Nettleham Church of England Aided Junior School

A Simple Guide to
Grammar and Punctuation

Grammatical Terms/ Word

Classes/ Features of Sentences/
Vocabulary/ Language Strategies/
Punctuation

[2015]
 Nettleham Church of England Aided Junior School Grammar and Punctuation Guide
Grammatical Terms/Word Classes/Features of Sentences

Nouns
Term Definition

Noun A noun is a ‘naming’ word: a word used for naming an animal, a person, a place or a thing.
A noun phrase is a phrase with a noun as its focus e.g. ‘the old, painted house’

Proper noun This is a noun used to name particular people and places: Jim, Betty, London... – and some
‘times’: Monday, April, Easter… It always begins with a capital letter.

Common noun A common noun is a noun that is used to name everyday things: cars, toothbrushes, trees,… –
and kinds of people: man, woman, child …

Collective noun This is a noun that describes a group or collection of people or things: army, bunch, team,
swarm…

Abstract noun An abstract noun describes things that cannot actually be seen, heard, smelt, felt or tasted:
sleep, honesty, boredom, freedom, power, joy, guilt …

Adjectives
Term Definition

An adjective is a ‘describing’ word: it is a word used to describe (or tell you more about) a
noun.

Adjectives Example: The burglar was wearing a black jacket, a furry hat and a large mask over his face.
(The words in bold tell us more about the noun that follows)
An adjective usually comes before a noun but sometimes it can be separated from its noun
and come afterwards (e.g.: Ben looked frightened; the dog was very fierce)

Interrogative e.g.: What? Which? … They are used to ask questions about a noun.
(‘asking’) Example: Which hat do you prefer?
adjectives
e.g.: my, our, their, his, your … Possessive adjectives show ownership.
Possessive
adjectives Example.: Sue never brushes her hair.

Adjectives of e.g. much, more, most, little, some, any, enough … These answer the question: How much?
number or Example: She invited five friends for breakfast; she did not have any food left
quantity

Demonstrative e.g.: this, that, these, those… Demonstrative adjectives answer the question: Which?
(‘pointing-out’)
adjectives Example: Those apples and these pears are bad; That man stole this handbag.

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 Nettleham Church of England Aided Junior School Grammar and Punctuation Guide
Verbs
Term Definition

A verb is a word, or a group of words, which tells you what a person or thing is being or doing.
Verb It is often called a ‘doing’ word: e.g. running, eating, sitting.
All sentences have a subject and a verb. The subject is the person or thing doing the action:
Example: Cats purr (Cats is the subject and purr is the verb)
Infinitive The infinitive is the base form of the verb without any additional endings. For example play is
an infinitive form as (as opposed to playing, played or plays.

A verb is often made up of more than one word. The actual verb-word is helped out by parts
of the special verbs: the verb to be and the verb to have. These ‘helping’ verbs are called
auxiliary verbs and can help us to form tenses.
Auxiliary verb Auxiliary verbs for ‘to be’ include: am, are, is, was, were,
Auxiliary verbs for ‘to have’ include: have, had, hasn’t, has, will have, will not have.
Examples:
I have arrived (‘arrived’ is the main verb and ‘have’ is the auxiliary verb)
We are waiting (‘waiting’ is the main verb and ‘are’ is the auxiliary verb)

Active and Many verbs can be active or passive. For example bite:
passive
The dog bit Ben. (active)
Ben was bitten by the dog. (passive)
In the active the dog performs the action. In the passive sentence the subject (Ben) is in the
receiving end of the action.
Adverbs
Term Definition

An adverb tells you more about the verb (it ‘adds’ to the verb). It nearly always answers the
Adverb questions: How? When? Where? How often?
Most adverbs in English end in –ly and come from adjectives:
E.g. soft – softly; slow – slowly. These are often referred to as ADVERBS OF MANNER as they
tell you the manner in which something is undertaken.

ADVERBIALS are phrases that act as adverbs e.g.

How? With caution

When? Yesterday evening
Where? Behind the garage (this is also a prepositional phrase – but that really doesn’t
matter!)
How often? At regular intervals

The expression fronted adverbial simply means it is placed at the front of a sentence. E.g. At
regular intervals, the dog barked to warn his master.

