addition, there is an easy to use guide, with examples, to the sort
of grammar and punctuation conventions that your children will
come across during their time at primary school. The examples are
there to help support you, however, the pupils themselves will
come across increasing more difficult examples as they progress
through school and their understanding develops.
If you would like further clarification on anything within this guide,
please speak to your child’s class teacher.
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1
Year 1
Synonym
By the end of Year 1, most children should know:
·
How words can combine to make sentences.
·
How to sequence sentences to form short narratives.
·
·
·
·
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How to join words and clauses using ‘and.’
How to separate words with spaces.
How to use capital letters, full stops, question marks and
exclamation marks to demarcate sentences.
How to use capital letters for names and for the personal pronoun
‘I’.
What nouns, verbs and adjectives are.
Words for pupils to know:
·
sentence
· word
·
full stop
·
· singular
·
· plural
·
big, enormous, immense, colossal
Antonym
Two words are antonyms if their meanings are opposites.
big – insignificant, miniature
Ellipsis
Ellipsis is the omission of a word or phrase which is expected and
predictable.
Looking around the room, he realised he was … alone.
Hyphen
Hyphens are used to link words and part of words:
· letter
· capital letter
Two words are synonyms if they have the same meaning, or similar
meanings. Contrast antonym.
punctuation
question mark
exclamation mark
- in compound words (sugar-free)
- to join prefixes to other words (co-own)
Colon
There are three main uses of the colon:
- between two main clauses when the second clause explains the first
That is the secret of my extraordinary life: always do the
unexpected.
- to introduce a list
The price includes the following: travel to London, hotel
accommodation, and excursions.
- before a quotation and sometimes before direct speech
They shouted: “Our families are starving!”
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Verb forms
Present perfect tense expresses actions or events that began in the past
and are still true or appropriate in the present time, or are now finished.
I have walked to the park every morning.
Formation: ‘has’/’have’ + past tense form of the verb
Past perfect tense expresses the idea that something occurred before
another action in the past. It can also show that something happened
before a specific time in the past.
I had walked to the park every morning.
Formation: ‘had’ + past tense verb
Present progressive tense indicates continuing action, something going on
now.
I am walking to the park every morning.
Formation: ‘to be verb’ (present tense) +’verb –ing’
Past progressive tense indicates continuing action, something that was
happening, going on, at some point in the past.
I was walking to the park every morning.
Formation: ‘to be verb’ (past tense) +’verb –ing’
Subjunctive
The subjunctive verb form is used in formal language, and can be used to
give advice or to talk about an unreal situation.
Were I a little bit taller, I would be able to reach the shelf.
It is vital that each child bring their own water bottle to school.
Formation: For all verbs except the past of ‘be’, you use the same as the
infinitive (basic) form.
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Definitions and examples
Plural
A plural form of a noun is used to mean more than one thing.
dragons, wishes, babies, wolves
There are some nouns which don’t follow the rules and they are irregular.
mice, sheep, geese, scissors
Sentence
A sentence is a group of words that expresses an idea or conveys a situation.
A sentence must have: a capital at the beginning; a full stop, question or
exclamation mark at the end and contain a subject and verb.
It must make sense on its own.
I went to the park with my friends.
The children danced at the party.
Punctuation
Marks used to signal the end of sentences or enhance a sentence.
., ! ? “ ; : ‘ – ( ) -
Question mark
A question always ends in a question mark.
What’s that?
What time is it?
Exclamation mark
An exclamation ends in an exclamation mark. It also can be used for:
An interjection - Wow!
A command - Go away!
To show heightened emotion – We love the new song!
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Year 2
By the end of Year 2, most children should understand:
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
What nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are.
Subordination – using … when, if, that, because.
Coordination – using … or, and, but.
How to expand noun phrases for description and specification. (E.g.
the blue butterfly, plain flour, the man in the moon.)
How the grammatical patterns in a sentence indicate its function as
a statement, question, exclamation or command.
