Holly Lodge Girls’ College’s Literacy and Grammar Practice
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Literacy and Grammar Practice
Content
Page Number
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Miss L. Freeman
Literacy and Grammar Skills
Text and Language Types
Nouns
Possessive Pronouns
Articles
Adjectives
Verbs
Auxiliary verbs
Adverbs and Adverbial Phrases
Finite and Non-Finite Verbs
Modal and Imperative Verbs
Prepositions
Tenses: Past, Present, Future
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Holly Lodge Girls’ College’s Literacy and Grammar Practice
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Year 7
Holly Lodge Girls’ College encourages all students to read as much as they can.
You can enjoy a range of different texts types. Can you match the correct
definition to the text type?
Text Type
Definition
Fiction
Literary work which expresses feelings and ideas using
a distinctive style and rhythm.
Literature in the form of prose, especially novels, that
describes imaginary events and people.
Literary work which is written in script form and is
intended to be performed rather than just read.
Prose writing that is informative or factual rather than
fictional.
Non-fiction
Poetry
Play
When reading, it is important not only to show you have understood what you
have read, but to consider why the author has chosen to write in that way – this
is called analysing language. To do this, we must consider the tone in which a
text is written and the type of language. Again, match the technique to the
correct definition.
Language Type
Definition
Standard English
Language that makes the truth seem more dramatic
(exaggerated) in order to get a reaction from its
audience.
Language which is used in everyday informal situations.
Formal
Colloquial
Emotive Language
Exaggerated
Language
Figurative Language
Literal Language
Miss L. Freeman
Language used in formal situations such as the work
place to bring a degree of seriousness to the subject.
The form of the English language widely accepted as
the usual correct form.
Language that is used to make the reader feel a
specific emotion.
Language which is used in everyday informal situations.
Language that uses devices such as similes, metaphors
to describe and exaggerate something.
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When we are analysing a text, we can look out for the following language devices
and comment on how good they are at making an impact on its chosen audience.
Match these grammatical terms to the correct definition.
Grammatical Term
Definition
Noun
A name of an object or thing – table, school, girl,
friend.
Pronoun
A describing word – red, big, round.
Personal pronoun
A word that describes the likeliness of something
happening – should, could, will, might.
Adjective
A doing or action word – jump, skip, talk, laugh.
Verb
A name given to a person or place - Holly Lodge,
Liverpool, Sarah.
Adverb
A word that replace a pronoun – he, she, us, we, them.
Modal verb
A word that describes an action – quickly, slowly,
hauntingly.
Articles
A word that describes a relationship between other
words in a sentence - in, on, under, after.
Prepositions
A word that is used with a noun to indicate the type of
reference being made by the noun - a, the, an.
The above language devices are important when trying to understand how a
piece of writing is put together and the potential impact that piece of writing is
going to have.
Miss L. Freeman
2015
Holly Lodge Girls’ College’s Literacy and Grammar Practice
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Nouns
What are nouns and when would I use them?
Rules:
There are different types of nouns that all name or identify something specific:
Common nouns  names used to identify any class of people, places or things
Proper noun  to name a particular noun using a capital letter
Collective noun  to name a group of people, animals and objects
Pronoun a word that substitutes for a noun or proper noun
Compound noun  a name that combines two common new nouns together
Abstract noun  nouns which cannot be seen or touched, they are very often
emotions.
Examples of common nouns:
 The girl smiled.
 The dog barked.
Examples of collective nouns:
 A school of fish.
 A gaggle of geese.
Examples of compound noun:
 Car park.
 School bus.
Examples of proper nouns:
 Holly Lodge Girls’ College.
 Liverpool.
Examples of pronouns:
 She is going to be late.
 They are the best of friends.
Examples of abstract noun:
 Sadness.
 Happiness.
