Abingdon English Department’s

Pocket Guide to Grammar, Punctuation

and Spelling

Name:

Tutor/ House:

English Teacher:
Contents

1. Parts of speech (p3)

2. Sentences, phrases, and clauses (p4)

3. Capital letters (p7)

4. Commas (p8)

5. Apostrophes (p9)

6. Semicolons (p11)

7. Colons (p11)

8. Punctuating speech (p12)

9. Other punctuation marks (p13)

10. Paragraphs (p14)

11. Spellings (p15)

12. Self-assessment (p22)

2
1. Parts of speech
Words in the English language can be classified into parts of speech according to the
function they perform in the sentence.

1.1 Verb – this expresses the action or state of being/ emotion (‘to run’, ‘to love’, ‘to eat’).

Subject – the thing doing the verb e.g. He went to the shops. ‘He’ = subject.
Object – The object is usually short for the direct object of the verb, like 'prep' in 'I did my
prep for the teacher.' 'Teacher' is the indirect object, because it is indirectly affected by the
verb.

Verb Tense – this tells us about time.

Examples:
He started early – simple past tense
They will arrive at noon – simple future tense
I go to Abingdon School – simple present tense

A finite verb is one that has been given a tense (showing when it happened) and subject
(someone doing it).
Non-finite verbs are the verb forms that do not show a distinction in tense. They include
infinitives and –ing forms e.g. Seeing the ordinary as extraordinary is something we like to
do or Many people like to relax with a cup of tea.
Infinitive verbs are in their root form and have no tense or subject e.g. to be, to love, to go.
Imperative verbs give commands e.g. sit down at once, get out your pens, enjoy your meal.

1.2 Noun – a thing or entity, such as an object, person, place, or idea (‘table’, ‘Jim’,
‘Abingdon’, ‘patience’, ‘appointment’).

Concrete nouns are things you could touch or observe with your senses e.g. chair, town.
Abstract nouns are ideas or concepts e.g. justice, patience, endurance, hatred.
Proper nouns are things that are unique – there is just a single, specific one of them. The
names of particular places and people are the most common examples of proper nouns e.g.
Abingdon, Jacob, Christmas, England.
Common nouns are the general class of thing e.g. dog, city, country, school.

1.3 Adjective – describes what a noun is like (‘black’, ‘heavy’, ‘sunny’).

1.4 Adverb – describes how a verb (or adjective, or other adverb) is done e.g. when,
where, or how it occurs (‘quickly’, ‘easily’, ‘uncertainly’, ‘suddenly’). They often end in the
suffix ‘–ly’.

1.5 Pronoun – a word that stands in for a noun (I, he, she, it, they, we, you).

1.6 Preposition – a word to do with place or position (to, across, under, behind, in).

1.7 Conjunction – a word that connects together words, sentences, phrases, or clauses
(and, or, but, so, for, either, whether, because, however). It is sometimes called a
connective.

3
 1.8 Interjection – a part of the sentence that stands alone and expresses a strong emotion
or reaction (gosh, hello, how wonderful, ouch).

1.9 Determiner – a determiner is a word that introduces a noun, such

as a/an, the, every, this, those, or many (as in a cat, the cat, this cat, those cats, every
cat, many cats).

The determiner the is known as the definite article and the determiner a (or an) as
the indefinite article.

Possessive determiners – words like my, our, your, his, her, its, and their are known as
possessive determiners. They come before nouns and indicate ownership of the noun in
question, as their name suggests. They are sometimes called possessive pronouns or
possessive adjectives.

My leg hurts.
James sold his business.
Bring your children with you.

2. Sentences, phrases and clauses

2.1 What is a sentence?

A sentence is a group of words that makes complete sense, contains a main verb, and begins with
a capital letter. It is a complete unit of grammatical meaning.

Examples of sentences:
Oliver plays rugby.
He likes football.
The man walked down the road and into town.
It will be a very large meal.

All of your work should be written in sentences. Sentences always end with a full stop, or
occasionally an exclamation mark or question mark. They must always end with one of these
punctuation marks.

2.2 What is not a sentence?

A group of words is not a sentence when it is grammatically incomplete because it is missing one
of the required elements, such as a main verb, and so does not make grammatical sense.

Examples of non-sentences:
Because we want to leave early.
I left without.
Too early.
Giving up too easily.

In each of these examples, we either do not have a main verb (e.g. ‘too early’ and ‘giving up too
easily’) or we do not have a grammatically complete unit of meaning (e.g. ‘because we want to
leave early’ – because we want to leave early, what? This makes us expect a reason.)

