Primary English: Knowledge and Understanding - Medwell Jane A. 2014

The components of sentences

TEACHERS’ STANDARDS

A teacher must:

3. Demonstrate good subject and curriculum knowledge

✵ have a secure knowledge of the relevant subject(s) and curriculum areas, foster and maintain pupils’ interest in the subject, and address misunderstandings

✵ demonstrate a critical understanding of developments in the subject and curriculum areas, and promote the value of scholarship

✵ demonstrate an understanding of and take responsibility for promoting high standards of literacy, articulacy and the correct use of standard English, whatever the teacher’s specialist subject.

4. Plan and teach well structured lessons

✵ impart knowledge and develop understanding through effective use of lesson time

✵ promote a love of learning and children’s intellectual curiosity

✵ contribute to the design and provision of an engaging curriculum within the relevant subject area(s).

8. Fulfil wider professional responsibilities

✵ take responsibility for improving teaching through appropriate professional development.

Curriculum context

National Curriculum programmes of study

This knowledge is designed to underpin the teaching of the Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 programmes of study for English, which state, for example, that pupils should be taught

in spoken language to:

✵ speak audibly and fluently with an increasing command of Standard English

and in writing to:

✵ develop their understanding of the concepts set out in English Appendix 2 by:

learning the grammar in English Appendix 2 Y1/2/3/4/5/6

✵ learning how to use:

sentences with different forms: statement, question, exclamation, command Y2

expanded noun phrases to describe and specify [for example, the blue butterfly] Y2

the present and past tenses correctly and consistently, including the progressive form Y2

subordination (using when, if, that, or because) and co-ordination (using or, and, or but) Y2

some features of written standard English Y2

extending the range of sentences with more than one clause by using a wider range of conjunctions, including: when, if, because, although Y3/4

using the present perfect form of verbs in contrast to the past tense Y3/4

choosing nouns or pronouns appropriately for clarity and cohesion and to avoid repetition Y3/4

using conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to express time and cause Y3/4

using fronted adverbials Y3/4

recognising vocabulary and structures that are appropriate for formal speech and writing, including subjunctive forms Y5/6

using passive verbs to affect the presentation of information in a sentence Y5/6

using the perfect form of verbs to mark relationships of time and cause Y5/6

using expanded noun phrases to convey complicated information concisely Y5/6

using modal verbs or adverbs to indicate degrees of possibility Y5/6

using relative clauses beginning with who, which, where, when, whose, that or with an implied (ie omitted) relative pronoun Y5/6

✵ indicate grammatical and other features by:

using commas after fronted adverbials Y3/4

indicating possession by using the possessive apostrophe with plural nouns Y3/4

using and punctuating direct speech Y3/4

using commas to clarify meaning or avoid ambiguity in writing Y5/6

using hyphens to avoid ambiguity Y5/6

using brackets, dashes or commas to indicate parenthesis Y5/6

using semicolons, colons or dashes to mark boundaries between independent clauses Y5/6

using a colon to introduce a list Y5/6

punctuating bullet points consistently Y5/6

✵ use the grammatical terminology in English Appendix 2 in discussing their writing Y1/2/3/4

✵ make simple additions, revisions and corrections to their own writing by:

rereading to check that their writing makes sense and that verbs to indicate time are used correctly and consistently, including verbs in the continuous form Y2

proposing changes to grammar and vocabulary to improve consistency, including the accurate use of pronouns in sentences Y3/4

selecting appropriate grammar and vocabulary, understanding how such choices can change and enhance meaning Y5/6

ensuring the consistent and correct use of tense throughout a piece of writing Y5/6

ensuring correct subject and verb agreement when using singular and plural, distinguishing between the language of speech and writing and choosing the appropriate register Y5/6

proofreading to check for errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation (for example, ends of sentences punctuated correctly) Y2/3/4/5/6.

Early Years Foundation Stage

The Early Learning Goals specify that, by the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage, children should:

✵ use past, present and future forms accurately when talking about events that have happened or are to happen in the future;

✵ write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others.

Introduction

The words in a sentence can be classified according to the role they play in that sentence. Such a classification produces a number of word classes which, in traditional Latinate grammar, are often referred to as parts of speech. The major word classes are: nouns, pronouns, determiners, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions and prepositions.

REFLECTIVE TASK

It will undoubtedly be the case that you feel confident you already know the meaning of some of the above parts of speech. It would be useful for you to review this knowledge before you embark on a reading of each of the sections of the chapter. Make a list of the parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, determiners, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions and prepositions.

