Grammer

Question 1

A verb is a word used to describe an action, state or occurrence
Give an example

Answer 1

For example, like the word ‘jumping’ in this sentence:

The rabbit was jumping in the field.

Question 2

Verbs can also be used to describe a state of being, that’s feeling something. Give an example

Answer 2

For example, the word ‘likes’ here:

The monster likes rollercoasters.

Question 3

A verb can be used to describe an occurrence, that’s something happening Give an example

Answer 3

For example, the word ‘became’ in this sentence:

The caterpillar became a butterfly.

Question 4

Verbs can be used to describe an action, that’s doing something. Give an example

Answer 4

For example, like the word ‘jumping’ in this sentence:

The rabbit was jumping in the field.

Question 4

What is a verb?

Answer 4

A verb is a word used to describe an action, state or occurrence.

Question 5

Verbs can also be used to describe a state of being, that’s feeling something.

For example,

Answer 5

For example, the word ‘likes’ here:

The monster likes rollercoasters.

Question 6

a verb can be used to describe an occurrence, that’s something happening.

Answer 6

For example, the word ‘became’ in this sentence:

The caterpillar became a butterfly.

Question 7

What is an adjective?

Answer 7

An adjective is a word that describes a noun (the name of a thing or a place).

‘It was a terrible book.’

The word ‘terrible’ is an adjective. It tells us what the book (the noun) was like.

The book she read on holiday was terrible.’

or

‘She read a terrible book on holiday.’

Question 7

Adjectives can come before or after a noun.

Try putting adjectives in different places in your sentences to make your writing more interesting.

Answer 7

‘She had a mouldy, smelly, overpriced sandwich.’

If you want to describe a noun in detail, you can use more than one adjective.

When you have a list of adjectives like this, separate them with commas.

Question 8

What is a pronoun?

Answer 8

A pronoun takes the place of a
noun
in a sentence.

Pronouns are short words like ‘it’, ‘she’, ‘he’, ‘you’, ‘we’, ‘they’, ‘us’ and ‘them’.

They are used to describe either individuals or groups of people, rather than using their name or names.

Question 9

What is a personal pronoun?

Answer 9

Personal pronouns are short words used to replace yourself or a person’s name. They include:

I
she
he
you
we
us
them
For example, read the sentence below:

Anita charged towards the dragon.

The name ‘Anita’ could be replaced by the personal pronoun ‘she’.

She charged towards the dragon.

Question 10

What is a possessive pronoun?

Answer 10

Possessive pronouns are pronouns used to show the ownership (or possession) of something. These include:

mine
ours
yours
his-hers
theirs
For example, read the sentence below:

That hat is Ben’s.

The word ‘Ben’s’ could be replaced by the possessive pronoun ‘his’.

That hat is his.

Question 11

What is an adverb?

Answer 11

An adverb is simply a word that describes a
verb
.

He ate his breakfast quickly.

The word ‘quickly’ is an adverb as it tells us how he ‘ate’ (the verb) his breakfast.

Question 12

How do you use adverbs?

Answer 12

Adverbs can come before or after a verb.

For example:

He quickly ate his breakfast.

In the sentence above, the adverb ‘quickly’ appears before the verb ‘ate’.

However, this sentence could be rewritten with the adverb after the verb.

He ate his breakfast quickly.

Question 13

What is a passive verb?

Answer 13

When the subject of a sentence isn’t doing something, the verb is passive.

On the other hand, a sentence is active when the subject performs the verb (action).

For example, in this sentence the verb is active.

Mr Brewer kicked the ball

Whereas, in this sentence the verb is passive.

The ball was kicked by Mr Brewer

Question 14

What are modal verbs?

Answer 14

Modal verbs are verbs that indicate likelihood, ability, permission or obligation.

Words like:

can/could
may/might
will/would
shall/should
must
For example:

The sea monster should go away

Question 15

What is a preposition?

Answer 15

A preposition is a word that tells you where or when something is in relation to something else.

Examples of prepositions include words like ‘after’, ‘before’, ‘on’, ‘under’, ‘inside’ and ‘outside’.

The house was on the hill beside a tree.

In this sentence ‘on’ and ‘beside’ are prepositions which show you exactly where the house was.

Question 16

What is a subordinating conjunction?

Answer 16

A conjunction is a word, or words, used to connect two clauses together. Words such as ‘although’, ‘because’ or ‘when’ .

A subordinating clause is a part of a sentence that adds additional information to the main clause.

A subordinating conjunction is simply the word/words that is used to join a subordinating clause to another clause or sentence. For example:

He was annoyed, the train had stopped.

By adding ‘because’ we can link the subordinating clause “the train had stopped” with the main clause “He was annoyed”.

He was annoyed because the train had stopped.

Question 17

Where are subordinate clauses used?

Answer 17

Subordinate conjunctions (and clauses) can be used in different places within a sentence. They can go at the start, middle or end of a sentence.

