Grammar & Word Classes

GL grammar questions come in a few shapes: choose the word that correctly completes a sentence, identify the word class of an underlined word, or pick the correctly-written sentence from four options. All of them test whether your child can hear what "sounds right" — plus a handful of traps designed to catch children who rely on sound alone.

Word classes, with quick tests

• Noun — a person, place, thing or idea. Test: does "the ___" work? (the kite ✓)
• Verb — a doing or being word. Test: does it change with time? (jump → jumped)
• Adjective — describes a noun (the red kite).
• Adverb — describes a verb: how, when or where it happens (flew high, landed gently). Many end in -ly, but not all (fast, soon, very).
• Pronoun — stands in for a noun (he, she, it, they, who).
• Preposition — position or relationship (under, before, between, through).
• Conjunction — a joining word (and, but, because, although).

The crucial idea: the same word can be different classes in different sentences. Water is a noun in "the water was cold" but a verb in "please water the plants". Word-class questions must be judged by the word's job in the given sentence, never by its usual class.

Tenses

Keep the tense consistent through a sentence: "She ran to the gate and waved" — not "she ran to the gate and waves". The irregular past forms cause most planted errors: went/gone, did/done, saw/seen, was/were. The rule to teach: done, seen and gone need a helper verb (have, has, had). "I did it" ✓, "I have done it" ✓, "I done it" ✗.

Agreement — subject and verb must match

The dog barks; the dogs bark. Easy — until GL puts a phrase in the middle:

One of the windows was broken.

The subject is one, not windows. The method: strip the sentence down — cross out the words between subject and verb, then match what is left. "One of the windows was broken." It works every time.

Related: either and neither are singular; "there was one reason" but "there were three reasons".

Common 11+ traps

⚠️ "One of the boys were..." — the number-one agreement trap. Strip to subject + verb: one... was. The plural noun next to the verb is bait.

⚠️ done/seen/gone without a helper. "I done my homework" and "she seen it" are planted regularly among the options — they sound familiar from everyday speech, which is exactly why they work as traps.

⚠️ good vs well. Good describes a thing (adjective); well describes an action (adverb). "She played well", not "she played good".

⚠️ "Me and my friend went..." Test by dropping the friend: "Me went to town"? No — so it is my friend and I went.

⚠️ Judging a word's class by habit. In "the light faded", light is a noun; in "a light bag", an adjective. Always check the job the word is doing in this sentence.

Coaching at home

Play the word-class game with any sentence from a book: pick a word, name its class, and prove it with a test ("can I put 'the' in front? does it change with tense?"). Proof, not instinct, is what separates the trap options from the right one.

Worked examples

Read through each example. Cover the steps and try it yourself first if you can.

1. 1

   The agreement strip-down

   Choose the correct word: One of the windows ___ broken. A) were B) was C) are D) be

   Steps

   1. Find the true subject: it is 'One', not 'windows' — 'of the windows' is just a phrase in the middle.
   2. Strip the sentence down: 'One ... was broken.'
   3. 'One were broken' fails the match — 'were' is the bait planted next to the plural 'windows'.
   4. Singular subject takes a singular verb: was.

   Answer

   B) was

2. 2

   Same word, different job

   What word class is 'water' in this sentence: "Please water the plants before you leave."? A) noun B) verb C) adjective D) adverb

   Steps

   1. Ignore the word's usual class — judge its job in THIS sentence.
   2. 'Water' here is something you are being asked to DO to the plants.
   3. Test: does it change with time? 'She watered the plants' ✓ — it behaves like a verb.
   4. The noun test fails here: 'please THE water the plants' makes no sense in this sentence.

   Answer

   B) verb

3. 3

   The helper-verb rule

   Choose the sentence that is written correctly: A) I done my homework. B) I have did my homework. C) I have done my homework. D) I seen my homework was done.

   Steps

   1. Rule: 'done' and 'seen' need a helper verb (have, has, had); 'did' and 'saw' stand alone.
   2. A fails: 'done' has no helper — it should be 'I did' or 'I have done'.
   3. B fails: 'have did' pairs the helper with the wrong form.
   4. D fails: 'I seen' has no helper. C pairs 'have' with 'done' correctly.

   Answer

   C) I have done my homework.