GCSE English
Basic skills guide
‘your’ and ‘you’re’ - the difference
‘your’ indicates belonging
‘you’re’ is short for you are
being and been - the difference
General Rule:
Use 'been' after the verb 'to have'.
Use 'being' after the verb 'to be'.
Examples:
I have been busy.
Sarah has being taking her dog to the vet. X
('being' cannot follow 'has' or 'have')
You are being helpful.
He was been followed. X
Complete the following
sentences:
1. Your………………………………………………..
2. …………………….your…………………………………..
3. You’re……………………………….
4. ……………………………….you’re……………………………………….
Where/we’re/were
Where refers to a place
• Example: ‘Where is my pen?’
We’re is short for we are
• Example: ‘We’re all going on a summer holiday.’
Were is a past tense form of the verb ‘to be’
.’
•
Example: ‘Manchester United were beaten 6-0 by Doncaster Rovers.’
Homophones – to, too, two
• Homophones: two, too, to
• Some people find these three homophones cause them difficulty.
Try to make sure that you know which is which:
"Two" is always a number - the number 2
For example: The two boys shivered in the cold.
"Too" can be used in 2 ways:
to mean "excessively" e.g. too far, too expensive
to mean "also" or "as well" e.g. Will you be skating too?
"To" is used in 2 ways:
to show direction e.g. He passed the ball to his brother
as part of a verb e.g. He wanted to read the new Harry Potter book.
From: http://www.spelling.hemscott.net/homophones3.htm
Apostrophes
Rules for the correct use of the apostrophe.
The apostrophe is used:
1. To indicate belonging.
Example A): Danny’s briefcase gives him
special powers.
Example B): The players’ boots were muddy.
Note the position of the apostrophe after the
‘s’ to indicate more than one player in
Example B).
2. To indicate missing letters.
Example: I don’t like mushrooms.
A big mistake – the comma splice
The comma splice is when two separate sentences are joined only by a comma.
Example: I often have boiled eggs for breakfast, I like them with ketchup.
In this example, the two parts of the sentence are linked but are independent
and should be separated. The comma is too weak a punctuation mark.
Improvement idea(1) - use two sentences:
I often have boiled eggs for breakfast. I like them with ketchup.
Improvement idea (2) – use a semi-colon:
I often have boiled eggs for breakfast; I like them with ketchup.
Capital letters
Every sentence starts with a capital letter. There should always be a capital letter
after a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark. For example:
Nick went to the shops. He came back with a bag of fruit.
Did he go? He did. He went!
A capital letter should always be used for the word ‘I’ and for names of people,
places and things (eg days, months, films, TV shows, song titles, etc). For example:
Anne, York, France, Sunday, November
Initials need capital letters. For example:
BBC, UK, RAF, DIY
Sentences end with full stops, question marks or exclamation marks.
From: bbc.co.uk/skillswise
Colon (:)
In punctuation, the colon (:) is used to introduce an explanation
or a list.
Examples:
1. There was one main reason why the team
lost: shamefully weak defence.
2. Influenza has various symptoms. These
include: sudden fever; limb or joint pain; aching
muscles; headaches; chills.
Semicolon (;)
Semicolons are used to separate linked parts in a
sentence and to separate items in a list (often
where there are groups of words rather than single
words in the list).
Examples:
1.
2.
Victoria took advantage of her competitor’s injury; she won
the game easily.
There are several reasons why the team have been
relegated: a lack of motivation; poor defending; weak
leadership.