For each, think about what you already know. Then read the section of the chapter that deals with this part of speech. Has anything surprised you?

Our aim in this chapter is to present as full a description as we can of the nature and function of each of these word classes. You should be aware, however, that the classification system we are using here is traditional and rather unsatisfactory in that, as it is derived from the study of the static ancient languages Latin and Greek, it is often a challenge to apply it to modern English usage. In many ways it has been superseded by alternative grammars, such as Halliday’s functional grammar (2004), which better represent the dynamic, meaning-centred nature of our language. From a functional perspective, grammar is concerned with what language is doing, or being made to do. The concept of rules, which is how most of us can remember being taught grammar at school, is replaced by the concept of possibilities. In other words, it is about what language can be made to do, and what the constraining factors are in this.

Although functional grammar, and other analysis systems sharing its attention to the ways language represents meaning, are more useful tools for enhancing language users’ control of the systems they use, they are not yet widely used in educational contexts. The National Curriculum for English relies on traditional descriptions of sentence grammar, and it is these which form the focus of the Y6 Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG) test. For that reason, this is the system we focus on in this chapter.

RESEARCH SUMMARY

The value of ’traditional’ grammar instruction in terms of improving children’s use of language, especially in writing, has long been questioned by research. Braddock, Lloyd-Jones and Schoer (1963) in their review of research on the teaching of writing concluded that The teaching of formal grammar has a negligible effect on the improvement of writing (pp37—8), and this conclusion has since been reiterated many times by research findings and reviews, for example Hillocks (1986). Modern approaches to grammar teaching no longer stress formal drills but tend to focus on grammar in the context of the reading and writing of whole texts. In the Effective Teachers of Literacy project, Medwell et al. (1998) found that teachers who were effective at teaching literacy did teach grammar explicitly but always within the context of a text they shared with their pupils. More recently, research (Jones, Myhill and Bailey, 2013) has shown the positive impact of contextualised grammar instruction on secondary school pupils’ writing performance.

Nouns

Nouns refer to people, places or things. There are a number of types of nouns.

✵ Common nouns refer to things that are not unique:

dog, country, freedom, hope, bird

They can be divided into categories in several ways, for example: concrete/abstract or countable/uncountable.

1. Concrete nouns refer to things that can be touched, seen, smelt or heard:

door, cat, wind, ground

2. Abstract nouns refer to feelings or qualities:

love, warmth, despair, beauty

3. Countable nouns denote things we can count:

one dog, a horse, sixteen men, the shop

They usually have a singular and plural form:

two dogs, ten horses, a man, the shops

4. Uncountable nouns denote things that we do not usually count:

tea, sugar, water, air, rice

They also include abstract ideas or qualities:

knowledge, beauty, anger, fear, love

These do not usually have a plural form. Some examples of common uncountable nouns are:

money, advice, information, furniture, happiness, sadness, news, research, evidence, safety, beauty, knowledge

✵ Proper nouns are indicated by capital letters and include:

1. Names and titles of people, e.g. Winston Churchill, the Headmaster of Eton

2. Titles of works, books, etc., e.g. War and Peace, The Merchant of Venice

3. Months of the year, e.g. January, February

4. Days of the week and seasons, e.g. Sunday, Winter

5. Holidays, e.g. Christmas, May Day

6. Geographical names, including:

a) names of countries and continents, e.g. England, Europe

b) names of regions and districts, e.g. Sussex, the Costa Brava

c) names of cities, towns and villages, e.g. London, Cape Town

d) names of rivers, oceans, seas and lakes, e.g. the Atlantic, Lake Victoria, the Rhine

e) names of geographical formations, e.g. the Himalayas

f) names of streets, buildings and parks, e.g. Park Lane, Hyde Park, the Empire State Building

7. Nationalities, e.g. English, French, Chinese

✵ Compound nouns are formed from the combination of two or more other words, neither of which is necessarily a noun itself. The meaning of the word they create together is different from the meaning of the constituent words on their own.

head + ache = headache (noun + verb)

girl + friend = girlfriend (noun + noun)

work + man = workman (verb + noun)

hair + cut = haircut (noun + verb)

break + down = breakdown (verb + preposition).

PRACTICAL TASK

Identify the ten nouns in this passage:

High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword-hilt. He was very much admired indeed.