How to make the correct choice of present tense and past tense.
The use of the progressive form of verbs in the present and past
tense to mark actions in progress. (E.g. she is drumming; he was
shouting.)
The use of capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation
marks to demarcate sentences.
Commas to separate items in a list.
The use of apostrophes to mark where letters are missing in spelling
and to mark singular possession in nouns. (E.g. the girl’s name)
Words for pupils to know:
· noun
·
adjective
· statement
·
suffix
· noun phrase
·
· question
·
· exclamation
·
· command
· compound
·
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·
verb
adverb
tense (past, present)
apostrophe
comma
Words for pupils to know:
· subject
·
hyphen
· active
·
semi-colon
· object
· passive
· synonym
· antonym
· ellipsis
colon
·
bullet points
·
subjunctive
·
past and present perfect tense
·
past and present progressive tense
·
Definitions and examples
Subject
The subject of a sentence is the ‘doer’.
The girl threw the book.
Object
The object of a sentence is ‘being done to’.
The girl threw the book.
Active and passive voice
A sentence is written in active voice when the subject of the sentence
performs the action in the sentence.
The girl was washing the dog.
A sentence is written in passive voice when the subject of the sentence has
an action done to it by someone or something else.
The dog was being washed.
The dog was being washed by the girl.
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Year 6
By the end of Year 6, most children should know:
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
The use of the passive to affect the presentation of information in a
sentence. (E.g. I broke the window in the greenhouse - instead of…
The window in the greenhouse was broken [by me].)
The difference between the use of informal speech or slang and that
of a formal type of speech and writing. (E.g. the use of question
tags… He’s your friend, isn’t he? Or, the use of subjunctive forms
such as If I were or Were they to come in some very formal writing
and speech.)
How to link ideas across paragraphs using a wider range of cohesive
devices: repetition of a word or phrase, grammatical connections.
(E.g. the use of adverbials such as …on the other hand, in contrast or
as a consequence), and ellipsis…
How to use layout devices. (E.g. headings, subheadings, columns,
bullets or tables, to structure text.)
The use of the semi-colon, colon and dash to mark the boundary
between independent clauses. (E.g. It’s raining; I’m fed up.)
The use of the colon to introduce a list and the use of semi-colons
within lists.
The punctuation of bullet points to list information.
How hyphens can be used to avoid ambiguity. (E.g. man eating
shark or man-eating shark, recover or re-cover.)
How words are related by meaning as synonyms and antonyms. The
basics of using paragraphs as a way of grouping related material.
Definitions and examples
Noun
A noun is a naming word. It is always a person’s name, place or a thing.
The cat was sat on the mat.
Embsay Primary School is in North Yorkshire.
Noun phrase
A noun phrase is a phrase with a noun as its head.
some foxes
foxes with bushy tails
Statement
A sentence that conveys a fact or piece of information. Most sentences are
statements.
Berlin is the capital of Germany.
It’s raining.
Question
A sentence that asks for information.
Where is Mount Everest?
Exclamation
This is a sentence which expresses a strong feeling. It must start with How…!
or What …!
How lovely that is!
What a laugh!
Command
This is a sentence that gives orders or instructions.
Please sit down.
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Come over here.
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Compound
A compound word is one that is created from two or more root words.
Many English words are created in this way. It can be one word, two words
or used with a hyphen.
software, outrun, fire engine, one-way
Adjective
A word that describes a noun; adjectives make nouns more specific.
a spotty dress
Verb
Dash
A dash can be used to mark off information or ideas that are not essential
to the understanding of the rest of the sentence. A pair of dashes can be
used to surround parenthesis, or a single dash adds additional information
to the end of the sentences.
Thousands of children – like the girl in this photograph – have been
left homeless.
Sophie looked over the bridge – the drop was huge.
Cohesion
The box was wooden.
A verb is a word that describes an action or a state of being. Every sentence
must contain a verb.
