the LIT programme
BOOSTING LITERACY AND ATTAINMENT AT KEY STAGE 3
GRAMMAR BOOKLET
the LIT programme
BOOSTING LITERACY AND ATTAINMENT AT KEY STAGE 3
GRAMMAR BOOKLET
CONTENTS
Introduction5
Parts of speech
6
Punctuation8
Nouns
10
Indefinite articles
11
Pronouns
12
Pronouns
13
Adjectives
14
Verbs
15
Regular and irregular past tense verbs
16
Adverbs
17
Homophones18
Standard English
24
Full stops
26
Question marks
27
Exclamation marks 28
Commas in a list
29
Commas, Conjunctions and Clauses
30
Speech marks
34
Apostrophes36
Dashes39
Semicolons41
Ellipsis42
Parentheses43
Checking work
4
44
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Introduction
Grammar is best taught in
context so you are encouraged
to use the activities in this
booklet as templates upon
which you can build your own
tasks.
You can ensure that your pupils make
faster progress in grammar by tailoring
grammar work to their needs and the
texts and topics of lessons.
Remember to use I do, we do, you do
when modelling and teaching correct
grammatical usage.
Grammar booklet
5
PARTS OF SPEECH
List
1.Articles
2.Nouns
3.Pronouns
4.Adjectives
5.Verbs
6.Adverbs
7.Prepositions
8.Conjunctions
1.ARTICLES
‘The’ is a definite article and is used before a specific thing or person. Example, the cat,
the boy, the road, the table, the eggs, the window
ADJECTIVE
COMPARATIVE
SUPERLATIVE
small
smaller
smallest
Use ‘an’ before words that start with a vowel – a, e, i, o, u – and also words that start with a
silent – h, eg an hour, an honest boy.
good
better
best
Use ‘a’ before words that start with a consonant – except when the word starts with a silent h
(see above)
bad
worse
worst
intelligent
more intelligent
most intelligent
‘An’ and ‘a’ are indefinite articles and are used to refer to any one kind of a person or a thing.
Example, an egg, an idea, a person
2.NOUNS can be the name of a person, place or thing
Type
description
Example
5.VERBS are doing or being words
You are a girl.   She laughed loudly.  He feels sick.  
Mr Harris teaches English.  I bought a game.
7.PREPOSITIONS show a relationship
between a noun or pronoun and
the rest of the sentence
Prepositions are said to ‘govern’ the nouns or pronouns that
follow them:
• above, against, into, onto, from, below, by, under, over, in, on,
near
Mum’s coat is on the hook.
She ran through the open door.
The boat floated under the bridge.
I jumped into bed.
The control is underneath the sofa
He swam against the current.
Common
General name of a person, place
or thing
girl, book, car, ball, dog, elephant
Proper
Name of a particular person, place
or thing and always begins with a
capital letter
The Eiffel Tower, Buckingham
Palace, Ahmed, Sara
Vowels:
a, e, i, o, u
Concrete
Name of things you can see, hear,
touch, taste or smell
wall, table, door, chair, flowers,
bananas
Consonants:
b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q,
r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z
Verb tenses tell you WHEN something is happening.
Regular past tense verbs can be made past tense by adding ‘d’
or ‘ed’:
Abstract
Name of things that cannot
be touched, such as feelings,
thoughts, emotions and ideas
happiness, sadness, fear, politics,
thoughts, honesty, deception,
equality, fairness
• laugh – laughed.  talk – talked.  giggle – giggled.  
shout – shouted.
My brother and I went out.
Word:
a spoken or written unit of a
language
Collective
Names of groups of things or
persons
family, flock, group, class, herd,
bunch
Irregular past tense verbs do not form their own past tense – a
different spelling is required:
We went to bed because we were tired.
Definitions
Letters:
5 vowels, 21 consonants
Ethan, book, girl, cricket,
football, pet
3.PRONOUNS are used in place of nouns
• You are a girl.   She laughed loudly.   He feels sick.  
Mr Harris teaches English.   I bought a game.
Possessive
Used to show possession or
ownership of a noun in a sentence
This desk here is yours.
That bike there is mine.
Demonstrative
Used to point out which nouns are
meant in a sentence
That is the car I want.