Task:
Identify as many different nouns as you can:
 Liverpool is the perfect city if you want to explore museums. (3 nouns)
 Andrew was overjoyed to eat his sandwich. (4 nouns)
 Charlie flew a kite in the park. (3 nouns)
 Heather was excited to drive her new car. (3 nouns)
Collective noun task:
Pick the correct collective noun for these groups from the table below.
 A ________________ of witches.
 A ________________ of soldiers.
 A ________________ of bees.
 A ________________ of flowers.
Bunch
Swarm
Miss L. Freeman
Coven
Platoon
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Holly Lodge Girls’ College’s Literacy and Grammar Practice
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Possessive pronouns
Rules:
We use possessive pronouns to refer to a specific person/people or
thing/things.
We use possessive adjectives to show who owns or "possesses" something. The
possessive adjectives are:
my, your, his, her, its, our, their, whose.
Task:
Replace the personal pronoun with a possessive adjective. The first one is
completed for you.






Where are (you) your friends now?
Here is a postcard from (I) ______ friend Henry.
She lives in England now with (she) ______ family.
(He) ______ wife works in Tilburg.
Joanie is (John and Nancy) ______ daughter.
My name is Annie. This is (Annie) ______ father.
Miss L. Freeman
2015
Holly Lodge Girls’ College’s Literacy and Grammar Practice
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Articles
What are articles and when would I use them?
Rules:
There are different types of article:
 The Definite Article specifies a particular individual –the
E.g. The big dog.

The Indefinite Article indicates that the following noun is a member of a
class – a, an
The Determiners are many of the most frequent English words – the, a,
my, this, some.
They are used with nouns and they limit (determine) the reference of the noun
in some way. You will usually find the determiner at the beginning of a noun
phrase.

Miss L. Freeman
2015
Holly Lodge Girls’ College’s Literacy and Grammar Practice
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Task:
Read each of the following noun phrases. If they are not correct, write them
again. Make sure that the noun agrees with the determiner. The first one is
done for you.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
a green bag
some big table
a beautiful pictures
ten long dress
the new black trousers
an uncooked egg
a annoying person
some nice people
some fresh sandwich
a good programmes
Miss L. Freeman
The green bag.
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
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Adjective
What are adjectives and when would I use them?
Rules:
Adjectives are describing words. Large, grey and friendly are all examples of
adjectives. In the examples below, these adjectives are used to describe an
elephant.
Examples:
 Large elephant
 Grey elephant
 Friendly elephant.
Adjectives Modify Nouns
The word elephant is a noun. Adjectives are added to nouns to state what kind,
what colour, which one or how many. Adjectives are said to modify nouns and are
necessary to make the meanings of sentences clearer or more exact.
Examples:
Follow the yellow taxi.
(In this example, the adjective yellow modifies the noun taxi.)
Task:
Add an adjective to these sentences.
 The _________ nail he stood on was the cause of the infection.
 Please put the _________ documents in the shredder.
 There is a ________ problem we need to discuss.
 The ________ heavy teapot was ready to pour.
Miss L. Freeman
2015
Holly Lodge Girls’ College’s Literacy and Grammar Practice
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Task
Highlight the nouns and adjectives in the paragraphs.
Extension:
Can you also identify the verbs used in this extract?
Miss L. Freeman
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Task:
How confident do you feel with nouns and adjectives?
Miss L. Freeman
2015
Holly Lodge Girls’ College’s Literacy and Grammar Practice
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Verbs
What is a verb and when would I use one?
Rule:
Verbs are doing words. A verb can express a physical or mental action or a
state of being.
 A physical action (e.g. to swim, to write, to climb).
 A mental action (e.g. to think, to guess, to consider).
 A state of being (e.g. to be, to exist, to appear, to enjoy).
Task:
Underline the verbs within these sentences.
 Katie listened to her favourite song.
 Craig threw the basketball into the net.
 The roof of the house leaks.
 Dr. Gold examined his patient.
 The bluebirds in the tree sing beautifully.
