Spelin, puntuasion and
Grandma
Punktuation Rules!
The stops point out, with truth, the time of the pause
A sentence doth require at every clause.
At every comma, stop while one you count;
At semicolon, two is the amount;
A colon doth require the time of three;
The period four, as learned men agree.
Periods
1. Full stop
.
2. Question mark
?
3. Exclamation mark
!
Michael
You
Thought
Michael
Michael plays.
You are confused.
Thought is difficult.
Grammar is boring.
Punctuation and
grammar is boring.
The teacher was
tired.
The teacher was
tired and distressed.
“Let’s boogie.”
“Go to the toilet.”
“Go to the toilet
and wash your
face.”
“What on earth
do you think
you’re doing?”
“What on earth
do you think
you’re doing?”
“How did you
come to that
answer?”
“How did you
come to that
answer?”
He relaxes.
He was relaxing.
He will relax.
He might relax.
He should relax.
After he had eaten,
John belched.
Diamonds are the
thing that Mr
Arbuthnot adores.
This is boring.
This is a simple
sentence.
This would have
been a simple
sentence, but we
added a clause to
make it a compound
sentence.
Owing to the fact that
there is a
subordinate clause,
this is neither a
simple or compound
sentence.
Owing to the fact that
there is a
subordinate clause,
this is not a simple
sentence; moreover,
it is complex.
“Let’s boogie.”
“Let’s boogie!”
!!!
Shut up.
Shut up!
Because I am!
BECAUSE I AM.
(!) =
extremely
sarcastic
Ooh, a chocolate
teapot! That’s a really
useful(!) invention:
about as useful as a
one legged man in a
bum kicking contest(!).
Warning!
Beware!
Intervals
1. Comma
,
2. Semicolon
3. Colon
:
;
Where to put a comma 1
To separate items in a list: “I went to the shops and I
bought my mum, my nan, twelve elephants, something
unpleasant and a scarf for my dog.” Note, there is no
comma between the penultimate item and the ‘and’ which
introduces the last item. (Unless you are American, in
which case there is).
An Argument for the Serial
Comma
Julie was in bed with her boyfriend, a pervert and a fool.
Julie was in bed with her boyfriend, a pervert, and a fool.
Where to put a comma 1
Do they separate lists of adjectives?
Coordinate Adjectives
The long and winding road.
Coordinate Adjectives
The long, winding road.
Cumulative Adjectives
Brentford AFC are an emerging football team.
Cumulative Adjectives
A nice glass of French white wine.
Cumulative Adjectives
A nice glass of French and white wine.
Cumulative Adjectives
A nice glass of white, French wine.
Cumulative Adjectives
Brentford AFC are an emerging and football team.
Cumulative Adjectives
Brentford AFC are a football emerging team.
Noun Phrases and Commas
The Ordering of Cumulative
Adjectives
Order
Opinion
Size
Age
Colour
Material
Origin
Purpose
The Ordering of Cumulative
Adjectives
Order
Example
Opinion
Excellent
Size
Large
Age
New
Colour
Green & White
Material
Silky
Origin
Glaswegian
Purpose
Football
Where to put a comma 2
To introduce direct speech. The middle-aged
schoolteacher stopped and said, “Get that out of his ear
boy. You’ll catch something.”
The differences
between usage of
inverted commas
and speech marks
Satire
‘Nice’ hair
Titles
‘The Bald
Geezer’
Quotes
“My noble lord
Hamlet. Thou
art as bald as a
shaved
badger!”
Direct Speech
“How’s your barnet Steve?”
“Don’t be satirical. You are
richly aware that I am a
slaphead.”
Where to put a comma 3
Before coordinating conjunction when those
conjunctions are separating two independent clauses.
For conjunctions remember F-A-N-B-O-Y-S: for, and,
but, or, yet and so.
Commas before coordinating
conjunctions
He went to the shops, but they were shut.
He went to the shops. They were shut.
‘For’, ‘as’ and ‘because’
The student stormed out of the class, for she could not
stand the drab banality of the teacher’s lesson.
The student stormed out of the class because she
could not stand the drab banality of the teacher’s
lesson.