Some words can be either adverbs or adjectives depending on what they do in a sentence,
e.g. fast, hard, late.
If they answer the questions: How? When? Where? or Why? – they are adverbs.
Adverb or If they answer the question: “What is it like?” - they are adjectives, and will be telling you
Adjective? more about a specific noun.
Examples:
Life is hard. (adjective) Kim works hard. (adverb)
The train arrived early. (adverb) I took an early train. (adjective)

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Nettleham Church of England Aided Junior School Grammar and Punctuation Guide
Pronouns
Term Definition

Pronoun Sometimes you refer to a person or a thing not by its actual name, but by another word which
stands for it. The word you use to stand for a noun is called a pronoun (which means ‘for a
noun’)
We use pronouns so that we do not have to repeat the same nouns over again.

Have a look at the following sentence: When Barnaby stroked the cat and listened to the cat
purring softly, Barnaby felt calm and peaceful.
Compare it with the same sentence where some of the nouns have been replaced by
pronouns: When Barnaby stroked the cat and listened to it purring softly, he felt calm and
peaceful.

Singular Singular pronouns are used to refer to one person or thing.

pronouns E.g.: I, you, me, he, she, it, you, him, her, mine, yours, his, hers, its

Plural Plural pronouns are used to refer to more than one person or thing.
pronouns E.g.: we, they, us, them, ours, yours, theirs

Types of Personal Pronouns

Pronouns
The personal pronouns are I, you, he, she, it, we, they, and who. More often than not (but not
exclusively), they replace nouns representing people. When most people think of pronouns, it
is the personal pronouns that usually spring to mind.

Example:

 We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go
by.
 I bought some batteries, but they weren't included.

Possessive Pronouns
Possessive pronouns are used to show possession.

My, your, his, her, its, our and their are all possessive pronouns.

 Have you seen her book?

(In this example, the pronoun her replaces a word like Sarah's.)

Relative Pronouns
Relative pronouns are used to add more information to a sentence. Which, that, who
(including whom and whose) and where are all relative pronouns.

Examples:

 Dr Adam Sissons, who lectured at Cambridge for more than 12 years, should have
known the difference.

(In this example, the relative pronoun who introduces the clause who studied at
Cambridge for 12 years and refers back to Dr Adams Sissons.)

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 Nettleham Church of England Aided Junior School Grammar and Punctuation Guide

Other word classes and grammatical terms

Term Definition

Prepositions are words which show the relationship of one thing to another.

Prepositions Examples: Tom jumped over the cat.

The monkey is in the tree.
These words tell you where one thing is in relation to something else. They are related
to position (place) or time.
Other examples of prepositions include: up, across, into, past, under, below, above …

A conjunction is a word used to link clauses within a sentence

There are two kinds of conjunction:

Connectives Co-ordinating conjunctions join clauses of equal weight eg two main clauses
(conjunctions)
Co-ordinating
for and nor but or yet so

FANBOYS
Used to form compound sentences (both parts of the sentence are of equal weight):

 It is late and I am tired.

 The night is warm, but I am cold.

 We can eat in, or we can go out.

 The king is unable to eat, for he thinks only of his missing brother.

 The lizard eats frogs, yet in times of hardship it will resort to insects.

Use a comma before all of these connectives apart from ‘and’.

Subordinating conjunctions link a main (independent) clause with a subordinate (dependent)

clause (a clause which does not make sense on its own).
Subordinating Example:
conjuctions When we got home, we were hungry. (underlined subordinate clause)

We were hungry because we hadn’t eaten all day. (underlined subordinate clause)

Other subordinating connectives include: if, while, after, until, before, although, when, since,
until, whilst…

Subordinating conjunctions go at the beginning of a subordinate clause.

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Nettleham Church of England Aided Junior School Grammar and Punctuation Guide

Article An article is always used with, and gives some information about, a noun. There are three
articles: a, an and the

Examples: the chair; a table; an elephant

The definite article is the as it refers to a particular thing – the table rather than a table.
The indefinite article is a or an as it refers to no particular thing – a coat/an apple.

*There is sometimes confusion about whether to use a or an. The sound of a word’s first
letter helps us to know which to use: If a word begins with a vowel sound, you should use an;
if a word begins with a consonant sound, you should use a.