The man walks slowly up the hill.
Sarah slept.
Suffix
A suffix is an ‘ending’, used at the end of one word to turn it into another
word. Unlike root words, suffixes cannot stand on their own as a complete
word.
A text has cohesion if it is clear how the meanings of its parts fit together.
Adverbials, pronouns and conjunctions are all cohesive devices.
Ambiguity
Ambiguities arise from sentence contradictions; the possibility of
interpreting an expression in two or more distinct ways.
They are cooking apples.
care + less = careless
- ly, - ness, - ful, - er
Adverb
The surest way to identify adverbs is by the ways they can be used: they can
modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb or even a whole clause.
I arrived late.
We live here.
The dog was certainly fierce.
Fortunately it didn’t rain.
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15
Definitions and examples
Past tense
Modal verb
Modal verbs are used to change the meaning of other verbs. The main
modal verbs are will, would, can, could, may, might, shall, should, must and
ought.
I should learn a great deal this lesson.
I will go to school tomorrow.
Relative pronoun
Used after a noun to make it clear which noun we are talking about, or to
add more information about that noun.
that, who, which, whose, where
Relative clause
A relative clause is a type of subordinate clause. It adds more detail about
the noun in the main clause.
The dog, which was brown, growled at the cat.
Parenthesis
Parenthesis is a word or phrase put into a sentence to give more
information.
Parenthesis is used to explain what a difficult word means; show someone’s
thoughts; add extra information; to help the reader or emphasise a point.
The trainers (red and blue Nike Air) were very expensive.
The trainers -red and blue Nike Air- were very expensive.
Bracket
Brackets enclose or surround information to show that it is separate from
everything around it. They surround parenthesis.
The past tense is when you are writing or talking about something that has
already happened.
The dog barked at the postman.
Richard was cooking dinner.
Present tense
Verbs in the present tense are used to talk about actions happening now.
Max hates carrots.
I am doing my homework.
Apostrophe
An apostrophe can show where letters have been left out.
I’m for I am
An apostrophe shows possession.
Hannah’s mother (mother belonging to Hannah)
the girl’s name (singular)
the girls’ names (plural)
Comma
You use commas:
- in a list
Mrs Twit was ugly, disgusting, dirty and mean.
- to separate clauses (parts of a sentence)
With a squeak, the squirrel pounced on the giraffe.
The shoes (made of patent leather) were all scuffed and dirty.
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Year 3
By the end of Year 3, most children should know:
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·
·
·
·
·
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How to express time, place and cause using conjunctions – (e.g.
when, before, after, while, so, because), adverbs (e.g. then, next,
soon, therefore), or prepositions (e.g. before, after, during, in,
because of).
Year 5
By the end of Year 5, most children should know:
·
·
The basics of using paragraphs as a way of grouping related
material.
·
How to use the present perfect form of verbs instead of the simple
past. (E.g. He has gone out to play. Contrasted with… He went out
to play.)
·
How to use headings and sub-headings to aid presentation.
How to use inverted commas to punctuate direct speech.
Use of the forms a or an according to whether the next word begins
with a consonant or a vowel. (E.g., a rock, an open box.)
Word families based on common words, showing how words are
related in form and meaning. (E.g., solve, solution, solver, dissolve,
insoluble.)
Words for pupils to know:
· adverb
·
clause
· conjunction
·
consonant
·
· preposition
·
· word family
·
· prefix
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direct speech
vowel
inverted commas
·
·
How to convert nouns or adjectives into verbs using suffixes. (E.g., –
ate; –ise; –ify.)
How to use relative clauses, beginning with who, which, where,
when, whose, that, or an omitted relative pronoun.
How to indicate degrees of possibility using adverbs (e.g. perhaps,
surely) or modal verbs (e.g. might, should, will, must).
Devices to build cohesion within a paragraph. (E.g., then, after that,
this, firstly.)