The student stormed out of the class as she could not
stand the drab banality of the teacher’s lesson.
Where to put a comma 4
After an adverbial start: Cleverly, he worked out how to
wipe his own bum, at the age of sixteen.
Where to put a comma 5
To mark off a parenthetical clause. This is where a
sentence is happily going from A – B: Gazza tripped
over the ball, but takes a detour to C: because he was
both fat and drunk. The detour (embedded) clause is
marked off with commas: Gazza, because he was both
fat and drunk, fell over the ball.
The differences
between usage of
brackets and dashes.
Relatedness
I am often tired in the morning;
I tend to stay up quite late.
Contrast
I am often tired in the morning;
I go to bed early.
Separating the elements of a
list that, which themselves
contain commas
I have one friend who lives in
Beckenham, Kent; one friend
who lives in Littlehampton,
Sussex; another friend who
lives in Crowthorne, Berks.
Time’s
An abstract concept by which we
measure the passing of our lives
Mr Beadle’s
Looking rather older these days
Mr Beadle’s
Award is a divisive piece of tokenism pitched
deliberately at appealing to the lowest common
denominator of public opinion.
Mr McDonald’s
Hand is on Mr Beadle’s bum cheek
Mr McDonald’s
Now moving his hand around and around
Mr Beadle’s
Obviously rather enjoying it
Do’nt
Do’n’t
The student burgled the
teachers houses.
The student burgled the
teacher’s houses.
The student burgled the
teachers’ houses.
What’s wrong with this?
Member’s dance
What’s wrong with this?
Bobs’ motors
What’s wrong with this?
Dicks in tray
I.T. apostrophe S can only
ever mean it is
No possessive apostrophe in
his, hers or theirs.
James’s car
Stealing Lynn Truss’s best
jokes
Xerxes’s tablets of stone
Xerxes’ tablets of stone
Standalone grammar
How much grammar do you need?
THE KING IS
IN THE
ALTOGETHER!
HONESTLY,
HE’S NOT GOT
A STITCH ON!
AND YOU CAN
SEE HIS
WINKY AND
EVERYTHING!
AND IT APPEARS TO
BE TAKING THE AIR
LIKE AN ELEPHANT’S
TRUNK ON HOLIDAY
IN LANZAROTE.
HE’S STARK
NAKED! WHY
CAN NOBODY
ONE SEE THIS?
NO PYJAMAS
AT ALL.
NO PYJAMAS
AT ALL.
Grandma: what’s a gerund?
Determiners
Varieties of Determiners
Articles - ‘a/an’ (indefinite) and ‘the’ (definite)
Possessive determiners - my
and their
Demonstratives - ‘this’ and ‘that’
Quantifiers - ‘many’, ‘some’, ‘several’, ‘few’, ‘Fanny
Varieties of Noun
Abstract - hope, desire, upset, thought
Concrete - dog, cat, hippy, concrete
Animate - dog, cat, bloke
Inanimate - stone, wall, hippy
Varieties of Noun
Collective - pride, whoop, murder, flounce
Common - dog, cat, hippy, concrete
Proper - QPR, London, Eastlea Community School
Varieties of Noun
Compound - football team, baby father, schoolgirl
Countable - dog, cat, hippy
Uncountable - concrete, air, London
Inanimate - stone, wall, hippy
The Connectives and Conjunctions
Conundrum
The Connectives and Conjunctions
Conundrum
Weasel
The Connectives and Conjunctions
Conundrum
Stoat
List of weasels
Weasel
Stoat
The Connectives and Conjunctions
Conundrum
Polecat
List of weasels
Weasel
Stoat
Polecat
The Connectives and Conjunctions
Conundrum
Mink
List of weasels
Weasel
Stoat
Polecat
Mink
The Connectives and Conjunctions
Conundrum
Ferret
List of weasels
Weasel
Stoat
Polecat
Mink
Ferret
The Connectives and Conjunctions
Conundrum
Connectives
The Connectives and Conjunctions
Conundrum
Clause
Clause
Coordinating Conjunctions
(Spot the deliberate error)
Coordinating Conjunctions
For - (Alternatively ‘as’ or ‘because’, these present an explanation ("He is gambling
with his health, as he has been smoking far too long.")
