Guide to STANDARD ENGLISH
Certain grammatical conventions apply and MUST be
used in Standard English.
Subject verb agreement
‘We were there’ NOT ‘We was there’
Correct use of past tense
‘I was sitting down’ NOT ‘I was sat down’
I, me and myself
‘Mum and I went shopping’ NOT ‘Mum and me went shopping’
Could have, should have, would have
‘I would have come’ NOT ‘I would of come’
Homophones
‘It’s their cat’ NOT ‘It’s there cat’
Apostrophes of omission and possession
‘Let’s go!’ NOT ‘Lets go!’
‘The dog’s basket’ NOT ‘The dogs basket’
Double comparatives and superlatives
‘That road is the longest’ NOT ‘That road is the most long’
Avoiding tense shift in text
‘We left the shop and went home’ NOT ‘We left the shop and go home’
Standard English is not a matter of accent or dialect, but an issue of
grammatical accuracy, and this is what children are expected to demonstrate.
More details on the use of Standard English in specific cases such as subjectverb agreement can be found in the detailed guides to those parts of speech. It
is acceptable to use colloquial language, such as when a character is speaking
informally or with a regional dialect.
Guide to STANDARD ENGLISH
Fact 1 – Common mistakes are made either because children are at an early stage of
understanding language, or because of confusion about what is grammatically correct.
Subject verb agreement
The subject of a sentence must take a verb that agrees with it in number
and person.
I was / I were and we were / we was
It’s quite usual for children to say ‘we was’ or ‘I were’ at an early stage of
understanding language, but they must be able to demonstrate that they know how a
singular subject takes a singular verb and a plural subject takes a plural verb.
‘The children were going to bed’ NOT ‘the children was going to bed’.
‘I was going to play football’, NOT ‘I were going to play football’.
Past tense errors
Sometimes children need to be reminded that there are three past tenses – simple
past, past continuous and past perfect – which are often confused. The difference
between the simple past ‘I did’ and the past perfect ‘I have done’ is not clear in their
minds. This is where confusion arises.
I seen / I saw and I did / I done
These are the two most common mistakes made in writing the past tense. Children
who use ‘I seen it’, or ‘I done this’ can be reminded the when they write Standard
English they need to use the correct form of the past tense.
‘I saw the ships’ NOT ‘I seen the ships’
‘I did my home work’ NOT ‘I done my homework.’
Past tense of ‘to sit’
It is NOT correct to say I was sat
You must use either the past continuous is correct - I was sitting
or the simple past - I sat
or the past passive - I was seated
The choice depends on the meaning that the writer wants to convey.
Guide to STANDARD ENGLISH
I, me and myself
There’s quite a lot of confusion about the use of ‘I’ and ‘me’. The general feeling is
that it is impolite to say ‘Sara and me’ but there are some cases where this is
grammatically correct. ‘Myself’ is also used incorrectly to be ‘polite’
Sara and I went shopping
is correct, because Sara and I are the joint subject of the sentence.
Mum gave the cake to Sara and I
is not correct because ‘Sara and I’ are the object of the verb and the correct form
should be
Mum gave the cake to Sara and me
It’s also incorrect to say
Give it to Sara and myself
as ‘myself’ is a reflexive pronoun and refers to something one does to or for oneself.
The test for all of these is really simple. Remove the other person from the sentence.
Would you say ‘Give it to I’? Would you say ‘Give it to myself? No, you would say
‘Give it to me’.
In any case where, if the sentence would use ‘me’ then you use ‘me’ no matter how
many people are involved.
Show the cake to (Sam and) me
The teacher asked (Tara and) me to help
She asked to meet (Amy and) me
Could have, should have, would have
These modal auxiliary verbs are often pronounced or abbreviated to ‘could’ve’
‘would’ve’ ‘should’ve’. This can cause confusion.
It’s incorrect to write
I could of eaten two pieces of that cake
The correct forms are
I could have eaten two pieces of that cake
abbreviated to
I could’ve eaten two pieces of that cake
would have and should have are abbreviated in the same way.
