Learn the rules that make sentences clear, correct, and powerful.
Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and more — the building blocks of every sentence.
Past, present, future — and the perfect tenses that show exactly when things happen.
Make sure your subjects and verbs always match in number.
Connect words, phrases, and clauses with coordinating, subordinating, and correlative conjunctions.
Show relationships of time, place, and direction between words.
Commas, semicolons, colons, apostrophes, and quotation marks — used correctly!
Simple, compound, and complex sentences — build variety in your writing.
Understand who does the action and how to write strong, active sentences.
Every word in a sentence has a job. These jobs are called parts of speech. Here are the 8 main ones:
A noun names a person, place, thing, or idea.
Teacher, school, happiness, dog
A verb shows an action or state of being.
run, think, is, became
An adjective describes a noun.
The tall boy ate a delicious apple.
An adverb describes a verb, adjective, or another adverb. Many end in -ly.
She ran quickly. He is very tall.
A pronoun takes the place of a noun: he, she, it, they, we, I, you.
A preposition shows the relationship between a noun and other words: in, on, at, under, between.
A conjunction connects words or groups of words: and, but, or, because, although.
An interjection shows strong feelings: Wow! Ouch! Hey!
Verbs change form to show when an action happens. In 5th grade, you need to know six main tenses:
I walked to school yesterday.
I walk to school every day.
I will walk to school tomorrow.
Perfect tenses use a helping verb (has, have, had, will have) + past participle.
I had finished my homework before dinner.
I have finished my homework.
I will have finished my homework by 8 PM.
The subject and verb must agree in number. A singular subject takes a singular verb. A plural subject takes a plural verb.
The dog runs fast.
The dogs run fast.
Remember: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So
I wanted pizza, but Mom made pasta.
These start dependent clauses: because, although, when, if, while, since, after, before, until
Although it was raining, we went outside.
These come in pairs: both...and, either...or, neither...nor, not only...but also
Not only did she sing, but also she danced.
A preposition connects a noun (or pronoun) to the rest of the sentence, showing time, place, or direction.
in, on, at, under, between, behind, above
before, after, during, until, since
to, from, toward, through, across
A prepositional phrase = preposition + noun/pronoun (the object of the preposition).
The cat sat under the table.
"Can I go outside?" asked Maria.
Joins two closely related complete sentences.
I love reading; my favorite book is Harry Potter.
One independent clause (one subject + one verb).
The cat slept.
Two independent clauses joined by a conjunction or semicolon.
The cat slept, and the dog played.
One independent clause + one dependent clause.
Although it was cold, the cat slept outside.
The subject does the action. (Preferred in strong writing!)
The dog chased the cat.
The subject receives the action.
The cat was chased by the dog.
Use active voice most of the time. It makes your writing clearer and more direct!
1. Which word is an adverb in this sentence? "She sings beautifully."
2. Choose the correct verb: "Each of the students ____ a pencil."
3. What type of sentence is this? "Although it rained, we played outside."
4. Which sentence is in active voice?
5. What are the FANBOYS?
6. Which is a correct use of an apostrophe?
7. Which verb tense? "She had eaten lunch before the meeting."
8. Identify the preposition: "The book is on the shelf."