Thursday, 16 April 2020
www.geoffbarton.co.uk

GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
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GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
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There are 3 types of sentences:
•Simple sentences
•Compound sentences (coordination)
•Complex sentences (subordination)
Using a variety of sentences will improve your writing.

1: SIMPLE SENTENCES
Seamus is asleep
Seamus likes warmth
Seamus smells rather badly
Seamus has a chronic haemorrhoid problem
Old Seamus is positively knackered
Old Seamus used to be fun

1: SIMPLE SENTENCES
Seamus is asleep
Seamus likes warmth
Essential ingredients:
•Subject
•Verb chain
•Tells us about one thing
Seamus smells rather badly
Seamus has a chronic haemorrhoid problem
Old Seamus is positively knackered
Old Seamus used to be fun

1: SIMPLE SENTENCES
Statements:
The beach is beautiful.
The sea is calm.
Questions:
Where are we?
Why is the sea calm?
Sentence functions ...
Commands:
Go to the beach.
Buy me a choc-ice.

1: SIMPLE SENTENCES

Kipper wanted a dog.
Everyone wanted a dog.
They went to the dogs’ home.
They looked at the dogs.
Kipper wanted this dog.
It was too big.
Biff wanted this dog.
It was too little.
Mum wanted this dog.
It was too strong.
Everyone liked this dog.
They took the dog home.
A New Dog (OUP)

A New Dog (OUP)

BUILD YOUR
SKILLS

•Give clarity
•Can become repetitive
•Can be very short
•Are separated by full stops, not commas
•Can be great for instructions, factual writing, texts for children, suspense

GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
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2: COMPOUND SENTENCES
The woman is worried and she looks out of the window and she wants to see someone but she is all alone and there is no one there.

2: COMPOUND SENTENCES
The woman is worried and she looks out of the window and she wants to see someone but she is all alone and there is no one there.

2: COMPOUND SENTENCES
The woman is worried. and She looks out of the window. and She wants to see someone. but She is all alone. and
There is no one there.

2: COMPOUND SENTENCES
Essential ingredients:
Simple sentences joined by the conjunctions
And
But
Or

2: COMPOUND SENTENCES
This creates
I like fish and I enjoy chips
I adore fish but I hate chips
I enjoy fish, or I did as a child

2: COMPOUND SENTENCES
This creates
I like fish and I enjoy chips
I adore fish but I hate chips
I enjoy fish, or I did as a child

2: COMPOUND SENTENCES

2: COMPOUND SENTENCES
Grammar and effect ...
I am four and my sister is three and she is often cross but today she is happy and we are going for a picnic but I am taking my bucket and spade and we will play on the beach but not if it’s raining and then we will come home and I will watch Tweenies and …
(YAWN)

2: COMPOUND SENTENCES
Sailor Bear
He thought and he thought. Then he looked at his suit and he knew what to do.
“I’ll be a sailor, and sail on the sea!” decided Small Bear.
But he hadn’t a boat.
“Now what shall I do?” wondered Small Bear.
He thought and he thought. Then he looked at the sea and he knew what to do.

2: COMPOUND SENTENCES
Sailor Bear
He thought and he thought . Then he looked at his suit and he knew what to do.
“I’ll be a sailor, and sail on the sea!” decided Small Bear.
But he hadn’t a boat.
“Now what shall I do?” wondered Small Bear.
He thought and he thought. Then he looked at the sea and he knew what to do.

2: COMPOUND SENTENCES
Essential ingredients:
Simple sentences joined by the conjunctions
And
But
Or

BUILD YOUR
SKILLS

•Create longer sentences
•Coordinate ideas (equal weighting)
•Can become repetitive
•Can sound colloquial, conversational
•Are great for personal writing, stories, information texts …
•… But must be used with care

GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
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3: COMPLEX SENTENCES
The sea bass, which was filmed two days ago, cruises slowly through the ocean.
Starting at the bottom, it works its way upwards. Determined to find food, it scours the coral reef. He moves upwards because he senses danger.

3: COMPLEX SENTENCES
This creates
Remember coordination …?
I like fish and I enjoy chips

3: COMPLEX SENTENCES
SUBORDINATION

3: COMPLEX SENTENCES
The sea bass, which was filmed two days ago, cruises slowly through the ocean.
SUBORDINATION

3: COMPLEX SENTENCES
The sea bass , which was filmed two days ago, cruises slowly through the ocean.
MAIN CLAUSE
SUBORDINATION

3: COMPLEX SENTENCES
The sea bass , which was filmed two days ago, cruises slowly through the ocean.
SUBORDINATION

3: COMPLEX SENTENCES
Starting at the bottom, it works its way upwards.
SUBORDINATION

3: COMPLEX SENTENCES
Starting at the bottom, it works its way upwards.
MAIN CLAUSE

3: COMPLEX SENTENCES
Starting at the bottom, it works its way upwards.
SUBORDINATE CLAUSE

3: COMPLEX SENTENCES
SUBORDINATION

3: COMPLEX SENTENCES
MAIN CLAUSE

3: COMPLEX SENTENCES
SUBORDINATE CLAUSE

3: COMPLEX SENTENCES

MAIN CLAUSE
SUBORDINATE CLAUSE

MAIN CLAUSE SUBORDINATE CLAUSE
Conjunction: because although as

SUBORDINATE CLAUSE MAIN CLAUSE
Conjunction: because although as

SUBORDINATE CLAUSE MAIN CLAUSE
Make sure the subject agrees
-Ing verb:
•Walking
•Thinking
•Hoping

SUBORDINATE CLAUSE MAIN CLAUSE
Make sure the subject agrees
-ed verb:
•Frustrated
•Destroyed
•Undermined

MAIN CLAUSE
SUBORDINATE CLAUSE relative pronoun:
•Who
•Which
•That

Coordinating conjunctions
And, but, or
Subordinating conjunctions after, although, as, as if, as long as, as though, because, before, if , in case, once, since, than, that, though, until, unless, when, whenever, where, wherever, whereas, while

BUILD YOUR
SKILLS

Have a main clause and a subordinate clause linked by ...
Conjunction - as, until, after …
-ing verb
-ed verb
Relative pronoun - who, which, that ..

GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
- 2 -

Simple sentences don’t need to be short, if we use modification ..
Modifying a noun with an adjective:
The house is menacing musty smelly revolting

Simple sentences don’t need to be short, if we use modification ..
Modifying an adjective with an adverb: too menacing really horribly very

Simple sentences don’t need to be short, if we use modification ..
Modifying a verb with an adverb: lazily uneasily frighteningly

BUILD YOUR
SKILLS

The Other Side of the Dale
County Hall was a large, grey, stone mansion of an edifice ...The interior was like a museum, hushed and cool, with long echoey, oak-pannelled corridors, high ornate ceilings, marble figures and walls full of gilt-framed portraits of former councillors, mayors, aldermen, leaders of the Council, high sheriffs, lord lieutenants, members of parliament and other dignitaries. It was really quite a daunting place.
Gervase Phinn

The Other Side of the Dale
County Hall was a large , grey , stone mansion of an edifice ...The interior was like a museum, hushed and cool , with long echoey, oak-pannelled corridors, high ornate ceilings, marble figures and walls full of gilt-framed portraits of former councillors, mayors, aldermen, leaders of the Council, high sheriffs, lord lieutenants, members of parliament and other dignitaries. It was really quite a daunting place.
Gervase Phinn

The Other Side of the Dale
County Hall was a large, grey, stone mansion of an edifice ...The interior was like a museum , hushed and cool, with long echoey, oak-pannelled corridors, high ornate ceilings, marble figures and walls full of gilt-framed portraits of former councillors, mayors, aldermen, leaders of the Council, high sheriffs, lord lieutenants, members of parliament and other dignitaries. It was really quite a daunting place.
Gervase Phinn

GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
- 3 -

COHESION
Cohesion is the way we show the reader the
‘direction’ of a text using ...
PRONOUNS: she / he / it / they / we / us
CONNECTIVES:
Before, later, on the other hand, despite this, however ...

SPOT THE COHESION DEVICES
At around £1 for a large fruit, the pineapple is no longer the special-occasion fruit it was in my childhood. (If there is a pineapple in the fruit bowl, then it must be Christmas.) More recently, in the lush, tropical heat of Goa, the fruit became a daily ritual during a beach-bum holiday. Armed with a plump pineapple, chosen for its ripeness and stripped of its inedible skin by the stallholder’s fearsome machete, we would wander far along the deserted beach to make the most of the fruit and its sticky juice.
Six months later, in the frost-covered gardens of Versailles, the statues and urns wrapped up for the winter, such a fruit seemed even more welcome, cheering us up as our teeth chattered and we dripped juice into the snow as we walked. It is this fruit’s impeccable timing, turning up sweet and gold in the depths of winter, that probably makes it so popular.
Nigel Slater, Real Good Food

SPOT THE COHESION DEVICES
At around £1 for a large fruit, the pineapple is no longer the special-occasion fruit it was in my childhood. (If there is a pineapple in the fruit bowl, then it must be Christmas.) More recently, in the lush, tropical heat of Goa, the fruit became a daily ritual during a beach-bum holiday. Armed with a plump pineapple, chosen for its ripeness and stripped of its inedible skin by the stallholder’s fearsome machete, we would wander far along the deserted beach to make the most of the fruit and its sticky juice.
Six months later, in the frost-covered gardens of Versailles, the statues and urns wrapped up for the winter, such a fruit seemed even more welcome, cheering us up as our teeth chattered and we dripped juice into the snow as we walked. It is this fruit’s impeccable timing, turning up sweet and gold in the depths of winter, that probably makes it so popular.
Nigel Slater, Real Good Food

SPOT THE COHESION DEVICES
At around £1 for a large fruit, the pineapple is no longer the special-occasion fruit it was in my childhood. (If there is a pineapple in the fruit bowl, then it must be Christmas.) More recently , in the lush, tropical heat of Goa, the fruit became a daily ritual during a beach-bum holiday. Armed with a plump pineapple, chosen for its ripeness and stripped of its inedible skin by the stallholder’s fearsome machete, we would wander far along the deserted beach to make the most of the fruit and its sticky juice.
Six months later , in the frost-covered gardens of Versailles, the statues and urns wrapped up for the winter, such a fruit seemed even more welcome, cheering us up as our teeth chattered and we dripped juice into the snow as we walked. It is this fruit’s impeccable timing, turning up sweet and gold in the depths of winter, that probably makes it so popular.
Nigel Slater, Real Good Food

GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
SENTENCE
LEVEL
WORD
LEVEL
TEXT
LEVEL

Thursday, 16 April 2020
www.geoffbarton.co.uk