I brought you these (flowers) for
your birthday.
Refers (links) back to the subject of
the sentence.
I only have myself to blame.
You should congratulate yourself
for that brilliant result.
Reflexive
• The man was being driven by his wife.
4.ADJECTIVES describe nouns
description
Example
Main clause: We left
Descriptive
Describe people and things
Subordinate clause: because
we were tired.
Demonstrative
Sentence:
a group of words expressing a
complete meaning or idea.
The subject is the person or thing that performs the action/verb.
The predicate describes the action by the subject, denoted by
the effect of the verb.
The children played in the park.
• I love walking.  My brother loves singing.  I hate smoking.
Predicate: played in the park.
Modal verbs are auxiliary verbs that show necessity or
likelihood:
1.Simple sentences can be a statement, a question, a command
or an exclamation.
Subject: The children.
• can, might, should, would, could, ought, must, will, may
They usually contain one piece of information.
I can help you with your homework.
Statement: I like bananas.  Question: Do you like bananas?
You must work hard in lessons.
Command: Give me the bananas.  Exclamation: You’re
bananas!
May I go to the toilet?
Type
Subordinating: as, because, if, since, although
Gerunds are verbal nouns and are formed by adding ‘ing’ to the
verb:
He should wear a suit to the interview.
• Main clause and
Subordinate clause
Coordinating: and, but, or, for, yet
Every sentence contains two basic parts: a subject and a
predicate
I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they
Clause:
A finite verb is a form of a verb
that has a subject (expressed
or implied) and can function
as the root of an independent
clause; an independent clause
can, in turn, stand alone as a
complete sentence.
• Coordinating and subordinating
Active voice is when the subject does the action:
Used in place of persons or things
in a sentence
Personal
There are two kinds of conjunctions:
SENTENCE STRUCTURE
Passive voice is when the subject is affected by the action:
description
8.CONJUNCTIONS join words, phrases
and sentences together
• I see – I saw.  you have – you had.  he sings – he sang.  
they fly – they flew.  I think – I thought.
• The man drove the car.
Type
Paragraph:
a sentence or set of sentences
with a shared meaning or
purpose.
The subject and the verb must agree:
Example
Phrase:
a group of two or more words
which does not always contain
a verb and can act as a noun,
verb, adverb, adjective or
preposition
There are two types of clauses:
6
Comparatives and superlatives tell us that
something is more or less
2.Complex sentences contain a main clause and a subordinate
clause.
A good start, a rainy day
6.ADVERBS tell us HOW something is
happening
The main clause makes sense on its own. The subordinate
clause does not make sense on its own.
Point out nouns in a sentence
This book, that orange, these boys
Adverb modifying a verb:
Distributive
Separate nouns in a group
Every child, each day
• She got her homework done as quickly as she could.
Main clause: I eat bananas
Subordinate clause: even though they are yellow
Interrogative
Ask questions about nouns
Which way? What colour?
• Harry walked as slowly as possible.
Numeral
Give a count of nouns
Five apples, seven pens, ten chairs
Possessive
Show ownership of nouns
My book, his bike, your bag
Quantitative
Describe how much or how many
Some people, a few dogs, more
thunder
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I eat bananas, even though they are yellow.
• The pupils sat silently as they waited for assembly to start.
Adverb modifying an adjective:
• You are a very intelligent girl.
• That song is unbelievably boring.
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PUNCTUATION
• The monkey, who was hungry, ate a banana.
If there is more than one owner (a PLURAL noun), and the word
ends in a single ‘s’, the apostrophe goes after the ‘s’.
1. Full stop  ( . )
When enclosing parenthetic or additional information:
The cars’ wheels were spinning round and round. OR
All the houses’ windows were broken.
2. Question mark  ( ? )
• Max, the cat, ate and slept all day long.
List
3. Exclamation mark  ( ! )
4. Comma  ( , )
5. Quotation marks  ( “ “ )
6. Speech marks/inverted commas  ( “ “ )
7. Apostrophe  ( ‘ )
8. Dash  ( – )
9. Semicolon  ( ; )
10.Colon  ( : )
When using an embedded clause in a complex sentence:
Used to create a trailing off effect
This comma is used before the final ‘and’ in a list and can be
used to avoid ambiguity or confusion:
8.Dash ( – )
I didn’t really…what I meant was… Oh, never mind.