Determiners

Small words that come before a noun e.g. the, an, a etc.

These are words which limit, or determine the noun in some way.

‘Determiners’ is an umbrella term which covers:

Articles – the, a, an

Possessives – my, your, his, her, its, our

Quantifiers – some, any, many, much, few, little, both, all, either, neither, each, every, enough

Numbers

Question words

Demonstratives – this/that, these/those

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 Nettleham Church of England Aided Junior School Grammar and Punctuation Guide

Features of sentences/Types of sentences

Term Definition

Statement These are sentences which state facts.

e.g.: It is hot.
(Declarative The butter is in the fridge.
sentence )

Question Interrogative sentences (questions) are sentences which ask for an answer.
e.g.: Are you hot?
(Interrogative Where is the butter?
sentence)

Command These are sentences which give orders or requests.

e.g.: Play the movie.
(Imperative Give me a dinosaur for my birthday.
sentence)

Exclamation Exclamatory sentences (exclamations) are sentences which express a strong feeling of
emotion.
(Exclamatory e.g.: My goodness, it’s hot!
sentence) I absolutely love this movie!

Clause A clause is a group of words which contains a verb.

There are two kinds of clauses:
1. A main clause (makes sense on its own – a complete sentence) e.g. :
Grace bought a new car.
2. A subordinate clause (does not make sense on its own; it depends on the main clause
for its meaning)
E.g.: Grace bought a new car when she got a new credit card .
*‘when she got a new credit card’ is the subordinate clause as it would not make sense
without the main clause.

Phrase A phrase is a group of words which does not make complete sense on its own and does not
contain a verb; it is not a complete sentence: e.g.: up the mountain

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 Nettleham Church of England Aided Junior School Grammar and Punctuation Guide

Vocabulary/language strategies

Definition Example

Synonyms Synonyms for:

These are words that have a similar meaning Bad - awful, terrible, horrible
to another word. We use synonyms to make Happy - content, joyful, pleased
our writing more interesting. Look - watch, stare, glaze
Walk - stroll, crawl, tread

Antonyms
The antonym of up is down
These are words with the opposite meaning The antonym of tall is short
to another word. The antonym of add is subtract

Word groups/ families

at, cat, hat, and fat are a family of words with the "at" sound and
These are groups of words that have a letter combination in common.
common feature or pattern - they have some
of the same combinations of letters in them bike, hike, like, spike and strike are a family of words with the "ike"
and a similar sound. sound and letter combination in common.

blame, came, fame, flame and game are a family of words with the
"ame" sound and letter combination in common.

Prefix
Adding ‘un’ to happy – unhappy
Prefixes are added to the beginning of an Adding ‘dis’ to appear – disappear
existing word in order to create a new word Adding ‘re’ to try – retry
with a different meaning.
Suffix
Adding ‘ish’ to child – childish
Suffixes are added to the end of an existing Adding ‘able’ to like – likeable
word to create a new word with a different Adding ‘ion’ to act – action
meaning.
Root words
help is a root word
Root words are words that have a meaning of
their own but can be added to either with a It can grow into:
prefix (before the root) or a suffix (after the helps
root) to change the meaning of the word. helpful
Root words can often be helpful in finding out helped
what a word means or where it is ‘derived’ helping
from. helpless
unhelpful
Singular One bike
One mango
A singular noun names one person, place or One dress
thing (a single item). One fly
One turkey
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 Nettleham Church of England Aided Junior School Grammar and Punctuation Guide
One half
Plural Most nouns are made into plurals by adding –s:
Three bikes
More than one person, place or thing.
Some nouns ending in –o are made into plurals by adding –es:
Two mangoes

Most nouns ending in hissing, shushing or buzzing sounds are made

into plurals by adding –es:
Ten dresses

For words ending in a vowel and then –y, just add –s:
Eight turkeys

For words ending in a consonant and then –y, change -y to -i

and add –es:
Five flies

Most nouns ending in -f or-fe change to -ves in the plural:

Six halves

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 Nettleham Church of England Aided Junior School Grammar and Punctuation Guide
Punctuation
Definition Example