4
**Special note. Some people find it confusing that we call a sentence like ‘He likes football’ a
complete unit of meaning because we don’t know who ‘he’ is, or similarly why we say ‘It will be a
very large meal’ is a complete unit of meaning because we don’t know what ‘It’ is. However, as
long as we have a pronoun such as he, she, they, or it then it is grammatically a complete unit of
meaning and therefore we do have a sentence.

2.3 Breaking the rules for effect.

In the work of published authors and sometimes in your own writing, you may come across
instances when these rules are broken for effect.

Examples
The room was a complete bombshell. Utter chaos.
This was a man. A machine. A unit of fear.

It should always be clear that the rules are being broken for effect, however, and you should be
very careful to choose the times you do this so it does not look like an error on your part.

2.4 What is a clause? A clause is a group of words containing a verb which forms part of a
sentence.

Examples
1. They arrived early because everyone was really excited.
= two clauses: 1. ‘they arrived early’ 2. ‘because everyone was really excited’.
2. The man wanted to sneeze and he got out his handkerchief.
= two clauses: 1. ‘the man wanted to sneeze’ 2. ‘and he got out his handkerchief.’
NB: every clause has a verb (‘arrived’, ‘excited’, ‘wanted’, ‘got out’)

2.5 Types of clause. Clauses can be divided into two types:

1. Independent or main clauses – these make sense on their own, and have a subject
and a finite verb in them.
2. Dependent or subordinate clauses – these need another part of the sentence to
make sense.

Examples
1. Independent or main clauses:
• It was hot
• I eat a lot of bread
• The tree is very old
2. Dependent or subordinate clauses:
• Because of the amount of rain we’ve had
• Even though they were really keen to start
• Running down the hill

5
2.6 Subordinating conjunctions. Here is a table of the conjunctions we most commonly find at
the start of subordinate clauses. You can use these to help you create more varied and complex
sentences.

Area of meaning Subordinating conjunction Example

Comparison as if, as though, like He looked at me as though he liked me.
Concession although, though, if, even if, Although she irritates me, I still like her.
whereas
Condition if, unless, in case, as long as, Supposing you were given the money,
supposing what would you do?
Contrast whereas, while, whilst I enjoy watching films, whereas you
don’t.
Area of meaning Subordinating conjunction Example
Exception except I like all sports, except tennis.
Place where, wherever You can eat wherever you want.
Preference rather than, sooner than I’ll stay here rather than go home.
Proportion as...so, the...the The more I train, the more I improve.
Purpose to, in order to, so as to I walked faster in order to be on time.
Reason to, in order to, as I switched the computer off as it was
over heating.
Result so, so that I turned the temperature up so that it
would cook properly.
Time after, as before, since, until, He turned up after you left for work.
when, while

2.7 Types of sentences. We classify sentences according to the number and type of clauses that
are present. There are three types of sentences.

1. Simple sentences. These have just one independent/main clause in them.

Examples:
• The grass is greener on the other side.
• We often go to France.

2. Compound sentences. These have two or more clauses in them and all of the clauses
are independent/main. The clauses are joined together by what we call ‘co-ordinating
conjunctions; the main examples of these are AND, SO, BUT, OR (which you can
remember by the acronym ‘ASBO’).
Examples:
• The rain has been very heavy and we have decided not to go out.
• He is very good at music and he is also good at sport but his mother doesn’t want
him to get injured so he doesn’t play as much as he would like.

3. Complex sentences. These have two or more clauses in them and are a mixture of
independent/main clauses and dependent/subordinate clauses.
Examples:
• If you’d like to learn the guitar this term, you will need to sign up for lessons.
• Teachers often spend whole evenings marking even when they are very tired.

2.8 Phrases.
A phrase is a small group of words that forms a meaningful unit within a clause. There are several
different types, as follows:

6
Noun phrase – a noun phrase is built around a single noun, for example:
A vase of roses stood on the table.
She was reading a book about the emancipation of women.

Verb phrase – a verb phrase is the verbal part of a clause, for example:
She had been living in London.
I will be going to college next year.

Adjective phrase – an adjective phrase is built around an adjective, for example:

He’s led a very interesting life.
A lot of the kids are really keen on football.

Adverbial phrase – an adverbial phrase is built round an adverb by adding words before and/or
after it, for example:
The economy recovered very slowly.
They wanted to leave the country as fast as possible.

Prepositional phrase – in a prepositional phrase the preposition always comes at the beginning,
for example:
I longed to live near the sea.
The dog was hiding under the kitchen table.