Pronouns

Pronouns can be thought of as a subclass of nouns. They act in place of a noun in a sentence:

In these examples the pronouns have the same reference as the nouns they replace. In each case, they refer to people, and so can be called personal pronouns. Although the pronoun it does not usually refer to a person, it is also included in this group. There are three personal pronouns, each with a singular and a plural form:

These pronouns also have another set of forms:

The first set of forms (I, you, he …) can replace nouns that are the subject of a sentence, and the second set (me, you, him…) nouns that are the object of a sentence.

As well as personal pronouns, there are many other types, as summarised below:

The subject/object and singular/plural distinctions only apply to personal, possessive and reflexive pronouns. It is only in these types, too, that gender differences are shown (personal he/she, possessive his/hers, reflexive himself/herself).

Many of the pronouns listed above also belong to another word class — the class of determiners. They are pronouns when they occur independently, that is, without a noun following them, as in This is a new car. But when a noun follows them — This car is new — they are determiners.

Determiners

Nouns are often preceded by the words the, a or an. These words are called determiners. They indicate the kind of reference that the noun has. The determiner the is known as the definite article because it pinpoints the noun to a particular instance. It is used before both singular and plural nouns and is invariable:

The determiner a (or an, when the following noun begins with a vowel) is known as the indefinite article and is more open-ended in its reference. It is used only when the noun is singular:

a taxi a paper an apple

The articles the and a/an are the most common determiners, but there are many others:

Many determiners express quantity:

Numerals are determiners when they appear before a noun. Here, cardinal numerals express quantity:

one book

two books

twenty books

In the same position, ordinal numerals express sequence:

first impressions

second chance

third prize

There is also a set of determiners that are not directly related to numbers, which include last, latter, next, previous and subsequent:

As we mentioned earlier, there is considerable overlap between determiners and pronouns. Many words can be both:

Determiners always come before a noun, but pronouns are more independent than this. They function in much the same way as nouns, and they can be replaced by nouns in the sentences above. On the other hand, when these words are determiners, they cannot be replaced by nouns.

PRACTICAL TASK

The words underlined in the following sentences are either pronouns or determiners. Decide which is which.

1. One day I’ll manage to beat you.

2. One really finds it hard to understand that kind of behaviour.

3. I didn’t have any bread so I had to go and buy some.

4. Some people were standing by the gateway.

5. Any old rubbish will do.

6. We were looking for items for the jumble sale and wondered if you had any.

Adjectives

Adjectives are used to give more information about a noun. They:

✵ describe feelings or qualities:

He is a lonely man.

They are honest people.

✵ give nationality:

Pierre is French.

Siegfried is German.

✵ tell more about a thing’s characteristics:

That is a wooden table.

The knife is sharp.

✵ tell us about age:

He is a young man.

She is a teenager.

✵ tell us about size and measurement:

John is a tall man.

This is a very long film.

✵ tell us about colour:

Paul wore a red shirt.

The sunset was crimson and gold.

Adjectives are generally invariable in English. They do not change their form depending on the gender or number of the noun.

A hot potato.

The hot potatoes.

They can occur in front of the noun or after a verb such as ’to be’.

A beautiful girl.

The girl is beautiful.

If we need to emphasise or strengthen the meaning of an adjective, we use ’very’ or ’really’.

A very hot potato.

The really hot potatoes.

If we need to compare nouns we can achieve this through the use of comparative or superlative adjectives.

My Dad is tall, but Billy’s Dad is even taller (comparative). Jenny’s Dad is the tallest of all (superlative).

There are some general rules for the formation of comparatives and superlatives, dependent on the number of syllables an adjective has. As with all ’rules’ in English grammar, however, there are a number of exceptions. Common rules are summarised in the following table. Examples:

A cat is fast, a tiger is faster but a cheetah is the fastest.

A car is heavy, a truck is heavier, but a train is the heaviest.

A park bench is comfortable, a restaurant chair is more comfortable, but a sofa is the most comfortable.

There are a number of irregular comparatives and superlatives, for example:

Verbs

Verbs are words that indicate the occurrence or performance of an action, or the existence of a state. The most common definition of a verb — a doing word — is only partially correct. Some verbs do indicate actions:

jump, fall, run, march

Others indicate feelings or mental states:

love, believe, trust, hope

Perhaps the three most commonly used verbs in English, however, generally do neither of these. Be, have and do indicate states or actions:

I am happy.

That man has two very powerful cars.

