Brize Norton Primary School
Gruesome Grammar Level 14
Parent Guide
Children are to understand these conjunctions and complete sentences using them correctly.
Dictionary definition:
Despite: without being affected by; in spite of.
"he remains a great leader despite age and infirmity"
in spite of, notwithstanding, regardless of, in defiance of, without being affected by, in the face of,
for all, even with, undeterred by More
Due to:
caused by or ascribable to.
"his death was not due to any lack of care"
because of; owing to.
"he had to withdraw due to a knee injury"
Although: in spite of the fact that; even though.
"although the sun was shining it wasn't that warm"
Since: free from pretence or deceit; proceeding from genuine feelings.
Adverbial phrase opener.
For Level 14, you need to add an adverbial phrase opener with an ED verb (past tense).
Eg. The dog barked. This sentence could have this adverbial phrase opener added…
Teased by the children, the dog barked.
Eg. The cat hissed.
Frightened by the dog, the cat hissed.
Eg. Jane set out for a long walk.
Encouraged by the bright weather, Jane set out for a long walk.
A Parenthesis uses Commas, Dashes or Brackets.
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John, a 7-year-old cat from Doncaster, hid in the engine area of his owner's car for a 60-mile
trip to the seaside.
Peter, I've heard it said, used to be a drag queen before he took up body building.
When a parenthesis is completely removed, the sentence is still grammatically correct. A
parenthesis can be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas, dashes or brackets (all
called parentheses). It is your choice which style of parentheses you use. It is normal to use
commas, but they can be easily confused with other commas in the sentence. Brackets will make
your parenthesis easily identifiable, but brackets can look a little informal. To make your
parenthesis really stand out, you can use dashes, but they can look a little stark.
Try reading each example with the parenthesis removed. It will still make sense.
1. Jamie Buxton, who fainted in church during his wedding, apologized to his wife by booking
two tickets to New York.
(The parentheses chosen by the writer were commas. However, brackets or
dashes could equally have been used.)
2. At midnight last night, Skip (a guard dog for Bonds Ltd in Bury) hospitalized two burglars
before returning to eat the steaks they had thrown him.
(The writer has chosen brackets, because there is already a comma in
the sentence.)
3.Dashes used for parenthesis. Example is a newspaper article.
Ellipsis.
Her heart was racing…..racing furiously..…as she stepped onto the board.
They are called ellipsis. They are used to create suspension