If your child has come home talking about fronted adverbials or the subjunctive, you are not alone in wondering what happened to grammar since you were at school. The words are new to most parents; the ideas are not. This guide explains the terms children meet in the English grammar, punctuation and spelling test (paper 1, 45 minutes, in May of Year 6), each with a plain example, so you can follow a piece of homework or talk about a sentence together.
You do not need to learn all of this. Keep it as a reference and dip in when a term comes up.
Word classes
A word class is the job a word does in a sentence. The same word can do different jobs: in “a light bag”, light is an adjective; in “turn on the light”, it is a noun.
- Noun: a word for a person, place, thing or idea. The dog slept on the chair. A proper noun is a particular name and takes a capital letter: Amira, London, Tuesday.
- Noun phrase: a group of words built around one noun. The old red bike in the shed is an expanded noun phrase; its head noun is bike.
- Verb: a doing or being word. She runs. The being words is, was, are and have count too: He is tired.
- Modal verb: shows how likely or necessary something is: can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would. You must wear a coat.
- Adjective: describes a noun. The tall tree.
- Adverb: tells you how, when, where or how often. She spoke quietly. We left yesterday. Many end in -ly, but not all: soon, very, often.
- Pronoun: stands in for a noun so you do not repeat it. Sam lost his hat, so he looked for it. Possessive pronouns show who owns something: mine, yours, hers.
- Determiner: a small word before a noun that says which one or how many: a, an, the, this, some, my.
- Preposition: shows where or when: in, on, under, before, after. The cat sat under the table. The words under the table make a preposition phrase.
- Conjunction: a joining word. Co-ordinating conjunctions (and, but, or) join two equal parts: I like tea but Dad likes coffee. Subordinating conjunctions (because, when, if, although) introduce a clause that leans on the main one: We stayed in because it was raining.
Sentences and clauses
- Clause: a group of words with its own verb. The bell rang. A phrase has no verb of its own: in the morning.
- Main clause: makes sense by itself. We went home.
- Subordinate clause: does not make full sense alone and depends on a main clause. We went home when the rain started.
- Relative clause: a subordinate clause that adds detail about a noun, starting with who, which, where, when, whose or that. The boy who lives next door has a puppy.
- Adverbial: a word or phrase that works like an adverb. We went to the park after lunch.
- Fronted adverbial: the same adverbial moved to the front, with a comma after it. After lunch, we went to the park.
- Subject and object: the subject does the verb and the object receives it. In The dog chased the cat, the dog is the subject and the cat is the object. This is why it is Mum and I went out but Dad took Mum and me.
- The four sentence types: a statement tells (The door is open.); a question asks (Is the door open?); a command starts with a verb (Shut the door.); an exclamation starts with What or How and has a verb (What a lovely day it is!).
Verbs: tense, voice and formality
- Tense: past or present. I walk; I walked. The progressive form uses is, was or were with -ing for something going on: She was reading. The perfect form uses has, have or had: She has finished her tea rather than She finished her tea.
- Active and passive: two ways to say the same thing. In the active The dog chased the cat, the doer comes first. In the passive The cat was chased by the dog, the thing the action happened to comes first, and the doer can be left out: The window was broken. Writers use the passive when the doer is unknown or not the point.
- Subjunctive: a formal verb form for wishes, demands and things that are not the case. If I were you, I would wait. She insisted that he be on time. Children are asked to recognise it as a mark of formal speech and writing.
- Standard English: the forms used in formal writing. We were (not we was); I did (not I done). Local ways of speaking are fine at home; the test asks for the Standard forms in writing.
Punctuation terms
- Inverted commas: speech marks. “Hurry up,” said Mum. The spoken words start with a capital letter and the comma sits inside the closing mark.
- Apostrophe: shows missing letters (don’t; it’s for it is) or who owns something (the dog’s bowl; for several dogs, the dogs’ bowls). Its without an apostrophe means belonging to it.
- Parenthesis: extra information you could lift out, marked by brackets, dashes or a pair of commas. My cousin (who is nine) loves chess.
- Hyphen: joins words so the meaning is clear. A man-eating shark is not a man eating shark.
- Colon and semi-colon: a colon introduces a list or an explanation (You will need: a pencil and a rubber.); a semi-colon joins two closely linked main clauses (It was late; we went home.).
Using these terms at home
None of this needs a worksheet. A few minutes here and there is plenty.
- Spot the word class. Pick a sentence from whatever your child is reading and ask them to find the verb, or a noun phrase. One question, then back to the story.
- Move the adverbial. Say We had pancakes on Sunday and ask your child to put the “when” bit at the front. Where does the comma go?
- Let the course do the explaining. In Courselo, the short animated lessons are always free and can be watched again, so a term you are unsure about can be watched together. In the grown-ups area, “Needs a hand” gives a tip for each topic.
Most children know far more grammar than they can label: the terms are names for things they already do every time they speak. The names come with calm, short, regular practice.
Last checked: October 2026.