Collins Primary Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling - Collins Dictionaries

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Introduction

Grammar

What is grammar?

Words

Phrases

Clauses

Sentences

Making words

Writing good English

Synonyms

Antonyms

Layout

Punctuation

What is punctuation?

Letters

Full stop

Question mark

Exclamation mark

Comma

Apostrophe

Inverted comma

Bracket

Dash

Semicolon

Colon

Hyphen

Bullet point

Ellipsis

Spelling

The alphabet

Syllables

Letters and sounds

Consonants and their phonemes and graphemes

Vowels and their phonemes and graphemes

Digraphs and trigraphs

Adding endings to words

Irregular verbs

Adding prefixes and suffixes

Common endings in words

Choosing between endings

Words ending in ough

Silent letters

Some very common words that you have to know

Homophones

How to improve your spelling

Dictionary

How to use the Spelling Dictionary

Aa

Bb

Cc

Dd

Ee

Ff

Gg

Hh

Ii

Jj

Kk

Ll

Mm

Nn

Oo

Pp

Qq

Rr

Ss

Tt

Uu

Vv

Ww

Yy

Zz

Index

Copyright

About the Publisher

Introduction

Collins Primary Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling has been designed to support all pupils who are studying grammar, punctuation and spelling from age 7 to 11, whether this is for exams or to revise the key building blocks of the English language.

It contains the rules and advice that will help students get to grips with these essential aspects of the English language. There are clear, easy-to-follow explanations of how grammar works, what punctuation does, and how to spell correctly. Each section grammar, punctuation and spelling is laid out in an open, attractive design that guides the user easily through the information provided. Dozens of examples show exactly how the rules of English work.

The final section is a dictionary list of words that pupils must know how to spell. These have been specially selected for this age group based on real-life experience from Spelling Bees conducted by Collins Dictionaries. The words are written out in full, with their word class clearly shown, along with any other forms such as plurals, comparatives and superlatives, and inflections all of which are also written in full, making it easy for the pupil to understand. Many helpful tips on spelling are also included throughout the spelling dictionary section to make learning easier.

Collins Primary Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling is an indispensable guide to the structure and rules of English, offering clear and accessible guidance for pupils from age 7 to 11.

Explore further at www.collins.co.uk/homeworkhelp for games, activities and extra support for parents and children.

Grammar

What is grammar?

Grammar is the rules of a language that tell you how to organise words to make sentences. Think about language as a series of blocks that you put together. There are rules about how these blocks can be joined. The blocks are:

the word

the phrase

the clause

the sentence

This book explains what these are, how they work and how you combine them to write clear and effective English.

Words

Word class

Every word in a language can be sorted into a group according to what it does within a sentence. These groups are known as word classes or parts of speech. Some words can belong to a number of different word classes. This section explains what the word classes are and what they do.

Nouns

A noun is a word that names something. In a sentence, the nouns are the words that tell you which people, places or things are involved.

There are different kinds of nouns.

Common nouns

These nouns are used to name every example of a certain type of thing. They start with a small letter.

There are three different types of common nouns.

Concrete nouns

A concrete noun is a physical object that you can actually touch:

Abstract nouns

An abstract noun is something that does not physically exist and so cannot be touched:

Collective nouns

A collective noun is a group or collection of things:

Proper nouns

These nouns are used for a particular person, place or thing. They start with a capital letter.

Singular and plural

The singular form of a noun is used to mean only one of a thing:

The plural form is used to mean more than one of a thing:

The possessive

The possessive (which is sometimes called the possessive case) is used to show that a person or thing owns another person or thing. You add s to the end of the noun that is the owner:

my mothers sister

Nicks football boots

the cats paw

the stadiums roof

If the noun is a plural that already ends in s, you put an apostrophe at the end of the word:

the soldiers uniforms

those boys bicycles

African elephants ears

tractors wheels

You dont use s to make a plural noun. It is only used for showing the possessive.

Adjectives

An adjective is a word that tells you something about a noun. Adjectives can describe nouns in a number of ways:

how they feel or what they are like:

a happy child

a strange boy

a joyful occasion

what they look like:

a large tree

a spotty dress

a gorgeous beach

what they sound, smell, taste or feel like:

a noisy party

a stinky cheese

a delicious cake

a hard seat

what colour they are:

a yellow bag

dark hair

green leaves

where they come from:

our German relatives

my American friend

a northern accent

what something is made from:

chocolate cake

a wooden box

a velvet scarf

Comparative adjectives and superlative adjectives

When you want to make a comparison between people or things, you need to use comparative or superlative adjectives. In the examples below, taller is the comparative form of tall and tallest is the superlative.

Rory is tall.

Rory is taller than his brother.

Rory is the tallest boy in his class.

Comparative

The comparative shows that a person or thing has more of a certain quality than another person or thing. In this case it is the quality of being tall.

You make the comparative form of an adjective by adding the suffix er at the end.

dull + er = duller

green + er = greener

clever + er = cleverer

Not all comparatives are made like this, though. If the adjective is quite a long word, you use more instead.

beautiful more beautiful

eccentric more eccentric

interesting more interesting

Superlative

The superlative shows that a person or thing has the most of a certain quality out of a group of people or things.

You make the superlative form of an adjective by adding the suffix est at the end.

dull + est = dullest

green + est = greenest

clever + est = cleverest