St Anthony’s RC Primary School
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
Parents’ Guide
Year 6
Vocabulary your child will need to know by the end of year 6
Term
Subject
Definition
Example
The subject of a sentence is generally the person or thing that the sentence is
about, often the person or thing that performs the action of a verb.
The children will study the animals.
Object
An object is normally a noun, pronoun or noun phrase that comes straight after
the verb and shows what the verb id acting upon. The person or thing affected by
a verb.
Year 2 designed puppets
Active
An active verb has a subject which is performing the action of the verb.
John ate the apple.
Passive
A passive verb has a subject which is undergoing the action of the verb, rather
than carrying it out.
The apple was eaten
Synonym
Two words are synonyms if they have the same meaning, or similar meanings.
talk – speak
old – elderly
Antonym
Two words are antonyms if their meanings are opposites.
Ellipsis
…
An ellipsis is used to show that one or more words have been missed out or that a
sentence is not finished.
hot – cold
light – dark
light - heavy
“No! Don’t tell Dad about the…”
Hyphen
Colon
:
The sign (-) used to join words to indicate that they have a combined meaning
I like that.
Good-looking
Bed-tempered
Sugar-free
The boy was hungry: he hadn’t eaten
for two days.
A colon is used to introduce an example or explanation. The part of a sentence
after a colon gives a little more information about what comes before it.
Colon can also introduce a list.
Semi-Colon
;
Bullet Points
These are my favourite sandwich
fillings: ham, cheese, tuna and jam.
The castle was deserted; no one had
lived there for hundreds of years.
You use a semi colon to show a break in a sentence that is longer, or more
important, than a break made with a comma.
Semi colons can also be used to separate longer phrases in a list that has been
introduced by a colon,
There were three clues; there was
mud on the carpet; the door had been
forced; and the air in the room
smelled of fish.
Each of several items in a list, preceded by a printed bullet for emphasis.
Mr Mole won the following events:



egg-and-spoon race;
toss the pancake; and
apple bobbing.