Dashes can be used in three ways:
“Ahhh… it’s so quiet here.”
• My favourite meals are chicken curry, jacket potato and
cheese, and fish and chips.
• to add emphasis and/or more information at the end of a
sentence
12. PARENTHESES ( )
The Oxford comma:
Before opening speech marks in a sentence:
Max only eats one type of food – apples.
• Hamza shouted, ‘I want a cupcake!’
I only have one wish for my birthday – for it to be sunny.
• in place of commas in the middle of a sentence
5.QUOTATION MARKS ( “” )
12.Parentheses  ( )
Used to enclose words taken from literature
“Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things
before breakfast”
The full stop is followed by a space and a capital letter.
Sarah jumped on the bus. She knew she was going to be late.
2.QUESTION MARK ( ? )
Asks a question
A question mark is used for Direct questions:
• How are you feeling?
‘Through the looking-glass and what Alice found there’ by Lewis
Carol
Rule Reminder: Quotation marks are used differently to speech
marks. Copy a quote exactly as it appears in the text and enclose
it in quotation marks “”
6.SPEECH MARKS OR INVERTED COMMAS
( “” )
• Can you run as fast as I can?
Used for direct speech
Speech marks follow 4 strict rules.
Do not use a question mark for indirect questions, commands or
demands:
Rule Reminder:
• I wonder who will win X Factor this year.
2.Punctuate before closing
• Please can you hand your homework in tomorrow.
1.Punctuate before opening
3.Always start speech with a capital letter
• in place of parentheses
The children – all 25 of them – were out on a school trip for
the day.
My favourite fruit – bananas – is very healthy.
9.SEMICOLON ( ; )
Used to join separate but related statements in a sentence
and to separate phrases in a list.
Separating related statements in a sentence:
• Seema was good at football; she had been playing since she
was three years old.
Used to express strong feelings or emotions.
Avoid using exclamations marks in formal writing, such as
reports, essays, and CVs.
Dad turned and whispered, “I thought this film would be a bit
funnier.”
4.COMMA ( , )
7.APOSTROPHES ( ‘ )
‘and’ is usually placed between the last two items in the list:
There is no food – absolutely none – more delicious than
chocolate.
• Liza wasn’t sure what Bob would do; he was sometimes
unpredictable.
3.EXCLAMATION MARK ( ! )
Used to separate items in a list, such as adjectives or ideas.
All the work that I had put in – the effort, late nights and
discipline – had finally paid off.
• My mum always told me I could do anything; I decided to be
a scientist.
4.New speaker, new line
Used to separate words, clauses or phrases in a sentence
“I wish I’d done my homework,” I cried.
Used to show omission or possession.
Omission (when something is left out)
The apostrophe is used to show that a word has been shortened.
Separating phrases in a list:
• Joining us today we have: Professor David Wilson; Professor
Jane Thomson; Doctor Sabrina Lane and Professor Jackson
Cross.
Rule Reminder: If the parenthetic remark was removed, the
sentence would still make grammatical sense.
When you start to enjoy reading (and many people do), you will
find particular authors whose books you love to read.
Finding a genre you like (or series of books) is also such fun.
Helping anyone to love reading (such a life-long pleasure) is
very rewarding
TIPS FOR A WRITER
Remember: it is very important to know how to use grammar and
punctuation correctly, but the real purpose of writing is to inspire;
to engage the reader and to have fun with words and ideas!
1. First, write for yourself, and then worry about the
audience. Pretend you’re writing something YOU want to
read – make it exciting for you, then your audience.
2. Don’t obsess over perfect grammar when you first
start writing. The object of good writing isn’t grammatical
correctness but to make the reader feel welcome and then to
tell something, whether it be a report, a story, or something
else.
3. The magic is in you. “I’m convinced that fear is at the root of
most bad writing.” – Stephen King.
4. Read, read, read. Great books will spark your imagination
and ignite ideas for your own writing.
Used to introduce lists, for emphasis, direct speech or
contrasts.
