Grammar Revision Sheet.
















Standard English is the form of English that is considered correct. It is usually used in
formal writing and when speaking in formal situations, e.g. That looks delicious.
Non-standard English is used in speech with family and friends, in informal writing
and when writing direct speech between people who know each other well, e.g. You
done good in your work.
Word class refers to the job a word does in a sentence, e.g. whether it is a noun,
verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun etc.
Statement gives information, e.g. There are penguins at the zoo.
Command tells someone what to do directly, e.g. Stand up and look at me.
Question asks someone to do something, e.g “Could you pass me my pen please?”
Main clause is a clause that makes sense on its own, e.g. Tom got off the wall.
Subordinate clause is part of a sentence that adds extra detail to the main clause but
cannot be used as a sentence on its own, e.g. As she had finished her homework,
Gemma asked if she could invite a friend for tea.
The contracted form of a word is the shortened form, e.g. won’t has been shortened
from will not. To show the word has been shortened you need to use an apostrophe
for omission to show that a letter is missing from the word, e.g. can’t, I’m, don’t.
Apostrophe for possession shows that something belongs to someone, e.g. 1). The
girl’s pen. 2). The friends’ books. If the subject is singular the apostrophe goes
before the final s, unless the word ends with s, as in James’ coat was on the hook. If
the subject is plural the apostrophe goes after the final s. There are some
exceptions, such as children’s.
A relative clause gives extra information about a main clause. It begins with a
relative pronoun such as: that, when, where, which, who, whom, whose. E.g. He
bought some wrapping paper which he used for all the Christmas presents.
Active voice is where in a sentence the subject of the sentence is the one who does
something, e.g. Tom threw a stone into the sea. The cat chased a mouse.
Passive voice in a sentence is where the focus is on what happens rather than who
did it, e.g. The door was opened by Dr.Jones.
This egg was laid by that chicken.
Modal verbs indicate the likelihood of something happening. Some modal verbs
show certainty such as will and shall. Other modal verbs indicate possibility such as
might, may, could.
Pronouns replace proper nouns ( names) in a sentence, e.g. he, she, they, we.
Possessive pronouns show belonging, e.g. my book, his coat, their boots, her fork,
our classroom.
Noun phrase is a group of words that are connected to a noun, e.g. She sang loudly
in the car. An expanded noun phrase is where adjectives are added to a simple noun
phrase to give more detail, e.g. ‘the girl’ can be made into an expanded noun phrase
by adding adjectives so that it becomes ‘the small, timid girl’.











Determiner is a word that comes before a noun in order to give more information
about it. There are different types of determiners:
1).Articles – a,an, the.
2).Quantifiers- lots, some, many
3).Demonstratives – these, those
4).Ordinals – first, second, third
5).Numbers- five cars, two cats
Subjunctive mood expresses something that is doubtful or is a wish, e.g. I wish Dad
could come too or, If I were John, I would catch an earlier bus to make sure he is
on time.
There are other moods such as the indicative mood which shows that something will
definitely happen, e.g. I will visit Dad.
There is also the imperative mood which is used to make a request or command, e.g.
Please visit Dad.
Past progressive is when a sentence starts with a verb in the past tense and then
other actions in the sentence are continuing, e.g When I arrived last night, Martha
was doing her homework and her brothers were making dinner.
Prepositions show where something is, e.g. under, behind, in, on etc. Prepositional
phrases are used with a preposition and is followed by a noun, pronoun or noun
phrase, e.g. Beside the swimming pool, the teacher shouted encouragement.
Under the cedar tree a fox was sound asleep.
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives or noun phrases in a sentence. Adverbs typically
denote manner ( how something was done, e.g. quickly, gently, slowly), time (
when something was done e.g. yesterday, today ) or place ( where something was
done, e.g. nearby, everywhere).
Fronted adverbials are adverbial phrases that go at the beginning of a sentence. A
comma follows the fronted adverbial before the main clause, e.g. Slowly and
carefully, they let the butterfly out of the jar.
Parenthesis is when brackets, dashes or commas are used to separate a word or
phrase that has been added to a sentence as an explanation or to add extra detail,
e.g. The boy, who was small for his age and very thin, asked for more food.
Co-ordinating conjunctions are words such as and, but, so ,because, although which
are used to connect clauses, e.g. The boy cried out but his sister was silent. A
subordinating conjunction joins a subordinate clause to a main clause, e.g. Although
I’ve been here before, I didn’t recognise the town.
Synonyms are words that are similar in meaning to another word, e.g. tired and
weary.
Antonyms are words with an opposite meaning, e.g. hot and cold.
Question tag is a question that comes at the end of a sentence in speech and in
informal writing, e.g. “ She can print it out can’t she?” or “ We’re going now aren’t
we?”




Prefix is a group of letters added in front of a root word to make a new word, e.g.
undress, incorrect, illegal.
Suffix is a group of letters added at the end of a root word to make a new word,
e.g.terrorise, straighten.
Inverted commas are speech marks, used to show that someone is speaking.
Punctuation comes inside the inverted commas, e.g. “ Who is that?”, “ I really like
John.”
Semi-colon (;) is a punctuation mark which can be used to separate two main clauses
or to replace commas in a list where more than one word is used, e.g. 1). The boy
sobbed; he had lost his mother. 2). The suspicious man had: a vivid scar; a black
eye patch; crooked teeth and short, brown hair.