FA
N BNor But OY
And - presents non-contrasting item(s) or idea(s) ("They gamble and they smoke.")
presents a non-contrasting negative idea ("They do not gamble, nor do they
smoke.")
presents a contrast or exception ("They gamble, but they don't smoke.")
Or - presents an alternative item or idea ("Every day they gamble or they
smoke.")
S
Yet - presents a contrast or exception ("They gamble, yet they don't
smoke.")
So - presents a consequence caused by the first clause (“They gamble, so
they’ve never got any money at all.”)
List of connectives
Co-ordinating
conjunctions
Subordinating conjunctions
Starting Sentences with
Subordinating Conjunctions
List of connectives
Coordinating conjunctions
Subordinating conjunctions
subordinators)
(or
Conjunctive adverbs
Conjunctive adverbs
List of connectives
Coordinating conjunctions
Subordinating conjunctions
subordinators)
Conjunctive adverbs
(or
Subordinating with a conjunction or
a semi colon
List of connectives
Coordinating conjunctions
Subordinating conjunctions
subordinators)
Conjunctive adverbs
Semi colons
(or
The whole picture
Slides courtesy of Ros Wilson copyright www.andrelleducation.com
Correlative Conjunctions
Split Infinitives
To boldly go
where no man
has gone before
To boldly split infinitives that
Split Infinitives
"I wrote that as fast as I could type it. Probably a minute and
a half. You just have to develop an ear for Navy prose, Willie.
For instance, note that split infinitive in paragraph three. If you
want a letter to sound official, split an infinitive. Use the word
'subject' very often. Repeat phrases as much as possible.
See my beautiful reiteration of the phrase 'subject man.' Why,
it's got the hypnotic insistence of a bass note in a Bach
fugue."
Article (Definite or indefinite) then
A djective
Adjective
Common noun
Verb (present tense)
Adverb
Preposition
Article (Definite or indefinite) then Adjective
Common Noun
2016 KS2 Model SPAG Test
We are going to start the day
seeing if you are smarter than
an eleven year old. You are
going to be set a GAPS test
(the re-ordering is telling). This
comes from the Standards and
Testing Agency’s Key Stage 2
English grammar, punctuation
and spelling: sample
questions, mark schemes and
commentary for 2016
assessments.
If it helps, I got 32/39.
collectible
embarrassment
fiery
hierarchy
mediaeval
mischievous
occasionally
occurrence
pastime
privilege
Past Progressive (or Continuous)
Modal Verbs
Modal Verbs
Modal Verbs
Subjunctive Mood
Subjunctive Mood
Spelling
What do you think when you see an
error in … a newspaper article?
What do you think when you see
an error in … teaching materials?
What do you think when you see
an error in … a book?
What do you think when you see
an error on … a tattoo?
What do you think when you see
an error in … a job application?
The best spelling mistake of
all time
Chuckyembrosward
The second best spelling
mistake of all time
“I make the moist of
my friendships.”
Number of words in the
English Language
“Over one million.” David Crystal
171,476 The Second Edition of the 20volume Oxford English Dictionary (full
entries in current use).
1,013,913. Estimate by the Global
Language Monitor on January 1st 2012.
Mr Dolch and his lovely list
This pinch-faced feller is
Edward Dolch who
produced a list of (what he
thought were) the 220
highest frequency words in
the English Language. He
is also known as the father
of sight words.
(As opposed to hear words, feel words, speak words or smell
words. What else could they be? It’s like having a dinner that is
advertised as being ‘pan fried’).
The problems with vowels
Ormin (Norse translation worm-man) was the first spelling
reformer, and in his 19,000 line long (!) poem, Orm’s Orrmulum,
he created an orthography that used doubled consonants to show
that the vowel was short.
Memories now erase mankind’s oldest
nemesis: insufficient cerebral storage
Spelin, puntuasion and
Grandma
“There can never be a simple solution to the problem of
English spelling. We are faced with an orthography which
is the result of over a millennium of unpredictable social
and linguistic change, and it displays all the consequences
of that unpredictability.”
David Crystal
Why all the exceptions?
