Grammar

Conjunctions are words that join two clauses together to make a compound or a complex sentence. You can use them in your writing to link ideas together and to express your thoughts more precisely.

Co-ordinating conjunctions:

Co-ordinating conjunctions join together two main clauses that could each make sense on their own. Co-ordinating conjunctions go between the two clauses to join them together.

I went to the shops and I bought some crisps.
I don't like cats but I do like dogs.
I'm tired so I'm going to have a rest.

Subordinating conjunctions:

Subordinating conjunctions join together a main clause and a subordinate clause. A subordinate clause might explain the main clause or contrast with it. A subordinate clause can go between the two clauses as well, but it can also be used to begin the sentence. When this happens, there needs to be a commas after the subordinate clause.

I worked hard because I wanted to understand the homework.
Even though I was tired, we tried hard in the second half of the match.
I watched the television whilst I did my homework.
Whenever I've got a tricky maths problem to solve, I like to use a diagram to help me understand it.

Relative pronouns:

A relative pronoun is a special type of subordinating conjunction. They introduce a relative clause, which gives extra information about a noun in the sentence. If a relative clause is not necessary to understand the sentence, it is set in commas, parentheses or dashes. If it is necessary to understand the sentence, it doesn't have commas:

I asked the man, who was sitting on the bench, what he was waiting for.
The car, which was red and white, made a horrendous noise.
I used the computer that was closest to me.

Semicolons

“With educated people, I suppose, punctuation is a matter of rule; with me it is a matter of feeling. But I must say I have a great respect for the semi-colon; it's a useful little chap.” —Abraham Lincoln

The semicolon is a useful piece of punctuation but it is often misused as just a fashionable alternative to the comma. In fact, it has a number of proper uses.

Firstly, it is used to link two main clauses that are closely connected, such as when two things are being directly compared:

Michael drives a shiny Ferrari; Abigail drives a rusty Skoda.

It can also be used with an adverbial connective to link ideas together in a similar way to a conjunction:

I have never been to the Isle of Wight; however, I hear it is a lovely place.

A third use of the semicolon is to organise a list where the list items themselves contain commas, and so commas would be confusing:

"You can do your homework in three ways: in your exercise book, which means you must take it home; on the computer, in which case you need to email it to me; or on a separate piece of paper, in which case you need to look after it!"

Word classes

Words can be grouped into classes based on the job they do in a sentence.

Nouns

Nouns represent objects, people, places and concepts. Nouns can describe a real thing that can be seen and touched like a table or a book. These are called concrete nouns. Some nouns describe ideas or concepts that cannot be sensed directly like happiness or envy. These are called abstract nouns. Proper nouns are the names of people or places and they always being with a capital letter.

A clause needs to have at least one noun: the subject, which is the thing that the clause is about. Some clauses have an object in as well.

Verbs

Verbs are 'action' words. They describe something that you can do.

Sometimes a verb is given the ending -ing to let it act as the object or subject or a sentence.

Hint! 'To be' and all its forms like 'am', 'were' and 'was' are verbs, even if they don't sound like something that you 'do'.

Adjectives

Adjectives are 'describing words'. They give more information about a noun. For example, they might describe it's size ('big', 'small', 'tiny'), they might describe its colour ('red', 'shiny', 'dark') or their might describe something else ('Scottish', 'tired', 'angry').

Adjectives can be put directly before the noun they describe or after the verb 'to be'.

Adverbs

Adverbs describe how some did something. They almost all end in -ly so they are easy to recognise.

Most words that don't fit neatly into the other categories like 'very' are adverbs.

Some adverbs are exactly the same as their adjectives. These are called 'flat adverbs' like 'quick' and 'hard'.

Phrases and clauses

Phrases

A phrase is a group of related words that does a particular job in a sentence. A noun phrase does the job of a noun, a verbal phrase does the job of an verb and an adverbial phrase does the job of an adverb.

Clauses

A clause is a phrase that contains a subject (who or what it's about) and a verb (what they did). Some clauses have an object (that the verb happened to):

Types of sentence

A clause that makes sense on it's own is called a main clause. A single main clause makes a simple sentence:

It was raining that day.

Two main clauses can be joined by a co-ordinating conjunction to form a compound sentence:

I wanted to go out but it was raining that day.

A subordinate clause can be introduced by using a subordinating conjunction. It does not make sense on its own. A subordinate clause can go before, after or in the middle of the main clause. It makes a complex sentence:

Even though it was raining, I wanted to go out.

I wanted to go out because my friends were there.

The boy, who was unhappy, had to stay inside.

Parenthesis

A parenthesis is ‘extra’ information in a sentence that helps the reader.

Martin (who had never liked me) scowled in my direction

The parenthesis adds ‘extra’ information, so the sentence must make sense if you took it away.

For example:

The captain of the team (whose name was James) was quite angry.

Punctuating parenthesis

A parenthesis needs to be begun and ended with punctuation.

There are three types of punctuation that can be used: commas, dashes and parentheses (round brackets).

Commas

Commas are the most formal type of punctuation to use for parenthesis.

You need to begin the parenthesis with a comma and end it with one.

If the parenthesis is at the end of the sentence, you don’t need a comma and a full stop.

My grandmother, whose name is Sheila, is a great bridge player.

I went to see my grandfather, whose name is Keith.

Parentheses (round brackets)

Round brackets are properly called parentheses, because they do this job.

Parentheses are less formal than commas but quite common in less formal writing like popular books.

You need to ‘open’ and ‘close’ the parenthesis with a bracket even if it is at the end of the sentence.

Darcy’s brother (whose name is Toby) used to be in 5WC.

Darcy went to talk to her brother (whose name is Toby).

Dashes

Dashes are very casual and informal, and can do the job of a lot of different types of punctuation.

Dashes for parenthesis are rare, but you might find them in very informal situations such as stories and emails.

They are generally not appropriate for school writing!

Like commas, you need them at the beginning of the parenthesis and at the end unless it’s at the end of the sentence.

Even if I wanted to—which I don’t—I can’t help you!

Let’s talk tomorrow—Tuesday.