3. Capital letters
3.1 Capital letters at the start of sentences. Every sentence should start with a capital
letter. There are no exceptions to this rule.

3.2 Capital letters for proper nouns. We give capital letters to any proper noun. This
means the name of a specific, unique entity. We give capitals to all the main words that
are part of the name.
Examples: John Smith, Abingdon School, Oxford, Easter, London Wasps, The Magna
Carta, Oxford City Football Club, The Vale of the White Horse.

3.3 Capital letters for titles. We give capital letters to all the main words in titles, including
in books, films, and pieces of work. Small words (such as of, the, a, an) are not given
capitals unless they are the first word of the title.
Examples: The Formation of Oxbow Lakes, The Importance of Being Earnest, Inception,
The Uses of Capital Letters.

3.4 Capital letters for subject names. Subjects which have names derived from proper
nouns should have capital letters e.g. English, Latin, French, German. Other subjects do
not need capital letters e.g. history, geography, maths. However, people do sometimes
use capital letters for these, and it is acceptable as long as the capital letter use is
consistent. If the subject forms part of a proper noun/name, however, it will of course
become capitalised e.g. The Abingdon School History Film Club.

3.5 Abbreviations. When you abbreviate a word or phrase, you should use capitals e.g.
GCSE, TV, BC.

7
 3.6 The pronoun ‘I’. Whenever you use the pronoun ‘I’ to represent yourself, you must use
a capital. There are no exceptions to this rule.

3.7 Common confusions.

1. Common nouns used as names. People are often tempted to write ‘My Mum’ or ‘My
Dog’, thinking that, because it is a specific, unique entity, it is a proper noun.
However, ‘mum’ and ‘dog’ are not those entities’ names and so you should not use a
capital letter. The exception to this is if or when the common noun is used as their
name e.g. I hated the fact that Mum was always late or We named him Dog because
we couldn’t think of another name for him.
2. Importance. Some people are tempted to use capital letters just to suggest that
something is important e.g. You must always do your Homework or At the school,
Football is a popular sport. This is wrong. Football and homework are not proper
nouns and they should not be given a capital letter.

4. Commas
The comma is a much misused piece of punctuation. This is partly because there are several
different situations in which the comma is the correct piece of punctuation to use. The trick is to
identify those situations so as not to use the comma in places where it really should not be.

The following are some of the situations in which a comma should be used:

4.1 To separate the elements in a list of three or more items.

I need to buy milk, bread, eggs and cheese.

There is some debate about whether or not to include a comma to separate the last two items in
the series e.g. whether to write ‘bread, eggs and cheese’ or ‘bread, eggs, and cheese’. Both are
acceptable. Putting in the final comma is known as using an ‘Oxford comma’.

4.2 To separate a subordinate clause from the main clause when the subordinate clause
comes first in a sentence.
Use a comma to separate a subordinate clause at the start of a sentence from the main part of that
sentence.
Given the appalling rain, Michael was lucky not to catch a terrible cold.
As the evening drew to a close, the children wandered home.

4.3 To separate parenthetical elements (asides) or subordinate clauses within a sentence.

A comma is used to set apart parenthetical elements in a sentence or subordinate clauses
contained within main clauses. The parenthetical element or subordinate clause (also known as an
aside) is part of the sentence that can be removed without changing the essential meaning of the
sentence – it is just adding extra information.
Sam, the most intelligent pupil in the class, was always on time for school.
The Thames, one of the greatest rivers in Great Britain, passes right through the capital city.

It is important that the aside is opened and closed with a comma. A common mistake is to omit the
second comma.

8
4.4 Commas are used to separate out words or clauses that are separate from the main part
of the sentence.
Commas are used to separate phrases and words that come before, within, or after another part of
the sentence. As above, these words or phrases could be removed without changing the essential
meaning of the sentence.
In truth, there are not many houses for sale around here.
It is, indeed, too hot to sit outside.

4.5 Commas are used for typographical reasons to separate dates and years, towns and
counties etc.
His home was in Streatham, East London.
My father was born on March 13, 1949.

4.6 Commas are used to separate several adjectives.

The old, ramshackle, dilapidated house had a charm of its own.
That rather dull-looking, badly-dressed, clumsy man is actually a university professor.

4.7 The comma splice.

The comma splice is one of the most frequent mistakes made when using a comma. The comma
splice occurs when a comma is used to connect two independent clauses (see section 2.4).
In this example the two clauses make sense on their own. Connecting them with a comma is
incorrect: Jim usually gets on with everybody, he is an understanding person.

