Mind Your Grammar

Liz Zelencich
Program Manager
Capital Letters
Sentences
The rst word of every sentence begins with a
capital letter.
Millions of years ago, long before there were
any people, there were dinosaurs.
Names of people
The names of people (and pets) begin with a
capital letter.
The lost dog belonged to David.
The word "I"
Always make the word "I" a capital letter.
Alison and I walk to schools together every
day.
Place names
Place names begin with a capital letter.
Examples include the names of cities, states,
countries, planets, streets and buildings.
Essendon plays Collingwood every year on
Anzac Day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Titles
The rst, last and all important words in a title
begin with a capital letter. Examples include the
titles of books, magazines, stories, poems and
movies.
The Little Mermaid, Captain Underpants, The
Australian Womens Weekly, Mulga Bills Bicycle.
Days, months and holidays
Days of the week, months of the year and
holidays all begin with a capital letter.
Easter, Christmas, July, Monday.
Join us online at: http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/2291712/newspapers-in-education/
Nouns
Common nouns
While there are many different types of
nouns, common nouns are the easiest. They
are simple words that name people, places,
things, or ideas. But they are not the actual
names of people, places or things. In other
words, the word girl is a common noun,
but the word Ashley is a proper noun
because its the specic name of that girl.
Finding examples of common nouns is
as simple as opening your eyes! Try it! What
is the rst thing you see when you wake up
each morning? Your alarm clock? The word
clock is a common noun because it names,
or identies, a thing.
What do you see when you walk out
your front door each morning? A car, a tree,
the sky, a bus, a house, a shop? All are
common nouns because they name a thing,
place, or person:
People: mother, father, baby, child,
toddler, teenager, grandmother, student,
teacher, brother, sister business person,
woman, man.
Animals: lion, tiger, mouse, dog, cat,
alligator, cricket, bird, elephant.
Things: table, truck, book, pencil, iPad,
computer, coat, shoes, chair, spoon, bowl.
Places: city, state, country, continent,
coffee shop, restaurant, park, zoo.
Proper nouns
These name specic people, places, things,
or ideas such as Britney, Melbourne,
Holden, Nike.
Since these nouns are naming specic
things, they begin with a capital letter.
Sometimes, they contain two or more
important words. Britney Spears, Melbourne
Cricket Ground, Holden Commodore, Nike
Air Pegasus.
Possessive Common
Nouns
Singular nouns
Possessive nouns show ownership or
relation to something else. To make a
singular common noun possessive, simply
add an apostrophe and the letter s.
Thebabyscrieswoketheexhausted
new parents.
Thetoddlersfacewascoveredin
birthday cake.
Thedogsbarkwasworsethanhis
bite.
Plural nouns
In order to make a plural noun possessive
that doesnt end in the letter s all you
have to do is add an apostrophe and an s.
Women=womens
Mice=mices
If the plural noun ends in an s it becomes
possessive by adding an apostrophe at the
end.
Cars=cars
Rivers=rivers

Grammar is the
system of a language. People
sometimes describe grammar as
the "rules" of a language; but in fact no
language has rules. If we use the word "rules",
we suggest that somebody created the rules rst
and then spoke the language, like a new game.
But languages did not start like that. Languages
started by people making sounds which evolved
into words, phrases and sentences. No commonly-
spoken language is xed. All languages change
over time. So think of grammar as something
good, something positive and something
that you can use to nd your way -
like a signpost or a map.
Verbs
A verb is a doing word. It shows the
action in a sentence. Think of some
things you like to do such as run, draw,
sh, play, jump. These are all verbs
because they show the action. Search
through the newspaper to nd lots of
verbs. Make a verb collage.
Can you nd the verbs in these
sentences?
Grandmadrinksteainthemorning
instead of coffee.
Thecowsandpigswererestingin
the barn.
MyfriendsandIworkedonthe
project together.
Adjectives
The simplest denition of an adjective
is that it is a word that describes or
claries a noun. Adjectives describe
nouns by giving some information about
an object's size, shape, age, colour,
origin or material. For example, a red
car, a huge tree, an old painting, a cute
dog.
Startanadjectivealphabet.Search
the newspaper to nd adjectives
beginning with each letter of the
alphabet in turn to create an 'adjective
alphabet' to help when writing stories,
descriptions etc.
Giveanadjectivebeginningwith
each letter of your name or nickname to
describe who you are or what you want
to be.
Adverbs
An adverb is a word that changes or
simplies the meaning of a verb. Adverbs
usually answer questions such as how?,
in what way? and to what extent? Often,
adverbs end in ly.
He ran quickly
They walked briskly around the lake
She spoke loudly
The bird landed lightly on the water
Gatheravarietyofpicturesfromthe
newspaper and give either a noun or verb
to them depending on what the picture
shows. Clearly a picture of a car would be
labelled car. However, the picture of a
woman sitting behind the wheel of a car
could be labelled driving.
Next, break students up into groups to
challenge each other. The purpose of the
challenge is to describe the noun pictures
using adjectives and the verb pictures
using adverbs. The opposing teams have
to gure out what is in the picture given
these clues.
Full Stops
The full stop is probably the simplest of
the punctuation marks to use. You use
it like a knife to cut the sentences to the
necessary length. Generally, you can
break up the sentences using the full
stop at the end of a logical and complete
thought that looks and sounds right to
you. Use the full stop to mark the end of
a sentence which is not a question or an
exclamation.
Rome is the capital of Italy.
I love to eat roast lamb.
I was born in Australia in 2003.
Read these sentences and correct
the capital letters and full stops.
1) i am playing in the garden
2) the man sat on the bench in the
park
3) we went to the cinema to see a lm
Mind your grammar

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Liz Zelencich

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