6. Write one word at a time. When Tolkien wrote ‘Lord of the
Rings’, he wrote it one word at a time. Just think about the
next word and don’t be afraid to just write what comes into
your head. You can reread it and make it better afterwards.
Rule Reminder: The clause that precedes the colon must make
grammatical sense on its own.
When the main clause comes before the subordinate clause in a
complex sentence:
I am here.  *  I ’m here.
Use a colon to introduce a list:
• I ate my dinner, but I was still hungry.
You are sure.  *  You’re sure.
We are leaving.  *  We’re leaving.
• I had four things to do: watch the bank; plan the robbery;
drive the getaway car and make sure we didn’t get caught.
Note: the main clause makes sense on its own, but the
subordinate clause only makes sense when linked to a main
clause.
Possession
The apostrophe shows the reader that someone (or something)
belongs to someone (or something) else.
When the subordinate clause comes before the main clause in a
complex sentence:
When there is ONE owner (a SINGULAR noun), the apostrophe
goes after the owner and before the ‘s’.
• When I arrived home, I ate my dinner.
Gerry’s scorpion had been placed in his brother’s matchbox.
The book’s pages were all torn.
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Parentheses are used to insert a qualifying or explanatory
sentence, clause or word into a paragraph or passage.
5. Don’t worry about making other people happy.
When we use an apostrophe in this way, it replaces the letter or
letters that we have missed out.
8
Jared is very well behaved… sometimes.
10. COLON ( : )
• Moustapha’s lovely jumper was comfy, warm and soft.
• Subordinate clause: When I arrived home, Main clause: I ate
my dinner.
11. ELLIPSIS ( … )
Turn left at the girls’ toilets, go past the boys’ changing rooms
and the teachers’ staff room is straight ahead.
11.Elipsis  ( … )
1.FULL STOP ( . )
Use a colon to emphasise contrasts:
• Mess around less: work more.
Use a colon for emphasis:
• Samira only had one thing on her mind: space ships.
• There is one thing that will bring you great happiness in life:
reading.
Use a colon to introduce direct speech:
• I decided I only wanted to say one thing: “Go away!”
Grammar booklet
7. Eliminate distraction. There’s should be no telephone in your
writing room, and certainly no TV or videogames for you to
fool around with.
8. Find your own voice.; stick to your own style. Don’t try to
copy or imitate other writers.
9. You become a writer simply by reading and writing. Read
and write daily – or as often as possible – this way, these
things will become habitual.
10.Writing is about getting happy. Enjoy it. Find ways to
use words and tell stories that YOU find interesting and
exhilarating.
9
Nouns
COMMON NOUNS, CONCRETE NOUNS,
ABSTRACT NOUNS
Common nouns are the names of things
table   chair   dog   trousers   car   door   mirror   floor   book   shop   television
Name three more common nouns:
Proper nouns are the names of places, people or things; they always start with a capital letter.
London   Friday   September   Buckingham Palace   France   Oxford Street   Paula   Abdul
Name three more proper nouns:
Concrete nouns are things you can see, touch, taste, smell or hear
window   towel   wall   sofa   desk   basket   bench   tree   monkey   flower   jumper
fork
Name three more concrete nouns:
Abstract nouns are ideas, emotions, feelings or concepts:
love   hope   happiness   development   bravery   uncertainty   meanness   brilliance
addition
Name three more abstract nouns:
I scored _______ out of 12
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Indefinite articles
Indefinite articles: when deciding between ‘a’ and ‘an’, use ‘an’ when the following word
starts with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) or a silent ‘h’ (an honest boy).
Look at the following sentences and decide whether to put ‘a’ or ‘an’ in
the gaps.
1. The monster ate _______ elephant.
2. I went to see _______ film with my friends.
3. You should go to see _______ dentist about your teeth.
4. There is _______ letter for you which arrived in _______ envelope.
5. Although I will miss my friends, university is _______ exciting opportunity and I will have _______
really good time.
6. I have _______ imaginary friend who helps me to do my homework.
7. My brother met someone who lives in _______ igloo.
8. The film starts in _______ hour.
How did you do?
I scored _______ out of 10.
Write three more sentences of your own using either ‘a’ or ‘an’.
How did you do?
I scored _______ out of 3.
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11