KS2 Sentence Types: Statements, Questions, Commands and Exclamations

Knowing what job a sentence does is one of the first things the Key Stage 2 grammar, punctuation and spelling test checks, and it catches out many Year 6 pupils. The reason is simple: the end punctuation does not decide the type. 'Stop talking and listen to me!' ends with an exclamation mark, yet it is a command. 'What you need is a good night's sleep.' begins with 'What', yet it is a statement. This material trains the habit of looking at the grammatical pattern of the whole sentence first and choosing the punctuation second.

It follows the national curriculum for English (Appendix 2 and its glossary) and the sentence-function part of the Key Stage 2 test framework. You practise the four sentence types. A statement tells the reader something. A question starts with a question word, puts an auxiliary or modal verb before the subject, or ends with a question tag. A command uses the imperative form of the verb. An exclamation starts with 'What' or 'How' and contains a subject and a verb, as in 'What a long queue there is!'

Question tags get special attention, because they are part of the Year 6 work on formal and informal structures. You learn to repeat the right verb in the same tense and to make the tag positive or negative: 'Ravi can play the violin, can't he?' but 'The twins weren't at the party, were they?'

The quiz has twelve questions with original sentences. You name the type of a sentence, choose the correct question tag, pick the missing end punctuation and turn a statement into a question. It includes the classic traps: commands with exclamation marks, statements that contain 'what', reported questions such as 'I asked where you left your bag.' and exclamations with no verb. Each answer comes with a short explanation of the pattern.

The flashcards cover the rules and the traps in quick-recall form. In the practice exam, the examiner asks one question at a time: name a sentence type, change a command into a question, add a tag or write your own exclamation. You get brief feedback at the end. The printable written sheet asks you to write each type of sentence yourself, punctuate unpunctuated sentences, rewrite a statement as a question in two ways and explain why a sentence belongs to its type.

By the end, you should be able to recognise and write all four sentence types confidently and explain your choice in the terms used in the test.

• Identify statements, questions, commands and exclamations by their grammatical pattern
• Punctuate each sentence type with the correct end punctuation and capital letter
• Form correct question tags, positive or negative, in the right tense
• Turn a sentence of one type into another (for example a statement into a question)
• Recognise the traps: commands ending in an exclamation mark, statements containing 'what' and reported questions

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the national curriculum in England: English programmes of study (key stages 1 and 2) – Appendix 2 (vocabulary, grammar and punctuation) and glossary (DfE, 2013), and the Key Stage 2 English grammar, punctuation and spelling test framework (STA, 2016 onwards), content domain G2 (functions of sentences) and G5.1–G5.4 (end punctuation).