Guide to STANDARD ENGLISH
Homophones
Some homophones always cause confusion. Children need to remember these in
particular, as using them correctly is a grammatical issue:
There, they’re, their
These three are often confused. Look at the difference in the way they are used:
Please put the book there (Adverb of place)
It is their book (Possessive adjective)
They’re going to read the book (Personal pronoun ‘they’ + an apostrophe of
contraction + the verb form ‘(a)re’)
You’re and your
These two are often confused. Look at the difference in the way they are used:
Please put your book on the table (Possessive adjective)
You’re going to read the book (Personal pronoun ‘you’ + an apostrophe of
contraction + the verb form ‘(a)re’)
Are, hour and our
These three are often confused. Look at the difference in the way they are used:
Give me our book (Possessive adjective)
The twins are five (Third person plural, present tense of the verb ‘to be’)
I’ve been waiting for you for an hour now! (common noun)
It’s and its
These two are often confused. Look at the difference in the way they are used:
The cat licked its paw
(Possessive adjective. This one is often used with an apostrophe. It’s
understandable, because children are taught that apostrophes are used to
show possession, but in this instance, it’s wrong.)
It’s very late
(Personal pronoun ‘it’ + an apostrophe of contraction + the verb form ‘(i)s’)
Who’s and whose
These two are often confused. Look at the difference in the way they are used:
Whose book is that? (Possessive adjective)
Who’s coming swimming with me?
(Interrogative pronoun ‘who’ + an apostrophe of contraction + the verb form
‘(ha)s’ or ‘(i)s’)
Guide to STANDARD ENGLISH
Apostrophes of omission and possession
Apostrophes are used either to denote possession, or to show that a letter has been
omitted. It’s important to be able to identify which is which. Plurals do not take
apostrophes if they are just plurals, with no possession!
Apostrophes of possession
The cat’s pyjamas
The pyjamas belong to the cat.
The cats’ pyjamas
There is more than one cat and the pyjamas belong to all of them
If the noun ends in an ‘s’ this can become complicated:
The book is James’s
is correct, but so is
The book is James’
The first one needs slightly more spit to say! However, this proper noun is unlikely
ever to be plural, so should you ever have to deal with a class, or any other word
ending in ‘s’ that can also have a plural, it goes like this:
The class’s bad behaviour (Singular class, possessing bad behaviour)
The classes’ bad behaviour (Plural classes, all possessing bad behaviour)
You could always write ‘the classes’s’ but it’s clumsy. In any case, it’s likely that your
meaning will be clear from context if you are speaking, so when writing you just need
to make sure that you are indicating possession.
Apostrophes of omission
These are used in informal, contracted version of a pronoun and verb pair. The
apostrophe stands in for one or two letters of the verb (occasionally more). The
spelling of the contracted form of the verb depends on the verb you use.
‘We will go swimming on Tuesday’ becomes ‘We’ll go swimming on Tuesday’
‘You have got to do your homework’ becomes ‘You’ve got to do your
homework’
‘Let us go to the beach!’ becomes ‘Let’s go to the beach’
‘I do not want to go to football’ becomes ‘I don’t want to go to football’
‘She should not whistle in class’ becomes ‘She shouldn’t whistle in class’
The apostrophe always takes the place of the omitted letter or letters, no matter
where they come.
Guide to STANDARD ENGLISH
Double comparatives and superlatives
It’s not correct to say ‘more worse’ or most best’
Use ‘worse’ or ‘best’
Either use the ‘-er’ and ‘est’ form of the comparative and superlative, or use ‘more’
and ‘most’ .Don’t use both.
Tense shift in text
Avoid shift tenses from past to present and back again in a narrative text.
This switches tense and is incorrect:
‘Mum laughed and tells me not to be silly.’
This is correct (past tense):
‘Mum laughed and told me not to be silly.’
Or (present tense)
Mum laughs and tells me not to be silly
Or (future tense)
Mum will laugh and tell me not to be silly
Colloquial language
Some language is colloquial.
It’s colloquial to write
I went down the park
It means
I went to the park
It is fine to use colloquial language, or even grammatically incorrect language, to
show that a character is speaking informally or with a regional dialect.
Examples of this might be a 1st person recount (e.g. a diary), a play, or speech parts
in a story.
In other instances it is best to avoid colloquialisms.