If you have two independent clauses that need to be separated, you have several choices:

1. You can make them into two sentences using a full stop. This is probably the easiest solution
but may not be the best in terms of style.
Jim usually gets on with everybody. He is an understanding person.

2. You can use a semicolon. In our example, using a semicolon suggests a link between the two
clauses without stating that link specifically.
Jim usually gets on with everybody; he is an understanding person.

3. You can introduce a conjunction to connect the sentences. By doing this, you make the
connection between the two more explicit.
Jim usually gets on with everybody because he is an understanding person.
Jim usually gets on with everybody as he is an understanding person.

5. Apostrophes
The apostrophe is used for several different functions.

5.1 The apostrophe of contraction.

One use of the apostrophe is in contracted words, which have been joined together and shortened
with letters taken out. The apostrophe is used where a letter or letters has/have been taken out.

He is = he's I would = I'd

I am = I'm Let us = Let's
They have = They've She has = She's
It is = It's Who is = who's

9
**Be careful when contracting ‘would have’ into ‘would’ve’ – a common mistake is to write ‘would
of’ and you should avoid this.

Special note: The word ‘it’s’ should only ever have an apostrophe in it if it is short for ‘it is’ or ‘it
has’. It should never have an apostrophe in it for any other reason, even if you think there is a
relationship of possession.
Examples: ‘It’s been a hot summer’ = It has been a hot summer.
‘The television is on its stand’ = its isn’t short for ‘it is’ or ‘it has’ and there is therefore no
apostrophe. It is a possessive ‘its’, but these do not ever carry apostrophes.

5.2 The apostrophe showing possession.

The second use of the apostrophe is to show possession – that something belongs to someone
or something else.

Here are some examples:

He loved Madrid's winding streets. (The streets belong to Madrid.)
I’m interested in Tim's point of view. (The point of view belongs to Tim.)
The building's foundations were well built. (The foundations belong to the building.)

Tip: If you’re not sure if an apostrophe of possession is needed, see if you can rearrange the
phrase to include an ‘of’. For example, Madrid’s winding streets can be rearranged as ‘the
winding streets ‘of’ Madrid, while Tim’s point of view can be rearranged as ‘the point of view of
Tim’. If you can rearrange to include an ‘of’, then an apostrophe of possession is needed.

2. If the possessor is a plural ending in s, the apostrophe needs to come after the s.
The teacher was always losing her pupils' books. (There are many pupils who have books.)
The monks' meals were served in a cold and damp dining room. (There are many monks.)
I can never understand the politicians' obsession with spin. (There are many politicians.)

3. This also happens with names that end in s.

James’ shoes are in the corner.
Jesus’ disciples included James and Matthew.
You will sometimes see people also put an s after the apostrophe in these cases (e.g. James’s
shoes are in the corner) and both are acceptable. The only exception to this rule is proper
nouns that are Latin or Greek in origin.
Odysseus' adventures spanned many miles and many years.
Pythagoras' theorem has baffled generations of school children.

5.3 Mistakes with apostrophes.

1. A very common mistake is to put apostrophes in every time a word ends in s even if there is
no relationship of possession.
Oxford contain's a lot of lovely old building's and street's.
You can have pea’s with your meal.

2. A second common mistake is to put the apostrophe in the wrong place for singular and plural
words. This can completely change the meaning of the sentence.
The pupil’s uniform was very smart. (one pupil)
The pupils’ uniform was very smart. (lots of pupils)

3. The last mistake is to use apostrophes with possessive determiners (also called possessive

10
adjectives or possessive pronouns – see 1.9). These words, its, his, hers, whose, theirs do not
carry possessive apostrophes e.g. The cat likes its food. The book is hers. Whose is this
pencil? If you write ‘it’s’, it MUST be short for ‘it is’ or ‘it has’, and if you write ‘who’s’, it MUST be
short for ‘who is’ or ‘who has’.

6. Semicolons
The semicolon is a great punctuation mark. Using it shows your sophistication and will allow you
to express your ideas and opinions with more subtlety and precision. We use it in the following
ways:

6.1 In complicated lists. The semicolon can be used to sort out a complicated list containing
many items, many of which themselves contain commas.
Example:
The meeting today was attended by Mr Lewis, City Councillor, Dr Jones, the local GP, Mrs
Smith, a lawyer, and Jo Thomas, the Chair.
In a list like this where the ‘items’ are more than one word long, the semicolon can help make
things a lot clearer:
The meeting today was attended by Mr Lewis, City Councillor; Dr Jones, the local GP; Mrs
Smith, a lawyer and Jo Thomas, the Chair.