Capital letter Joel has karate training ever Monday afternoon at Wells Primary
School.
Used to denote the beginning of a sentence
or a proper noun (names of particular places, In January, the children will be visiting London Zoo.
things and people).
Full stop
Terry Pratchett's latest book is not yet out in paperback .
Placed at the end of a sentence that is not a
question or exclamation. I asked her whether she could tell me the way to Brighton .
Question mark
Who else will be there?
Indicates a question/disbelief. Is this really little Thomas?
Exclamation mark
What a triumph!
Indicates an interjection/surprise/strong I’ve just about had enough!
emotion Wonderful!
Inverted commas (speech marks) For direct speech:
Janet asked, "Why can't we go today?"
Punctuation marks used in pairs ( “ ”) to
indicate: For quotes:
The man claimed that he was “shocked to hear the news”.
 quotes (evidence).
 direct speech For words that are defined, that follow certain phrases or that have
 words that are defined, that follow special meaning:
certain phrases or that have special 'Buch' is German for book.
meaning. The book was signed 'Terry Pratchett'.
The 'free gift' actually cost us forty pounds.
Direct and indirect speech Direct speech uses the speakers original words in and speech marks
will mark the beginning and ending.

Indirect speech (reported speech) reports what has been said, but
does not use the exact words of the original speaker.
e.g. Kate said that she was going home.

Apostrophes Contractions:
Used to show that letters have been left out Is not = isn’t Could not = couldn’t
(contractions) or to show possession (i.e.
‘belonging to’) Showing Possession:
With nouns (plural and singular) not ending in an s add 's:
the girl’s jacket, the children's books

With plural nouns ending in an s, add only the apostrophe:

the guards' duties, the Jones' house

With singular nouns ending in an s, you can add either 's or an

apostrophe alone:
the witness's lie or the witness' lie (be consistent)

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 Nettleham Church of England Aided Junior School Grammar and Punctuation Guide

Commas in a list
Used between a list of three or more words to Jenny’s favourite subjects are maths, literacy and art.
replace the word and for all but the last Joe, Evan and Mike were chosen to sing at the service.
instance. The giant had a large head, hairy ears and two big, beady eyes.

Commas to mark phrases or clauses To indicate contrast:

The snake was brown, not green, and it was quite small.

Where the phrase (embedded clause) could be in brackets:

The recipe, which we hadn't tried before, is very easy to follow.

Where the phrase adds relevant information:

Mr Hardy, aged 68, ran his first marathon five years ago.

To mark a subordinate clause: (use a comma when the SC starts

the sentence).

If at first you don't succeed, try again.

Though the snake was small, I still feared for my life.

Introductory or opening phrases:

In general, sixty-eight is quite old to run a marathon.
On the whole, snakes only attack when riled.

Before a name:
“Let’s go for a ride, James.”
Brackets (also known as parentheses) To clarify information:
Jamie's bike was red (bright red) with a yellow stripe.
Used for additional information or
explanation. For asides and comments:
The bear was pink (I kid you not).

To give extra details:

His first book (The Colour Of Magic) was written in 1989.
Ellipsis A pause in speech:
“The sight was awesome… truly amazing.”
Used to indicate a pause in speech or at the
very end of a sentence so that words trail off At end of a sentence to create suspense:
into silence (this helps to create suspense). Mr Daily gritted his teeth, gripped the scalpel tightly in his right
hand and slowly advanced…
Dash
Particularly useful when you want the reader to pause for effect:
Used to replace other punctuation marks It was a great day out – everybody enjoyed it.
(colons, semi-colons, commas) especially in The film was amazing – the effects were unbelievable.
informal writing.
Colons Before a list:
I could only find three of the ingredients: sugar, flour and coconut.
a) Used before a list, summary or quote Before a statement of fact:
There are only three kinds of people: the good, the bad and the
b) Used to complete a statement of fact ugly.
In the above two examples a main clause (complete sentence)
should come before the colon.
Before a line of speech:

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 Nettleham Church of England Aided Junior School Grammar and Punctuation Guide
Tom asked: “May I have another cupcake?”

Semi-colons To link two separate sentences that are closely related:

Used in place of a connective (conjunction) to The children came home today; they had been away for a week.
join to related sentences.
In a list:
Can also be used to separate items in a list if Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry; Babylon 5, by JMS; Buffy,
the items consist of longer phrases. by Joss Whedon; and Farscape, from the Henson Company.

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