5 surefire ways to stop children making the same grammar mistakes
Persistent GaPS mistakes getting you down? These suggestions could make everything better…
Like it or not, every primary school teacher now needs to be – for want of a better term – a grammar (and spelling) nerd.
When it’s part of the job to ensure that every seven-year-old can correctly punctuate reported speech and identify adverbs, there’s really no room for poor modelling in one’s own written work.
And besides, few things are more dispiriting than having a letter you sent home with your pupils returned to you, errors circled pointedly in red pen, by parents who’ve spent the previous evening struggling alongside their offspring with this week’s GaPS homework.
With this in mind, here are a few potential linguistic traps into which adults and children alike are known to fall – and some ideas for how both you and your pupils can avoid them.
1 | “The teacher’s lecture had no affect on her students”
Overwhelmingly, ‘affect’ is a VERB, and ‘effect’ a NOUN – a handy trick to remember which way round they work is to think of special effects.
Alas, there are rare occasions when the reverse is true – but it’s unlikely that your pupils will often need to express “the conscious subjective aspect of an emotion considered apart from bodily change”, which is the definition of affect as a noun.
Effect as a verb is less unusual, as it conveys the achievement of a final result.
For example, “the new classroom arrangements are designed to effect an improvement in behaviour” – but even so, it’s probably sensible to focus on the more common usages when attempting to establish a clear difference between the two words.
2 | “Lay lady lay”
Lie has several meanings – to tell a fib; to be kept in a specific state (eg “the old gym lies in ruins”); or to be recumbent.
It does not, however, mean ‘to put something down somewhere’ – in the present tense, the word you are looking for here is ‘lay’ (eg “Please lay your books on the table”). In other words, Bob Dylan got it wrong.
A handy, if rather old-fashioned way to check whether you’ve got it right or not is to remind yourself that “only hens lay”.
Moving into the past tense, things get considerably more confusing, in that the past tense of lie is, erm, lay. And the past tense of lay is laid. Make a poster.
3 | “If I was a rich man…”
The government’s sample test papers for KS2 SATs in 2016 include a question on the use of the subjunctive – so, even though it’s one of those fine points of grammar that is inexorably moving into the category of ‘officially incorrect, but accepted by most native speakers in general use’ (alongside the split infinitive), ‘I was’ should really be replaced with ‘I were’ when the speaker is talking about an imaginary, untrue or wished for situation. “If I WERE Secretary of State for Education, I would ban arbitrary grammar tests.”
4 | “Whom is the culprit?”
Rather in the same way some people (and not just children, by any means) mistake “my friend and I” for a more formal version of “me and my friend”, or assume that saying “please send the invoice to myself” sounds more businesslike than “please send it to me”, it’s quite common for ‘whom’ to be flung into random sentences in an attempt to make the speaker/writer appear more elegant.
In fact, whom is an objective pronoun, and should only be used as such. You can work out the correct option in most sentences by seeing whether he or him sounds better in the same place; the very best (if, perhaps, a little spicy for a primary school classroom) explanation of who vs whom, though, is provided by The Oatmeal, here.
5 | “There are resources available to compliment the text”
No one needs resources that ‘compliment’ a text – because that would simply mean they were saying nice things about it.
When you want to say that something goes with something else (as in shoes that ‘complement’ an outfit), you need complement with an ‘e’, not an ‘i’.
‘Complimentary’ resources, on the other hand, might be a very good thing indeed, because as well as ‘making a kind or flattering remark’, complimentary can mean ‘without charge’.
An easy way to remember when to use which spelling is to learn: “I like it when people compliment me. I also like free stuff.”
Test yourself
Of course, as an experienced teacher (and official grown-up) you could sail through KS2 sats, right? Well, this quick test is based on the DFE’s sample materials for the 2016 grammar, punctuation and spelling tests – have a go and see how confident you feel by the end of it…
1. Which is correct? a) Should we really be reintroducing external tests for seven-year olds? b) Should we really be reintroducing external tests for seven-year-olds?
2. “Make sure you don’t lose/loose your worksheet as we go around the museum,” instructed the teacher.
3. Circle the adverb: “Sometimes,” sighed the head, “I wonder what on earth we’re all doing here.”
4. Identify the longest possible noun phrase: That poster showing all of England’s monarchs is jolly useful when teaching history.
5. Underline the present perfect verb form: Harry is a cheerful pupil and has worked hard all year. He will be delighted when he receives his report, which was written last night.
6. All personal possessions/possessions must be taken with you as you leave.
7. Which of these sentences is a command? a) When you get home, give this letter to your parents. b) In order to complete your homework, you will need to read this story. c) I would like you to have your chores finished before lunchtime.
8. The womens’/women’s dresses were all the colours of the rainbow.
9. Which sentence uses a subordinating conjunction? a) It’s important to work hard at spelling and grammar. b) Spelling is easy, but grammar can be difficult. c) My spelling and grammar will improve if I practise.
10. Underline the synonyms: “Don’t be sad,” said Mary, kindly, when she saw her friend’s dejected face. Her determined attempt at consolation, however, was unsuccessful.
Answers:
1 – b, 2 – lose, 3 – Sometimes, 4 – ‘That poster…. monarchs’, 5 – has worked, 6 – possessions, 7 – a, 8 – women’s, 9 – c, 10 – sad/dejected