In the example below a subordinate clause has been used at the end of a sentence:

The island was calm and peaceful until the clouds became dark and angry.

You can reorder the sentence so the subordinate clause is used at the start:

Until the clouds became dark and angry, the island was calm and peaceful.

Here, the subordinate conjunction ‘until’ has been used at the start and in the middle of a sentence.

Did you notice that when we use a subordinate conjunction at the start of a sentence, we must also use a comma to separate the clauses within that sentence?

Question 18

What are coordinating conjunctions?

Answer 18

Conjunctions are joining words that link together parts of a sentence.

The three main coordinating conjunctions are:

and
but
or
They can be used to join together two clauses in a sentence. However, the clauses need to make sense on their own.

For example:

I had a terrible cold. I still went to work.

You can add the coordinating conjunction ‘but’ in between these causes so the sentence reads:

I had a terrible cold but I still went to school.

Remember though, you can often leave out the subject word in the second coordinating clause.

For example:

I had a terrible cold but still went to school.

In this example you can remove the word ‘I’ from the second coordinating clause.

Question 19

What is a relative clause?

Answer 19

A relative clause can be used to give additional information about a noun.

They are introduced by a relative pronoun like ‘that’, ‘which’, ‘who’, ‘whose’, ‘where’ and ‘when’. For example:

I won’t stand by the man who smells of slime.

In this example, the relative clause is ‘who smells of slime’. It provides more information about the man. The relative pronoun, ‘who’, is used to connect these clauses in the sentence.

Question 20

What is a subordinate clause?

Answer 20

Relative clauses can be used to create complex sentences as they are a type of subordinate clause.

A subordinate clause is a part of a sentence that adds additional information to the main clause.

Relative clauses come directly after the noun they are referring to.

This might be at the end of a sentence or embedded into the middle of a sentence.

If it is embedded into the middle of a sentence, the relative clause is usually surrounded by commas.

Question 20

Relative pronouns?

Answer 20

Relative clauses are introduced by a relative pronoun. The relative pronoun used depends on the person or type of thing you are writing about.

Relative pronouns include:

‘Who’ (a person or people)
‘Which’ (an object, a place or animals)
‘That’ (an object, a place or a person)
‘When’ (a time)
‘Where’ (a place)
Example

Two simple sentences:

Milly played her ukulele to her sister Martha. She was in her bedroom.

Below, the relative pronoun, ‘who’, is used to create a relative clause so these two simple sentences can be connected.

‘She was in her bedroom’ is extra information, so this forms the relative clause.

Relative clause sentence:

Milly, who was in her bedroom, played her ukulele to her sister Martha.

Question 21

What are conjunctions?

Answer 21

Conjunctions are joining words that link two parts of a sentence together.

Some examples include:

because

and

or

but

Question 21

What is a clause?

Answer 21

A clause is a group of words that go together that make up parts of sentences.

A clause must have a subject and a verb.

A conjunction can be used to join clauses together in a sentence.

For example:

Lewis smiled

The park was fun

You can add the conjunction ‘because’ in between these clauses so the sentence reads:

Lewis smiled because the park was fun!

Question 22

Joining clauses with conjunctions?

Answer 22

A conjunction is a word, or words, used to connect two clauses (parts of a sentence) together.

Some examples of conjunctions include:

and
but
or
because
but
while
so

Conjunctions can be used to join two sentence clauses together.

Here are two sentences:

Lilly ate an ice cream. She read a book.

Using a conjunction they can be joined to make one sentence, like this:

Lilly ate an ice cream and read a book.

Question 22

What are subordinate conjunctions?

Answer 22

When you add conjunctions to a sentence, they create a subordinate clause.

A subordinate clause is a group of words that add more information to the clause you’ve already got.

You can spot a subordinate clause because it is often linked to the main clause by one of these conjunctions:

Question 23

How to use expanded noun phrases

Answer 23

Expanded noun phrases add more detail to the noun by adding one or more
adjectives
.

For example:

a huge tree

some colourful sweets

the large, royal castle

An expanded noun phrase can also add detail by saying ‘where’ a noun is.

For example:

a tree next to the house

some sweets on the floor

the castle by the ocean

Question 24

What is an adverbial?

Answer 24

Adverbials are words or phrases that give more information to the sentence.

I discovered fronted adverbials earlier today.

In the sentence above ‘earlier today’ is the adverbial.

Question 25

What are fronted adverbials?

Answer 25

A fronted adverbial is when the adverbial word or phrase is moved to the front of the sentence, before the verb.

Earlier today, I discovered fronted adverbials.

So here, ‘earlier today’ is a fronted adverbial.

Here are some more examples.

Calmly, the family sat together and watched a movie.

Like a cheetah, Bill sprinted to the finish.

As the clock struck ten, Zaynab served breakfast.