6.2 Separating closely related independent clauses. The semicolon is also used to connect
two closely related independent clauses.
Example:
Charlie always ate big meals; he got terribly hungry.
The two clauses here are closely connected but the link has not been made explicit.
They could have been separated by a full stop.
Charlie always ate big meals. He got terribly hungry.

They could have been connected by a conjunction.

Charlie always ate big meals, but he got terribly hungry.

If you are going to use a semicolon to connect two clauses, it is very important that the two
clauses are both independent. That means that each clause has to be able to stand alone and
make complete sense without the other, or in other words, that each part could be a sentence in
its own right. If either one cannot stand alone, a semicolon cannot be used.

7. Colons
The colon has a number of functions:

7.1 To introduce an idea. The colon introduces an idea that is an explanation or continuation of
the one that comes before the colon. The colon can be considered as a gateway inviting the
reader to go on.
Examples:
You don’t have much choice: you will need to re-do the work.
There is one food that I couldn’t live without: pizza.
You will see that you have some idea of what will come after the colon.

11
**Important note. The clause that comes before the colon must be independent: it must stand
alone and make complete sense on its own. If the initial clause cannot stand alone and make
complete sense, you should not use a colon. This example would be wrong, for instance: I will:
try my best for the whole year.

7.2 To introduce a list. You need to be careful doing this; many people assume that a colon
always comes before a list but this is wrong. As above, the clause before the colon must make
complete sense on its own.
Examples:
The cake contained some delicious ingredients: chocolate, syrup, butter, and hazelnuts.
The cake contained chocolate, syrup, butter, and hazelnuts.
In the first sentence, the clause before the colon has a subject and main verb and makes
complete sense on its own ‘The cake contained some delicious ingredients’. In the second
sentence there shouldn’t be a colon because ‘The cake contained’ is not an independent
clause.

7.3 Style. A colon can add emphasis and punch to an idea.

Examples:
The one thing we all love is success.
There is one thing we all love: success.
Both these examples are grammatically correct, but the second gives more emphasis. You can
choose which you prefer.

8. Punctuating speech
There are two ways of putting speech into your writing. The speaker’s words can either be
reported, or they can be quoted directly in what’s called direct speech.

8.1 Reported speech.

In reported speech, the actual words are not usually quoted directly. They can be rephrased in
your own words and there is no need for any extra punctuation.
Examples:
The 156 pupils in the year said that the main reason for choosing a subject was that they
thought they would do well in it.
The athletes said how pleased they had been to win medals.

8.2 Direct speech.

This is when you put the actual words that a person speaks into your writing. There are a
number of rules to follow in laying out and punctuating.

1. The words that are actually spoken should be put in inverted commas.
‘He’s done really well, you know.’

Nowadays, people generally use single inverted commas but it is acceptable to use double
ones: “He’s done really well, you know.”

2. Whenever a new speaker says something, you need to start a new paragraph:
‘He thinks it’s a good idea,’ said Toby.
‘I think so too,’ I replied.

12
 3. There must be a comma, full stop, question mark, or exclamation mark at the end of
a piece of speech. It should go before the speech mark.
‘Can I join you?’ she asked.
‘Wait there!’ he called.
‘You’re running late,’ he said.
'I thought you’d be ready by now.'

4. If the speech follows the attribution, where we find out about who is speaking, you should
use a comma to introduce the piece of speech, before the first speech mark:
Luke replied, ‘If you like.’

5. If the direct speech is broken up by an attribution, you need a comma (or a question
mark or exclamation mark) to end the first piece of speech and a full stop or another
comma before the second piece (before the speech marks):
‘You’re on to something,’ he said. ‘This isn’t right.’
‘Looking back,’ she said, ‘we could have done better.’
‘Yes!’ he cried. ‘I can’t believe we’ve done it!’

9. Other pieces of punctuation

There are a number of other punctuation marks that you can use, and they can help add clarity,
variety, and style to your work.

9.1 Brackets. These are sometimes called parentheses. They are used around parts of the
sentence that give additional information that could be removed or is just as aside. You can
generally use commas in place of brackets, but brackets may make it clearer. Avoid overusing
them.
Examples:
The school shop (which you probably visited when you came in the summer) opens today at
noon.
Jenny Lewis (who always makes pizza) should be around this evening.