How to link ideas across paragraphs using adverbials of time (e.g.
later , before, then), place (e.g. nearby, far away) and number (e.g.
secondly, finally) or tense choices (e.g. he had seen her before).
How to use brackets, dashes or commas to indicate parenthesis.
Words for pupils to know:
· modal verb
· relative pronoun
· relative clause
· parenthesis
· bracket
· dash
· cohesion
· ambiguity
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Definitions and examples
Definitions and examples
A determiner stands before a noun and any other words; it specifies a noun
as known or unknown.
A preposition links a following noun, pronoun or noun phrase to some other
word in the sentence.
Determiner
the robot
a robot
Preposition
I haven’t seen my auntie since last week.
a sock under the bed
my robot
Conjunction
three robots
There are two main types of conjunctions:
this robot
A conjunction links two words or phrases together.
Pronoun
A pronoun is a word that is used in place of a noun. They are used instead
of repeating the names of a person, place or thing.
Rita loves playing the guitar. Rita finds the guitar relaxing.
Rita loves playing the guitar. She finds it relaxing.
Possessive pronoun
Some pronouns show who something belongs to. They are called possessive
pronouns.
This is my umbrella.
The umbrella is mine.
Co-ordinating conjunctions (e.g. and, or, but) link two words or phrases
together as an equal pair.
You can have a biscuit or a piece of cake.
Subordinating conjunctions (e.g. when, because, as) introduce a
subordinate clause.
While he waited for his mum, Patrick read a book.
Word family
Words that are related to each other by meaning, form or grammar.
teach – teacher – teaching
extensive – extent – extend
Adverbial
An adverbial can be an adverb, an adverb phrase, a preposition phrase or
subordinate clause. It describes when, where, how or why an action is
happening. A fronted adverbial comes at the start of a sentence and is
followed by a comma.
You probably won’t notice it after a while.
Prefix
A prefix is added at the beginning of a word in order to turn it into another
word.
un + happy = unhappy
un-, dis-, im-, mis-, pre-
After a while, you probably won’t notice it.
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9
Clause
A clause is a group of words which contain a subject and a verb. There are
two types of clause: main and subordinate.
Main clause
A main clause makes sense on its own; every sentence has a main clause.
Matthew ate a cake.
Matthew ate a cake which was covered in chocolate.
Subordinate clause
A subordinate clause would not make sense if it stood on its own because
it’s not a full sentence.
Matthew ate a cake which was covered in chocolate.
Direct speech
Direct speech involves quoting exactly what a person says; inverted commas
should be used around the direct speech.
“Hello Sarah,” said Mike. “What are you doing here?”
Consonant
There are 21 consonants:
BCDFGHJKLMNPQRSTVWXYZ
Vowel
Year 4
By the end of Year 4, most children should know:
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
How to expand noun phrases by the addition of modifying
adjectives, nouns and preposition phrases. (E.g. the teacher
expanded to: the strict teacher with curly red hair.)
About fronted adverbials. (E.g. Later that day, I heard the bad
news.)
Use of commas after fronted adverbials.
How to use paragraphs to organise ideas around a theme.
How to choose the correct pronoun or noun within and across
sentences to aid cohesion and avoid repetition.
How to use inverted commas and other punctuation to indicate
direct speech. (E.g. a comma after the reporting clause; end
punctuation within inverted commas: The conductor shouted, “Sit
down!”)
Apostrophes to mark singular and plural possession. (E.g. the girl’s
name, the girls’ names.)
Standard English forms for verbs instead of local spoken forms. (E.g.,
we were instead of we was, or I did instead of I done.)
Words for pupils to know:
There are 5 vowels:
AEIOU
· determiner
Inverted commas
Mark the beginning and end of direct speech. Also, to be used if quoting a
word or phrase from somewhere.
“That,” he said, “is nonsense.”
What does ‘adverb’ mean?
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· pronoun
· possessive pronoun
· adverbial
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