We did sixteen lengths during our swimming lesson.

They are also widely used as auxiliaries to other verbs:

We were running along the street.

He had ridden that horse several times before.

Although it was difficult, we did manage to start the car this morning.

Unlike nouns and adjectives, which in English (unlike in other languages) generally do not change their forms, verbs are variable depending on the person they are linked with and on their tense.

Regular verbs change their forms only in the third person, i.e. the he/she form. Thus:

Some irregular verbs, on the other hand, change in different ways:

In English, verb tense is indicated by changing the form of the verb. All verbs, whether regular or irregular, have five forms. These are:

✵ the infinitive to + the verb stem — e.g. to jump;

✵ the simple present — e.g. I jump;

✵ the simple past — e.g. I jumped;

✵ the past participle — e.g. I have jumped;

✵ the present participle — e.g. I am jumping.

The difference between a regular and an irregular verb is the formation of the simple past and the past participle. Regular verbs are dependably consistent — the simple past ends in -ed as does the past participle. The chart below shows these five forms for regular verbs.

Irregular verbs, on the other hand, can end in a variety of ways, with no consistent pattern. Here are some examples:

PEDAGOGICAL LINK

Young children (and learners of English) make two frequent errors with irregular verbs. They either add an incorrect -ed to the end of an irregular verb, or they mix up the simple past and past participle. Read this sentence and identify the errors.

Olivia feeled like exercising yesterday, so she putted on her bathing suit and drived to the swimming pool, where she swum so far that only an extra large pepperoni pizza would satisfy her hunger.

PRACTICAL TASK

There are a great many irregular verbs in English. Some are listed in the table below. Try to complete the table before comparing your version with that given in the Appendix at the back of the book.

Information about verb tense in English is also given by the use of auxiliary verbs, particularly be and have. These accompany verb forms, either infinitives or participles, to form tenses such as past and present continuous, and future. The table below shows this:

The auxiliary verb be is also used to form the passive, as in the following:

We keep the butter in the fridge.

The butter is kept in the fridge.

The teacher punished the boy for bad behaviour.

The boy was punished by the teacher for bad behaviour.

The auxiliary verb do is used to form the interrogative and negative.

Do you speak English?

Did Peter live in Hong Kong?

Does Helen know Peter?

I don’t speak English.

Peter did not live in Hong Kong.

Helen does not know Peter.

A special group of auxiliary verbs are known as modal auxiliary verbs. These are used to indicate degrees of certainty in the verb they accompany. The following verbs can function as modal auxiliaries:

will, shall, may, might, can, could, must, ought to, should, would

Will and shall are used to form the future but can also indicate an obligation or a promise:

He shall go to school!

I will do your homework!

Notice the use of the exclamation mark in these sentences to indicate the way that shall and will used like this are stressed in their pronunciation.

May and might are used to express permission or possibility:

You may stay up later tonight to watch the football. (permission)

It may rain today. (possibility)

It might snow today. (possibility)

Can and could are used to express capability, permission or possibility.

She can speak English. (capability)

He realised that he could swim after all. (capability)

Can I park my car here? (permission)

Could you help me? (permission)

A car can be a useful means of transport or a dangerous weapon. (possibility)

Ali could play the piano when he was a boy. (possibility)

Must, ought to and should express obligation or advice:

You must leave immediately.

You must try to drink less.

You ought to thank them.

You ought to exercise every day.

They should be happy.

You shouldn’t eat too much.

Would is used in conditional sentences:

I would ask her if she was here.

They would have gone but it rained.

It is also used as a polite form to ask someone to do something or to ask someone a question.

Would you mind looking after my children tonight?

Would you like something to drink?

Beyond the regular/irregular distinction, verbs also differ according to their mood.

A verb may be in one of three moods: the indicative mood, the imperative mood, and the subjunctive mood.

The indicative mood is the most common and is used to express facts and opinions or to make inquiries. Most of the statements you make or you read will be in the indicative mood. The highlighted verbs in the following sentences are all in the indicative mood:

Joe picks up the boxes.

The Alsatian dog fetches the stick.

Charles closes the window.

The imperative mood is also common and is used to give orders or to make requests. The imperative is identical in form to the second person indicative. The highlighted verbs in the following sentences are all in the imperative mood:

Pick up those boxes.

Fetch.

Close the window.

