Punctuation and Grammar (Year 2)
In the new National Curriculum (2014) there is a much greater emphasis on punctuation and
grammar. As a result these areas will be a focus within Literacy both in school and in
homework. This sheet details the key words that children will learn to recognise and use in
Year 2.
Key word
Statement (.)
Exclamation (!)
Question (?)
Command (.)
Comma (,)
Apostrophe
(possessive) (‘)
Apostrophe
(contraction) (‘)
Compound
Definition
A normal sentence ending
with a full stop.
An exciting sentence
ending with an
exclamation mark.
A sentence ending with a
question mark.
A sentence with an
imperative (bossy) verb in
it.
Example
I went swimming
today.
I feel great today!
What did you eat for
dinner?
Clean your room.
.!?,’
Punctuation to separate 3
or more items in a list.
I packed sandwiches,
grapes, crisps and a
yoghurt in my
lunchbox.
Punctuation to show
The tortoise’s shell.
belonging.
The boys’ pegs.
Punctuation to show where Do not -> don’t,
letters have been missed It is -> it’s
out of a word.
A word formed by joining white and board ->
two separate words
whiteboard,
together.
rain and bow ->
rainbow
Key word
Common noun
Definition
Naming a thing.
Example
bus,
Proper noun
Naming a person, place, day or
month. Use a capital letter.
Watford
Describing a thing.
new,
red
red bus
(Children just
need to know
‘noun’).
Adjective
Noun phrase
Verb
Adverb
Using adjectives to expand on
the noun.
An action/ doing word.
Describing how, when or where
a thing happens.
Suffix
Letters added to the end of a
word.
Singular
Plural
When there is one thing.
When there is more than one
thing.
The action is happening now.
Present tense
Past tense
The action has already
happened.
This morning the new, red
bus was driving slowly
towards Watford.
driving,
slowly,
this morning,
towards,
enjoy-> enjoyed,
happy->
happiest,
fear-> fearless,
the bus
two buses
driving
drove,
was driving