Etymology of the language
English is a Germanic
language thought to have
originated in the Angeln
Peninsula of the SchleswigHolstein region of Germany.
Almost nothing was written
down until the 6th Century
AD.
Why all the exceptions?
Etymology of the language
Anglo Saxon Missionaries
were the first people who
had the need to develop
writing in the language, in
order to spread ‘the good
word’.
They tried to use Roman
letters to imitate the sound
of English, but found some
sounds weren’t
represented.
Why all the exceptions?
Etymology of the language
The Roman
alphabet
had 23
letters.
Can you
spot which
ones were
missing
children?
Why all the exceptions?
Etymology of the language
Furthermore, there was no ‘th’ sound in the Roman
alphabet: you couldn’t write down the names Cuthbert
or Ethelred properly. (Of course, Cockneys came up
wiv a proper elegant solution).
Eth
Thorn
Why all the exceptions?
Etymology of the language
‘Thorn’ was used predominantly in the south,
and ‘eth’ (or ‘daet’) in the north. But by the 8th
Century they became interchangeable.
Though ‘thorn’ was used more at the
beginning of words and ‘eth’ at the end.
Interestingly, ‘Thorn’ is still used in the Icelandic
alphabet, which can cause some difficulties
when you asking directions to what you think is
called Pingviller (!) Incidentally, the Nordic
spelling of the word ‘this’ is ‘Piss’.
Why all the exceptions?
Etymology of the language
We have a complex phonic code: deep orthography 26 symbols
44 sounds. The Danes have 24 symbols 24 sounds. This makes it
difficult to learn how to read English.
“40 plus phonemes with 26 letters. That, in a nutshell, is the
problem of English spelling.” David Crystal
And so to Digraphs …
Vowel digraphs
Consonant digraphs
Reading/Decoding
Shwoahing
Spelling Rules
“Rules are of no consequence but to printers
and adults. In spelling books they embarrass
children and double the labour of the teacher.”
Noah Webster
Seize, forfeit, heinous,
neighbour, leisure,
weigh, seize, vein,
eight, veil, beige, rein,
weird, heir, reign,
sovereign, either,
neither, atheism, deify,
cuneiform, reinforce,
albeit, Eid, Heidi,
codeine
Spelling Rules
“The i before e after c rule is not worth teaching. It applies only to words in which the ie
or the ei stands for a clear /ee/ sound and unless this is known words such as sufficient,
veil and their look like exceptions. There are so few words where the ei spelling fore the
/ee/ sound follows the letters c that it is easier to spell the specific words: receive,
conceive, deceive (+ the related words receipt, conceit, deceit), perceive and ceiling.”
Support for Spelling DCSF 2009
Rules that work
Short words rule - “Lexical words (words or clusters of words with a single unit of
meaning) in English are at least three letters long.”
Stressing can work - “Recognise the importance in the way the word is stressed.”
Proffered, preferred
Chunking words works - un/problem/atic
Short vowels generally take a double consonant: kissing, rubble, bubble
Crystal - Spell It Out
Spelling Strategies
Connecticut
Spelling Strategies
1. Words within words
2. Cut them up
3. Deliberately mispronounce three times
Ise/Ize
Consulting the style guides
The Times - changed from ‘ize’ to ise’ in the 1990’s, and advises “avoid the ize
construction in almost all cases.”
OED, “In this dictionary the termination is uniformly written as ize.” This spelling is
therefore described as ‘Oxford spelling’.
Support for Spelling DCSF 2009
Dyslexia
“You can’t help respecting anybody who can
spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn’t spell it
right; but spelling isn’t everything. There are
days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn’t
count.”
Rabbit,
speaking about
Owl, ‘The
House at Pooh
Corner’
Common Misspellings
There
here
where
Links to
Common Misspellings
Their
her
his
Links to
Plenary
Political - in pairs discuss whether this session has
had any political resonance with you? How will it
inform your sense of yourself as being someone who
teachers for social justice
Emotional - have you had an emotional response at
any point to any of the activities or information?
Positive or negative.
Plenary
Meta-cognition - this one is difficult. Have you learnt
anything about the way in which you, as an individual
learn?
Professional - Will you do anything differently in class
as a result of this session? If so, what?