The subjunctive mood has almost disappeared from everyday language and is therefore more difficult to use correctly than either the indicative mood or the imperative mood. The subjunctive mood rarely appears in everyday conversation or writing and is used in a set of specific circumstances. You form the present tense subjunctive by dropping the ’s’ from the end of the third person singular, except for the verb be.

paints

present subjunctive: paint

walks

present subjunctive: walk

thinks

present subjunctive: think

is

present subjunctive: be

Except for the verb be, the past tense subjunctive is indistinguishable in form from the past tense indicative. The past tense subjunctive of be is were.

painted

past subjunctive: painted

walked

past subjunctive: walked

thought

past subjunctive: thought

was

past subjunctive: were

The subjunctive is found in a handful of traditional circumstances. For example, in the sentence ’God save the Queen’, the verb save is in the subjunctive mood. Similarly, in the sentence ’Heaven forbid’, the verb forbid is in the subjunctive mood.

The subjunctive is usually found in complex sentences. It is most often used in dependent clauses to following verbs of wishing or requesting.

It is urgent that Fiona attend Monday’s meeting.

The teacher ordered that Kevin scrub his desk clean.

We suggest that Mr. Smith move his car out of the no parking zone.

I wish that this book were still in print.

Parliament recommended that the bill be passed immediately.

Adverbs

Adverbs usually modify, or add to the meaning of, verbs. They describe how, where, why or when an action was done. They can also modify an adjective, or another adverb.

Mary sings beautifully.

David is extremely clever.

This car goes incredibly fast.

In the first example, the adverb beautifully tells us how Mary sings. In the second, extremely tells us the degree to which David is clever. Finally, the adverb incredibly tells us how fast the car goes.

The adverb may follow the verb, as in:

He broke the news as gently as possible.

Or it may precede the verb, as in:

She slowly handed him the important document.

From the examples above, you can see that many adverbs end in -ly. More precisely, they are formed by adding -ly to an adjective:

Because of their distinctive endings, these adverbs are known as -ly adverbs. However, by no means all adverbs end in -ly. Note also that some adjectives also end in -ly, including costly, deadly, friendly, kindly, likely, lively, manly and timely.

Like adjectives, many adverbs are gradable, that is, we can modify them using very or extremely:

The modifying words very and extremely are themselves adverbs. They are called adverbs of degree because they specify the degree to which an adjective or another adverb applies. Adverbs of degree include almost, barely, entirely, highly, quite, slightly, totally and utterly. They are not gradable; you could not have, for example, entirely almost, or barely very.

Many adverbs give information about the manner, time or place of an event or action.

Adverbs of manner tell us how an action is performed:

She sang loudly in the bath.

The sky quickly grew dark.

Adverbs of time indicate not only specific times but also frequency:

I’ll come back tomorrow.

I sometimes watch television at the weekend.

Adverbs of place indicate where something has occurred, or should occur:

I’ve left my gloves somewhere.

Put the box there, on the table.

Additive adverbs add two or more items together, emphasising that they are to be considered equal:

We did French at school today. We also did English.

The French was rather boring. The English was boring too.

In contrast, exclusive adverbs focus attention on what follows them, to the exclusion of other possibilities:

It’s just a question of how we organise it.

School exists solely for the purpose of educating our children.

Particularising adverbs also focus attention on what follows them, but do not exclude other possibilities:

These animals are particularly found in East Africa.

This book is mostly about the English language.

A special subclass of adverbs includes a set of words beginning with wh-. The most com-mon are when, where and why, though the set also includes whence, whereby, wherein and whereupon. To this set we can add the word how, but the whole set is usually referred to as wh- adverbs. Some of these can introduce a question:

When are you going to London?

Where did you leave the car?

They can also introduce various types of clause:

This is the town where Shakespeare was born.

I have no idea how it works.

Adverbs (and adverbial phrases and clauses) are normally put after the verb they modify.

He spoke angrily.

They live just here.

We will go in a few minutes.

or after the object or complement:

He opened the door quietly.

She left the money on the table.

We saw our friends last night.

You are looking tired tonight.

But adverbials of frequency (how often) usually come in front of the main verb:

We usually spent our holidays with our grandparents.

I have never seen William at work.

But if we want to emphasise an adverbial we can put it at the beginning of a clause or sentence:

Last night we saw our friends.

In a few minutes we will go.

Very quietly he opened the door.

