KS2 Punctuation
Punctuation is the part of the Year 6 test where a pupil who knows the rule still loses the mark, because the question does not ask what a semicolon is — it gives a sentence that is wrong and asks what to do about it. That is exactly how these ten questions work. Each one shows a sentence with something missing or in the wrong place, and the four answers describe changes you might make: a comma here, an apostrophe there, or nothing at all. Between them they cover commas in a list, the comma after a fronted adverbial, the apostrophe that shows belonging and the apostrophe that stands for a missing letter, inverted commas round speech and the comma that introduces it, brackets that have to come in pairs, a colon before a list, a semicolon between two halves that could each stand alone, and capital letters on names. Every explanation says why the correct change works and what each of the other three would have done to the sentence instead — including the one that says leave it as it is, which is sometimes tempting and never right here. Zestly is an independent study tool. It is not affiliated with any exam board and it is not an exam centre.
- Separate items in a list with commas, and mark the end of a fronted adverbial with one
- Use an apostrophe to show belonging, and know where it goes when there is one owner
- Tell the possessive its from the contraction it's, and never put an apostrophe in a plural
- Punctuate direct speech: inverted commas round the spoken words only, with the speaker's own punctuation inside them, and a comma to introduce them
- Close a bracket you have opened, and use a colon to introduce a list
- Join two complete sentences with a semicolon, and recognise the comma splice
- Give a capital letter to the name of every particular person, place and day, wherever it appears
The rain stopped suddenly the sun came out. — Put a semicolon after the word suddenly. Both halves could stand as sentences of their own, and a comma is not strong enough to hold them together; that mistake is called a comma splice.
Sample question
We packed sandwiches apples juice and a blanket. Which change would make this sentence correct?
- Leave the sentence as it is, because a list does not need commas.
- Put commas between the items in the list, with no comma before the word and.
- Put a comma after the word packed.
- Put a comma only after the word juice.
See the answer
Put commas between the items in the list, with no comma before the word and.
When you list three or more things, a comma goes between them, and the word and does the job of the last comma: sandwiches, apples, juice and a blanket. A comma after packed would cut the verb off from the things being packed, which is never done. A comma only after juice would separate the last item from the rest but leave sandwiches apples running together, so the reader still cannot see where one item ends and the next begins — and that is the whole purpose of the commas. Leaving it alone keeps that problem in every gap.
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