9.2 Dashes. These can be used as follows:

1. In pairs, to separate information that is not essential to understanding the rest of the
sentence (a bit like with brackets).
Examples:
Thousands of people – like the ones you have seen on the film – are now at risk of serious
famine.
My friend – is she over there by the table? – would like to see you.
2. To show a break in a sentence where a comma, semicolon, or colon could also be used.
Examples:
One thing’s certain – he still needs to improve a lot.
Things have changed since last time we came – mainly they are changes for the worse.

Dashes are especially common in informal writing, but it’s probably best to avoid overusing
them in formal writing – commas, semicolons, and colons can generally be used in their place.

9.3 Ellipsis. This is the proper name for a ‘dot, dot, dot’. It is used when a sentence trails off, to
give suspense, or to show that something is missing.

13
Examples:
‘What the…?’ exclaimed Paul, as he saw what was happening.
But Laurie had always been afraid of dark places…

9.4 Exclamation mark. This shows that something is said with emotion or emphasis. The main
thing to say about these is that they should not be overused. One or two in any piece of work
will be more than enough, and they are not appropriate in formal writing.

10. Paragraphing
The key point to take on board is that all written work needs paragraphs. As soon as you are
writing an answer or a piece of more than a few sentences, you need to start considering
paragraphs.

10.1 Paragraphs in analytical/essay writing.

o You must have paragraphs to separate out the different ideas in your writing.
Paragraphs should not just be random breaks in your work when you feel a gap is
needed. They should clearly show where the divisions or steps in the ideas behind
your work fall. They show how you are organising your thinking across a whole
text.
o Introductions and conclusions have particular functions and should be separate
paragraphs.
§ The introduction should lead the reader into your piece by giving an idea
about what you are going to write about and why it is an interesting or
puzzling topic. The introduction should not be vague; be specific and avoid
just repeating words from the question or title.
§ The conclusion should give a clear summary of what you have said in your
work, and should give the reader a clear idea of what they should go away
thinking. It is often a good idea to refer back to the introduction in your
conclusion. Do not merely repeat the introduction or leave things
unresolved.
o Each paragraph should have the same basic structure
§ A topic sentence – summarises and introduces the idea of the paragraph. It
is like a mini-introduction to your paragraph.
§ Detail/development – sentences in the middle of the paragraph that give
further explanation and take your ideas further
§ Rounding off – a sentence that draws the paragraph together.
o Connectives. You should make regular use of connectives to join together ideas
both within and between your paragraphs. This will help show how your ideas link
together and will make your work logical. Connectives include therefore, in
contract, because, however, on the one hand, on the other hand, thus, hence,
although, in conclusion.

10.2 Paragraphs in narrative/descriptive writing. You also always need to use paragraphs
when you are writing more creative pieces – descriptive writing or narrative (story) writing,
for example.
• In this type of writing, you can use the TiP ToP rule. This says that you should
start a new paragraph for a change of Time, Place, Topic, Person.
• In more creative pieces of work, you can also use very short paragraphs for effect
and impact.

14
11. Spellings
11.1 Strategies for learning spellings.
It is difficult just to learn how to spell words in isolation or just by trying to remember the order of
the letters. Here are some strategies you can use to make remembering spellings easier:
1. Phonetic pronunciation. This means finding a way to pronounce the word that
emphasises the bit you tend to get wrong. Example: pronouncing ‘definitely’ ‘def- finite-
ly’ will help you remember the ‘i’ in the middle of the word.
2. Mnemonics. Come up with a memorable sentence to help you remember the word.
Example: diarrhoea. Dash In A Real Rush Hurry Or Else Accident.
3. Divide up. Split up the word and remember each part individually. Example: separately.
Sep-a-rat-ely. We have ‘a rat’ in the middle of the word, and the town of Ely on the end.
4. Letter count. Work out how many of each letter is in the word. Example: accommodation
– two 'c's, two 'm's, and two 'o's.
5. Rules. Learn a rule to help you remember. Example: disappoint and dissatisfy. The rule
is that with prefixes (e.g. ‘dis’) we just add them to the base word without any change.
This is why dis+appoint has just one ‘s’ while dis+satisfy has two ‘s’s.
6. Morphology. Think about the shape of the word, and focus on parts of the word that go
above and below the line. Example: rhythm: the shape of the middle of the word is ‘high –
low – high’ with the ends being ‘small’ letters that stick the middle ground.

Then…Test yourself.
1. Look, cover, write, check. You’ll probably have used this method before.
2. Get tested by someone else. Ask someone at home or a friend.

11.2 Common misspellings.

Here are 100 words that are commonly misspelled, together with a way that you may use to
help you remember it. Check your work against this list often as it is by picking up on words that
you tend to get wrong and correcting them that you will improve.