These are known as fronted adverbials and their position makes a difference not to the exact meaning of the sentence but to the style and emphasis. After all, We saw our friends last night has a very similar meaning to Last night we saw our friends. The only difference is stylistic.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are grammatical connectors that link words, phrases or clauses. A conjunction can indicate the relationship between the elements that it connects in the sentence. Without these, we would not see the relationship. There are three types of conjunctions:

✵ A co-ordinating conjunction connects words, phrases and clauses that have equal or the same grammatical functions, for example nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositional phrases, adverb clauses, etc. The co-ordinating conjunctions include: and, but, or, yet, nor, for and so. Examples are:

✵ A correlative conjunction is a co-ordinating conjunction that works in pairs to connect elements in a sentence. The correlative conjunctions include: both … and, not … but, not only … but also, either … or, neither … nor, although … yet, whether … or. Examples are:

✵ A subordinating conjunction connects elements with different grammatical functions, usually a dependent and an independent clause. The subordinating conjunctions include: after, in case, unless, although, in that, until, as, now that, when, as if, once, whenever, as though, since, where, because, so, whereas, before, so that, whether, even though, than, which, except that, that, while, however, though, who/whom, if. Examples are:

He was acting as though he had done something wrong.

I am sure that the teacher will let you finish your painting today.

When the bell rings, the children have to come into the classroom.

Since her cat ran away, Jenny has been very sad.

PRACTICAL TASK

Take these pairs of sentences and suggest possible ways of combining them to make single sentences. The first, for example, might be combined as:

The boy has a red coat and a blue coat.

This boy has a red coat but that boy has a blue coat.

This boy has a red coat whereas that boy has a blue coat.

1. The boy has a red coat. The boy has a blue coat.

2. The teacher was ill. The children did not have to go to school.

3. The boy went to school. The boy was late.

4. The dog ran across the street. The dog did not run in front of a car.

5. The teacher failed me. I did not pass my examination.

Prepositions

A preposition is a word or group of words that shows the relationship — in time, space or some other sense — between its object (the noun or pronoun that follows the preposition) and another word in the sentence:

Alison put the bag in her locker.

(Here, in shows the spatial relationship between the verb put and the object of the preposition locker.)

Jamie kicked the ball through the goalposts.

(Here, through indicates the direction in which the ball travelled.)

Here are some of the common prepositions in English:

about, above, according to, across, after, against, along, alongside, along with, among, apart from, around, at, away from, because of, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, besides, between, beyond, by, by means of, concerning, considering, despite, down, during, except, from, in, in addition to, in front of, in place of, inside, instead of, into, near, of, off, on, on account of, on behalf of, onto, on top of, out, out of, outside, over, owing to, prior to, round, round about, since, through, throughout, till, to, towards, under, underneath, until, unto, up, up to, upon, with, within, without

A SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS

The words in a sentence can be classified according to the role that they play.

The main word classes or ’parts of speech’ are nouns, pronouns, determiners, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions and prepositions.

There are four types of common noun: concrete, abstract, countable and uncountable.

Proper nouns are indicated by capital letters and include the names of a wide range of things.

Compound nouns are formed from two or more other words.

Pronouns act in place of a noun and include personal pronouns for use in the first, second and third person, with versions for the subject and object of a sentence.

Determiners include the definite and indefinite articles, and those that express quantity.

Adjectives give more information about a noun, and some are used in a comparative or superlative form.

Verbs indicate the occurrence or performance of an action or the existence of a state. They can be regular or irregular in form.

Adverbs modify or add to the meaning of verbs; some are formed from adjectives.

Conjunctions are grammatical connectors that link words, phrases or clauses. There are three types: co-ordinating, correlative and subordinating.

Prepositions are words or groups of words that show the relationship between their object (the noun or pronoun that follows them) and another word in the sentence.

M-LEVEL EXTENSION

Consider whether children should be taught the ’parts of speech’ in a particular order. Can some components of sentences be taught discretely or would they all benefit from being taught in the context of the reading and writing of whole texts? Make a list of texts that could be used for this purpose with the particular year group(s) that you work with.

FURTHER READING

DfE (2013) Teachers’ Standards. London: DfE. (www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/208682/Teachers__Standards_2013.pdf)

Jones, S., Myhill, D. and Bailey, T. (2013) ’Grammar for Writing? An investigation of the effects of contextualised grammar teaching on students’ writing’. Reading and Writing, 26 (8): 1241—63.

University College London (2011) The Internet Grammar of English. (www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/home.htm). Probably the best online reference source for queries about English grammar.