Mill Lane Primary School

Information about GRAMMAR
Year 3 & 4

EXTENDING SENTENCES
Using a fronted adverbial
eg. Padding softly on silent paws, the tiger stalked its prey.

Using a co-ordinating conjunction (eg. and, but, or)
eg. I adore chocolate but I don’t like peppermint.

Using a subordinating conjunction (eg. although, because, while, unless)
eg. We’re not going because it looks like it will rain.

KNOWING TO USE A OR AN
Nouns that begin with a vowel will have an before. eg. An elephant
An umbrella

Nouns that begin with a consonant will have an a. eg. A box
A house

SENTENCES
A sentence can be:
•	A statement
eg. This is the first page of a booklet.
•	A question
eg. How old are you?
•	An exclamation
eg. What a nice surprise!
•	A command
eg. Read this booklet immediately.

 
CAPITAL LETTERS
We use a capital letter to start every sentence and for the names of people, places, days and months.
Our Uncle Dan is visiting us next Tuesday.

SPEECH MARKS
When we write stories we use speech marks to show that someone is speaking.

“My name is Lucy,” she said.
“Where are you going?” the wolf asked.
The teacher said, “Today we are having an early lunch.” Sam shouted, “It’s not fair!”

MAIN WORD CLASSES
Noun/noun phrase – names a person, place or thing
eg.  cat, Taunton, happiness	several people, the old mill

Pronoun – takes the place of a noun
eg. he, us, it, who, ourselves, yours, his

Adjective – describes a noun or pronoun
eg. happy, yellow, biggest, smaller

Verb – doing or being word
eg. sit, ran, am, was, seemed

Adverb/adverbial – describes verbs (how, where, when)
eg.  quickly, everywhere, yesterday, without thinking

Conjunction  – joining word links two words or phrases
eg. and, but, because, although, since, or

Prepositions – describe locations, directions or time
eg. Before, after, during, in the middle, from, beneath

COMMAS
In lists
eg. We saw apes, fish, birds and snakes.

After starting a sentence with an adverbial
eg. Trembling with fear, she opened the door.

APOSTROPHES
Missing letters in contractions
eg. do not – don’t	we had – we’d

Showing ownership or possession
eg. Mary’s book…	the elephant’s trunk…