Teaching: Grammar
Many children find the use of grammar difficult and confusing. Children start with learning to write their name. They learn that this name starts with a capital letter.
Peter, Sandra, Helen, Robert and Heidi.
These names are known as proper nouns.
Other proper nouns are names of places, buildings, days of the week, months of the year, towns and cities, countries and organisations etc.
London, British Museum, Monday, October, Edinburgh, Italy, Bank of England
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Nouns
There are other types of nouns. These are sometimes known as common nouns.
The definition of a nouns is that it is an expression that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance, quality, quantity, or idea.
a policeman a park a bicycle a party a drink
Collective Nouns
A collective noun describes a group or collection of people or things.
an army of soldiers a bunch of flowers a team of players
Abstract nouns
An abstract noun describes things that cannot actually be seen, heard, smelt, felt or tasted.
sleep power boredom
Pronouns
You sometimes refer to a person or a thing not by its actual name but by another word which stands for it. The word you use for a noun is called a pronoun.
Jack is kicking a football. He is a very good player.
The’ he’ stands for his name Jack. To decide if a word is a pronoun ask yourself “Does it stand for a noun?”
You use pronouns so that you do not have to repeat the same nouns over again. They make speaking and writing much quicker!.
'When Jack kicked the ball and scored a goal, Jack felt happy.'
'When Jack kicked a ball and scored a goal, he felt happy.'
Singular pronouns for singular nouns:
when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence
I
you
he
she
it
when the pronoun is the object of the sentence
me
you
him
her
it
when something belongs to someone
mine
yours
his
hers
its
Plural pronouns for plural nouns:
when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence
we
you
they
when the pronoun is the object of the sentence
us
you
them
when something belongs to someone
ours
yours
theirs
Remember: it is difficult sometimes to know whether to use I or me.
Bob and me like to play football or Bob and I like to play football
To decide say it in two sentences:
Bob likes to play football. I like to play football
SO the correct answer is: Bob and I like to play football.
Like everything in English grammar there is an exception!
After prepositions you should use the object form of the pronoun.
e.g. It is a present for Dad and I.
or It is a present for Dad and me.
The second is the correct answer.
Types of pronoun
Personal pronouns: I, you, he etc
Reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself
Relative pronouns: who, whom, whose ,that, what
Interrogative pronoun: who. whose, whom, which
Demonstrative pronoun: this, that, these, those
Find the pronouns in these sentences
1. He went out to find the dog.
2. We enquired if he was feeling better.
3. You ought to ask him if he wants to join us.
4. It is NOT yours, it is mine!
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This is a boy. This is a girl. This is a dog
He has a beach ball. She has a pussy cat. He has chocolates!
Adjectives
An adjective is a word which describes a noun or pronoun. 
This brave astronaut has a space helmet, a space suit and a jammy doughnut!
- brave tells you about the astronaut,
- space describes the type of helmet and the type of suit he was wearing,
- jammy tells you about the type of doughnut.
There are different types of adjectives.
- Asking adjectives (questions)
Which toy do you like best? What is another interrogative adjective. - Possessive adjective - these describe who owns what. Tim never brushes his hair. His describes whose hair it is.
Other possessive adjectives are my, our, their, her, your. - Adjectives of number or amount
Mary invited six friends to her party. The cat did not have any food left.
Other adjectives of quantity are: much, more, most, little, less, least, no. some, any, enough, sufficient, all, whole, half, quarter.
All numbers can be used as adjectives. - ‘Pointing-out’ adjectives
Singular: That boy rode this bike. Plural: Those apples and these grapes are ripe.
Verbs
A verb tells you what a person or thing is doing…….so it is often called a doing word.
A verb makes the sentence make sense.
Tom drank his lemonade. Mum went to the shop.
All sentences have a subject and a verb. The subject is the person or thing that doing the action.
The dog barks.
The kite flies
The children play.
Transitive and Intransitive verbs
When the verb takes the action from the subject across to the object it is called a transitive verb.
The monkey eats bananas Tom smells toast
Intransitive verbs make sense on their own.
The phone rang. The post came.Tenses
The word tense means time. The tense of the verb tells you the time at which the action takes place.
There are three main tenses
Present He eats Past He ate Future He shall eat
| Subject | Present | Past | Future |
| I | play/am playing | played/was playing | shall play/shall be playing |
| you (singular) | play/are playing | played/were playing | will play/will be played |
| he/she/it | plays/is playing | played/was playing | will |
| we | play/are playing | played/were playing | shall play/ |
| you (plural) | play/are playing | played | will play/will be playing |
| they | play/are playing | played/were playing | will play/will be playing |
Adverbs
An adverb does exactly what it sounds like it does……………..it adds to the verb. It usually answers the questions How? When? Where? Why?
Laura walked home (where) quickly (how) every day (when) to enjoy her tea (why).
Adverbs can be one word or a group of words. If there is a group of words which do not contain a verb it is a phrase. If there is a verb in the group of words it is called a clause.
Adverbs describing how much.
Adverbs can aslo be added to adjectives and other adverbs.
It was too hot to run.
Cassie looked very different with her Mum's clothes on.
Here the adverbs tells you more about the adjectives.
Granny gets up extremely early in the morning.
He cut the grass rather roughly.
Most adverbs can be formed by adding ly
Soft - softly, quick- quickly, wrong – wrongly
Sometimes you need to change to’ y’ to’ i’ before adding the’ ly’ e.g.
Pretty – prettily, busy- busily, weary- wearily
Sentence adverbs
These are exmples of words that make sentence adverbs:
nevertheless, still, moreover, however, on the other hand
The old man felt, however, that the boy was not entirely honest.
The lady was, nevertheless, a very loyal friend.
Remember to think carefully whether it is an adverb or adjective!
Some words can be used either as an adjective or adverb. This depends on how they are used in the sentence.
If they answer the questions How, when, where, why they are adverbs.
If they answer the question ‘What is it like?’ they are adjectives and will be telling you specifically about the noun.
Work is hard - adjective.
June works hard - adverb
The train came early - adverb
Dad took and early train - adjective
Prepositions
Prepositions are attached to nouns or pronouns. They indicate the relationship of one thing to another.
The food is on the table
The feet are under the table.
The cow is behind the gate
The dog is in front of the box
The people are in the boat
Think of other prepositions-------over the fence, past the church, up the tree, down the stairs.
Remember that a preposition is always followed by a noun.
The cat is up the tree. The eggs are in the nest.
Preposition attached to a pronoun
The girl sat near me
The horse jumped over it.
The girl is on the bed. The red book is beside her.
The boy is in the pool. The floats are under him.
The man is in his car waiting by the lights. He is near them.
Sentences
A sentence is a group of words which make complete sense.
The boy is playing with his toys.
The sentence is about the boy, so the boy is the subject of the sentence.
What is the boy doing?………………..playing
So the verb …………. (doing word) in this sentence is …..playing.
Under the soil the worm wriggled.
In the sentence above the worm is the subject and the verb is wriggled.
Different types of sentences
Statements Sentences which state facts
The car is yellow
Questions
Are you hungry?
Commands
Drink your juice please!
Greetings
Hello, good to see you!
Exclamations
Help Mum! I cannot do this sum.
Simple sentences
Mummy made a birthday cake.
Compound sentences
The boy ran into school and gave his teacher an apple.
Tom wants to swim, Jane wants to dance but David wants to play tennis!