Create sentences using the following verbs, you can change the tense of the
verb E.g. Swim can become swam.
 Swim
 Thinking
 Diving
 Eat
 Play
Miss L. Freeman
2015
Holly Lodge Girls’ College’s Literacy and Grammar Practice
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The verbs which express a state of being are the ones which take a little
practise to spot, but, actually, they are the most common. The most common
verb is the verb to be.
Auxiliary Verbs are the verbs be, do, have, will when they are followed by
another verb (the full verb) in order to form a question, a negative sentence, a
compound tense or the passive.
Past and Present Verbs
Present – am, is, are
Past – was, were
E.g. I am going to the park. ( am = verb to be; going = present participle)
I was beaten by a better player.(was =verb to be; beaten = past participle)
Underline the verb to be and the present participle.
 I am reading my book.
 You are talking too loudly.
 He is eating his lunch.
 She is washing her face.
 They were going home.
 We were playing on the lawn.
 Ellie and Zoe were singing out of tune.
 Emily and Maddy were singing in the choir.
 She was not working hard.
 They are coming home with us.
Miss L. Freeman
2015
Holly Lodge Girls’ College’s Literacy and Grammar Practice
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Adverbs
What is an adverb/adverbial phrase and when would I use them?
Rules:
It is a word that tells us more about verbs by describing how the verb is
happening or being done.
Adverbs are usually created from adjectives with an added ly ending. E.g. quick
becomes quickly.
Example
He ate his breakfast quickly.
She completed her task noisily.
Adverbial phrases
Sometimes more than one word can do the adverb's job. This is called an
adverbial phrase.
He ate his lunch really quickly.
The words really quickly make an adverbial phrase. Words like very, more, really
and extremely are often used to make an adverb even stronger.
Where can I put an adverb?
Adverbs and adverbial phrases can come before or after a verb.
He quickly ate his lunch.
He ate his lunch quickly.
Miss L. Freeman
2015
Holly Lodge Girls’ College’s Literacy and Grammar Practice
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Task:
Complete the table with:
Synonyms – alternative adverbs
Antonyms – words that mean the opposite.
Sentence
Synonym / Antonym
1. He quickly changed his mind
2. The dog playfully tugged on the
rope.
3. The child tearfully asked for a
plaster.
4. The telephone rang loudly.
5. The fireman bravely put out the
fire.
6. The cat slept peacefully in the sun.
7. The teacher spoke angrily.
Hurriedly , slowly
A few more verbs…
Task:
Finite verbs signal contrasts of number, tense, person and mood within a
sentence.
E.g. paint, painted, painting.
Non-finite verbs do not change their form according to the number and person
of the subject.
E.g. I want to go camping.
Task:
Find out the finite and non-finite verbs in the sentences given below:
 He gave me a chair to sit.
 It was a sight to see.
 I want to buy some clothes.
 Barking dogs seldom bite.
 He is about to leave.
 It is time to start.
 He was wearing a torn shirt.
 He had his shoes polished.
 They got the roof repaired.
 Finding the door open I went inside.
Miss L. Freeman
2015
Holly Lodge Girls’ College’s Literacy and Grammar Practice
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Modal verbs: can, could, shall, should, may, might, must, will, would
Modal auxiliary verbs give information about the mood or likely hood of a verb,
expressing such things as:
 Obligation - You MUST be home by midnight, he OUGHT to pay before
leaving
 Recommendation - You SHOULD ring and apologize
 Possibility - I MAY do as you ask, but then again I MAY not.
They change the meaning!
For example, ‘may’ and ‘can’ operate in the
present tense and ‘might’ and ‘could’ are in
the past.
Have you ever asked someone if you ‘can’ do
something, instead of ‘may’?
Student: Can I go to the toilet?
Teacher: I don’t know, can you?
Imperative verbs: Think of these as the
bossy verbs!
The Imperative creates mood and gives us a
command or an instruction
Chill out!
