Collins Primary Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling

an extremely tall girl

an extremely tall girl with piercing blue eyes

Adjective phrases

An adjective phrase contains at least one adjective.

a brown bear

a big brown bear

a big scary brown bear

Verb phrases

A verb phrase contains an auxiliary verb and sometimes an adverb.

I am enjoying the summer holiday.

He had been learning to play the piano.

She is always complaining about her teachers.

Adverb phrases

An adverb phrase tells you something about the verb. It can contain an adverb but it does not have to.

Katie tiptoed very quietly across the room.

The man shouted ‘Fire!’ as loudly as possible.

In the morning, the sky was clear.

Preposition phrases

A preposition phrase contains a preposition and the noun that follows it.

She shut the dogs in the kitchen.

A plastic bag full of money was lying by the side of the road.

At the back of the class, some of the boys were laughing and telling jokes.

Clauses (#ulink_ae5ea728-32d5-50de-a045-218d198e4dc2)

A clause is a group of words which contain a verb. There are two types of clauses.

Main clauses

A main clause is the heart of a sentence. It would make sense if it stood on its own. Every sentence has a main clause:

Matthew ate a cake which was covered in chocolate.

After looking carefully in both directions, Ali crossed the road.

Subordinate clauses

A subordinate clause is less important than the main clause. It would not make sense if it stood on its own because it is not a full sentence. It gives more information about the main clause:

When he had looked carefully in both directions, Ali crossed the road.

Matthew enjoyed the cake because it was covered in chocolate.

Subordinate clauses often start with when, if, because or that.

Relative clauses

A relative clause is a type of subordinate clause. It begins with a relative pronoun: who, whom, whose, which or that.

Robbie has a cat who likes fish.

David has one brother, whose name is Peter.

Our teacher is off sick today, which is unusual for her.

You can read more about relative pronouns on page 14 (#ulink_bb9cee5d-7dfa-5717-acf9-e3e549d20bd8).

You can also write a relative clause without the relative pronoun that or which:

She has lost the book that I lent her.

She has lost the book I lent her.

That is the car which he has just bought.

That is the car he has just bought.

Sentences (#ulink_acef02bd-ff3c-5e0c-88a7-1d36e73ac123)

A sentence is a group of words that expresses an idea or describes a situation. A sentence must have:

• a capital letter at the beginning of the first word

• a full stop, a question mark or an exclamation mark at the end

• a verb

Sentence types