1. acceptable Just remember to accept any table offered to you.

2. accidentally Remember the ‘tally’ of accidents being kept.
3. accommodate, two 'c's, two 'm's
accommodation
4. achieve i before e
5. acquire Hear the hard ‘c’ before the softer ‘quire’
6. across one c – ‘a (single) cross’
7. address two ‘d’s
8. alliteration two ‘l’s, no other doubled letters
9. a lot This must be written as two words. Always.
10. apparently -ent not –ant. Think of the parent in the word.
11. argument No e after the u. Maybe it got argued out of the word.
12. basically ends with –ally
13. beginning double n before the –ing
14. believe i before e
15. benefit Hear the ‘nef’ in the middle. No doubled letters.
16. business begins with busi-
17. calendar The middle ‘e’ is surrounded by two ‘a’s
18. character See the ‘act’ in the middle.
19. committee double m, double t, double e

15
20. commit/committed Notice that the ‘t’ gets doubled in ‘committed’.
21. colossal Just one ‘l’ – ‘colo’.
22. completely ends with –ely
23. conscience Pronounce as ‘con science’.
24. conscious -sc- in the middle
25. definitely -ite- not –ate-. Think of ‘finite’
26. desperate Like a desperado
27. diarrhoea Learn by mnemonic: dash in a real rush hurry or else
accident.
28. different/difference Make sure you prounounce the ‘er’ in the middle of the
word so you don’t miss out the ‘e’.
29. disappear one 's', two 'p's
30. disappoint one 's', two 'p's
31. embarrass two 'r's, two 's’s
32. environment n before the m
33. exceed Not ‘excede’ – ‘e’s together.
34. exhilarate You need to hear the ‘h’.
35. existence ends with –ence
36. experience Apart from the middle ‘i’, all the vowels are ‘e’s in this
word.
37. finally two 'l's
38. foreign e before I
39. forty begins with for-
40. friend i before e
41. government n before the m
42. grammar Not ‘grammer’ – all ‘a’s
43. grateful Don’t let the word ‘great’ into this word – think of a fire
grate.
44. immediately ends with –ely
45. independent ends with –ent
46. intellectual Not ‘inter’ – hear the ‘tell’.
47. interesting Hear the ‘inter’ at the beginning.
48. interrupt two 'r's
49. knowledge remember the d
50. liaise, liaison remember the second i: liais-
51. maintenance Hear the ‘ten’ in the middle of the word, and the ‘ance’
at the end.
52. medicine Hear the ‘i’ in the middle of the word.
53. metaphor Notice the ‘ph’.
54. misspelled It needs a double ‘s’ and doesn’t end ‘spelt’.
55. necessary one c, two s’s (never eat cake, eat salmon sandwiches
and remain young)
56. no-one/ no one Either is acceptable but ‘noone’ isn’t.
57. noticeable remember the middle e
58. occasion two 'c's, one s
59. occasionally Hear the ‘ally’ at the end of the word.
60. occurred, occurring two 'c's, two 'r's
61. occurrence two 'c's, two 'r's, -ence not -ance
62. onomatopoeia Divide up 1. Ono 2. Mato 3. Poeia (it’s got the start of
‘poet’ in it…).
16
63. opportunity Hear ‘por’ not ‘pur’, and remember to double the p.
64. persistent ends with –ent
65. piece i before e
66. possession two s’s in the middle and two at the end
67. precede i.e. to come before. The ‘d’ comes before the final ‘e’
here.
68. preferred, preferring two 'r's
69. privilege Remember two ‘i’s and two ‘e’s in that order. There is
no ‘d’.
70. proceed i.e. to continue. The ‘e’s are together here, unlike in
‘precede’.
71. pronunciation Hear the ‘nun’ in the middle of the word.
72. pursue Hear the ‘pur’ like a cat. The spelling ‘persue’ is wrong.
73. publicly No ‘ally’ here because the route word is ‘public’ not
‘publical’.
74. really two 'l's
75. receive e before i
76. recommend Just one ‘c’
77. referred, referring two 'r's
78. relevant Hear the ‘ant’ on the end of the word.
79. repetition Think of a ‘pet’. Do not put a ‘pit’ in this word.
80. resistance ends with –ance
81. restaurant Imagine an ‘ant’ dining in a restaurant.
82. rhythm No vowels in this word!
83. semicolon All one word.
84. sense Ends with –se, the same way it starts.
85. separate -par- in the middle
86. sentence The vowels are all ‘e’s. Pronounce it so you can hear
the ‘ten’.
87. simile There is no ‘ie’ on the end. Hearing the ‘mile’ at the end
may help you remember this.
88. successful two 'c's, two 's’s
89. surprise begins with sur-
90. symbol Not to be confused with the musical ‘cymbal’. Hear the
‘ol’ at the end.
91. tendency ends with –ency
92. therefore ends with –fore
93. thorough It has the word ‘rough’ on the end, and you need to
remember the ‘o’ that makes it different from ‘through’.
94. through It consists of ‘th’ added to the word ‘rough’.
95. tomorrow one m, two 'r's
96. unfortunately ends with -ely
97. until one l at the end
98. weird e before i
99. wherever one e in the middle
100. writing just one ‘t’

