Grammar and Punctuation Flashcards

Which sentence uses an apostrophe correctly?

Answer: The dogs' tails wagged happily.

'Dogs'' shows plural possession (the tails belonging to more than one dog). 'Its' (no apostrophe) is the correct possessive for 'it'.

Choose the sentence with correct capital letters.

Answer: We visited Sydney in January.

Sentences start with a capital, and proper nouns (Sydney) and months (January) take capitals. Capitalisation is tested in NAPLAN Language Conventions.

Which word is a verb in this sentence? 'The kangaroo jumped over the fence.'

Answer: jumped

'Jumped' is the action word (verb). 'Kangaroo' and 'fence' are nouns; 'over' is a preposition.

Which sentence uses commas correctly in a list?

Answer: We bought apples, bananas, and grapes.

Items in a list are separated by commas. NAPLAN assesses correct comma use in lists.

Which sentence is a question and needs a question mark?

Answer: What time does the bus arrive

'What time does the bus arrive?' asks something and needs a question mark. Choosing the correct end punctuation is a NAPLAN skill.

Choose the correct word: 'There ____ three birds in the tree.'

Answer: are

'Birds' is plural, so the verb must agree: 'are'. Subject-verb agreement is tested in NAPLAN grammar.

Which sentence uses the correct pronoun?

Answer: Sam and I went to the park.

'Sam and I' is correct when the people are the subject doing the action. A trick: remove 'Sam and' — you would say 'I went', not 'me went'.

Where should the full stop go? 'The match was exciting our team won by two goals'

Answer: After 'exciting': 'exciting. Our team won by two goals.'

This is a run-on sentence. A full stop after 'exciting' separates the two complete ideas. Sentence boundaries are assessed in NAPLAN.