Do as I say!
Don’t eat the daisies!
Please be quiet!
Task
Add an imperative verb to these sentences
_______ that door please.
Can you _______ those carrots?
The teacher said, “______ down and be ______”
Task
Add a modal verb in the gap provided in these sentences to show necessity,
possibility, or obligation.
 I ________ read a good book on my bus trip.
 Suddenly, she realised it _______ be a good idea to hurry up.
 ______ you want a longer lunch hour?
 ______we change our minds about this?
 Various people think they ______ need answers to this.
Miss L. Freeman
2015
Holly Lodge Girls’ College’s Literacy and Grammar Practice
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Now make your own sentences using these modal verbs. They can be questions or
statements.
 Could
 Shall
 Will
 Can
 Should.
How confident do you feel with verbs, adverbs, adverbial,
modal and imperative verbs?
Miss L. Freeman
2015
Holly Lodge Girls’ College’s Literacy and Grammar Practice
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Preposition
What is a preposition phrase and when would I use it?
Rule
A preposition is a word that joins a noun to the rest of a sentence.
It explains where the noun is.
 The bag was on the table.
 The girl walked under the scaffolding.
 It sat among the bushes.
The sentences would not work without the prepositions.
Common prepositions
about
beneath
into
throughout
above
beside
near
to
across
between
of
toward
against
by
on
under
among
except
onto
up
at
for
out
upon
behind
from
over
with
below
in
through
without
Task
Spot and underline the prepositions
 The cat sat under the bush as it was raining.
 The girl walked slowly across the playground.
 Helen put the book on the table.
 The postman posted the letter through the letterbox.
 James was hiding behind the sofa.
How confident do you feel with prepositions?
Miss L. Freeman
2015
Holly Lodge Girls’ College’s Literacy and Grammar Practice
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Tenses
Past Tense
We use this tense to talk about events or situations that are finished. Normally
we use a time reference.
Was, were, there was, there were, went.
Task
Complete each sentence with the past tense of the irregular verb in brackets.
The first one is done for you.
1. Ethan slepttlate that morning. (sleep)
2. Ria [ got her new book yesterday. (get)
3. Harry [ kept me waiting for an hour. (keep)
4. Mary [ thought about her topic for the report before the class last week.
(think)
5. My cat just [ sat there while the mouse escaped. (sit)
6. I had [ paid too much for the CD at the mall. (pay)
7. Akira [ won the art prize last year. (win)
8. Jessica [ brought success to our track team last season. (bring)
9. I [ caught this cold last week. (catch)
10. Mary had [ begun the homework before I arrived. (begin)
Present Tense
Rules
The present tenses in English are used:
 to talk about the present – E.g. I am tired
 to talk about the future - E.g. I am leaving later today
 to talk about the past when we are telling a story in spoken English or
when we are summarising a book, film, play etc. E.g. I am really mad about
what happened yesterday.
Future Tense
The future tense indicates that an action is in the future relative to the
speaker or writer using the helping verbs will, go or shall with the base form of
the verb:
 She will leave soon.
 We shall overcome.
 He is going to faint.
Miss L. Freeman
2015
Holly Lodge Girls’ College’s Literacy and Grammar Practice
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Task
This student was asked to write about her morning using the present tense.
Which verbs seem out of place?

At 7.30 exactly, I leap out of bed and stagger over to my alarm clock. It’s the
loudest alarm clock in the world. I walked downstairs and am greeted by my

mum. She is always there fussing over me in the morning. She said I am
going to be late, that I can’t get up on time, and that she doesn’t know what
to do with me. I have the same thing for breakfast every day. I ate a banana
with toast, and washed it down with tea. My brother eventually makes an
appearance. He’s incredibly lazy, and was really grumpy in the morning.
After a few minutes of listening to him moan I’m ready to leave the house. I
slammed the door shut with relief.
Task

Miss L. Freeman
2015