17
11.3 Homophones.
These are words that sound the same but are spelt differently and mean different things. They
are easy to confuse.

Homophones Definitions
bare, bear The adjective bare means “naked.” A bear is an animal.
brake, break A brake stops a car. The verb break means “to crack, split or destroy”.
The noun break means a gap or interruption.
complement, Complement means “to complete or go with.” Compliment is an
compliment expression of admiration or praise.
counsel, Counsel as a noun means “advice” and as a verb, means “to advise.” A
council council is a group that advises.
die, dye Die is a verb meaning “to stop living”, while dye is used to change the
color of something.
lead, led Lead is a present tense verb meaning “to guide.” Led is past tense of the
verb lead. The noun lead is the metal.
loose, lose Loose means “free or untied”. Lose means to “misplace” or “fail to win.”
morning, Morning refers to the first part of the day. Mourning means “showing
mourning sorrow.”
our, are Our is when something belongs to us. Are is the verb: ‘they are running’.
past, passed Passed is always a verb, the past tense of pass. Past can be used as
noun, an adjective, or as a preposition.

A motorcycle passed our car. (verb)

I cannot forget the past. (noun)
In my past life I was a dog. (adjective)
He drove right past the house. (preposition)
peace, piece Peace is the opposite of war. Piece is a section or part of something.
Practice, Practice is the noun e.g. I go to football practice while practise is the verb
practise e.g. I need to practise spelling and handwriting.
principal, Principal is an adjective meaning “primary” or a noun referring to the
principle person who leads a school. Principle is an idea or doctrine.
right, rite, write Right is the direction opposite of left, and is also used in talking about
legal entitlements e.g. Human Rights. Right also means “correct or
proper.” It is also the opposite of wrong. Write is a verb meaning “to
record in print.” Rite is a ritual or ceremonial act.
sight, cite, site Sight means “the act of seeing.” Cite means “to quote or refer to.” A site is
a location or position.
stationary, Stationary means “not moveable.” Stationery refers to paper and
stationery envelopes use to write letters.
their, there, Their is a possessive pronoun indicating ownership. There is an adverb
they’re that refers to where something is. They’re is the contracted form of they
are.
to, too, two To is the preposition that can mean “in the direction of.” Too means also
or is an adverb meaning “very or excessive.” Two is the number 2.
ware, wear, Ware means “a product to be sold”. Wear means “to have on one’s body.”
where Where is to do with the place or situation something happens.

18
11.4 Irregular plural and singular forms in words derived from Latin and Greek.
A number of English words are derived from Greek and Latin, which means that they form their
plurals according to Greek and Latin rules rather than English ones.

Derivation Singular form Plural form

Greek Criterion Criteria
Phenomenon Phenomena
Stigma Stigmata
Basis Bases
Thesis Theses
Ellipsis Ellipses
Hypothesis Hypotheses

Latin Alga Algae

Larva Larvae
Vertebra Vertebrae
Fungus Fungi
Radius Radii
Stimulus Stimuli
Alumnus Alumni
Medium Media
Datum Data
Memorandum Memoranda
Matrix Matrices

19
11.5 Your own dictionary.

Word Your own strategy to remember it

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

20
24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.

21
Grammar and Punctuation Self-Assessment
Use this table to assess yourself at the start of the year and then at the
end of each term.
How good is your understanding of the following aspects of
grammar and punctuation?
Score yourself 1-4 as follows:
1= I get really confused about this and I’d like to work on it.
2= I understand but I’d like to practise this some more.
3= I’m good but I do sometimes make mistakes.
4 = I’m an expert and I rarely make mistakes!

Start of Michaelmas Lent Summer

year
Parts of Speech
Sentences,
Phrases and
Clauses
Capital Letters
Commas
Apostrophes
Semicolons
Colons
Punctuating
Speech
Using Paragraphs

22