Grammar (TEFL)

Nouns
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Concrete Noun:

You can physically touch nouns, such as sofa, table, bed, cheetah (if you’re brave) and road.

You can see the effects of electricity when you turn on the light or switch on the TV.

You can feel the heat of the sun or from a fire in winter.

You can smell a flower or freshly cut grass.

So, you can feel, see, hear, taste or smell each of these concrete nouns.

To help you work out if something is a concrete noun or not, ask yourself the following

questions:

●​ Can I touch it?

●​ Is it real?
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●​ Does it affect me in some way physically?

●​ Can I see the effects of it in my life?

Why Not Charity, Love, Education, Friendship, and Life?

These are abstract nouns, which represent ideas, concepts, or feelings rather than physical
objects. While you can see the effects of these things (e.g., education brings knowledge, love
brings happiness), you can’t directly see, touch, taste, hear, or smell the actual concept itself.

For example:

●​ Love: You might see someone hugging, but you can’t physically touch "love" as a thing.
●​ Education: You can see a school or a book, but "education" as a concept cannot be
touched.

On the other hand, things like "air" and "electricity" are classified as concrete nouns because
you can directly interact with their physical presence (feel air, see its movement; see the effects
of electricity in lights, hear its hum).

Rule of Thumb:

Ask yourself: Can I directly sense it with my body?

●​ If yes, it’s concrete.

●​ If no, and it’s more of an idea or concept, it’s abstract.
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Abstract Nouns:

Abstract nouns refer to concepts, feelings, qualities, or ideas that cannot be physically touched
or seen, but they can be experienced or felt. While we can physically feel pain, it is not a
tangible object that you can see or touch, which is why it is classified as an abstract noun.

Here are some common types of abstract nouns and some examples for each:
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Feelings/Emotions

●​ These are abstract because they are internal experiences that cannot be touched or
physically sensed.
●​ Examples: love, happiness, fear, anger, joy
●​ How to identify: If it represents an emotional or mental state, it's abstract.

States/Attributes

●​ These are qualities or conditions of something, but they are not physical objects you
can sense.
●​ Examples: warmth, beauty, kindness, strength
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●​ How to identify: If it describes a state or quality (e.g., how something feels, looks, or
behaves), it’s abstract.

Ideas/Concepts

●​ These are intangible notions or beliefs that cannot be physically touched or seen.
●​ Examples: freedom, justice, education, truth, charity
●​ How to identify: If it represents a thought or belief that can’t be physically
experienced, it’s abstract.

Movements/Events

●​ These are occurrences or actions that we can observe the effects of, but they are still
abstract because they are not physical objects.
●​ Examples: celebration, earthquake, revolution, birth
●​ How to identify: If it’s an event or happening that you can’t touch or directly sense, it’s
abstract.

Collective Nouns:
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Ox → Oxen

Countable Nouns & Uncountable Nouns:

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“Alicja is allergic to foods containing egg”, the word “egg” is uncountable. Can you see why?

When we talk about "egg" as an uncountable noun in the sentence "Alicja is allergic to foods

containing egg," we're referring to egg as an ingredient or product in food, not as individual eggs

(like you would count them). It's not about one or two specific eggs, but rather the substance or

material that eggs represent when used in cooking.

In contrast, if you said, "Alicja is allergic to eggs," you would be using "eggs" as a countable noun

because you're referring to individual eggs (e.g., one egg, two eggs).

So, in the sentence, "egg" refers to the substance or ingredient, making it uncountable. It's a

more general reference to eggs as a whole, rather than counting individual eggs.

The words information, salt and pepper, and luggage are uncountable because they refer to
things that cannot be counted individually or separated into distinct units in a normal sense.
Here's why each one is uncountable:

1.​ Information:
○​ Uncountable because it refers to knowledge or data in a general sense. You
cannot count "informations" as individual items. Instead, you can refer to specific
pieces of information (like "a piece of information" or "some information") but the
word itself doesn't have a plural form when talking about it in general.
2.​ Salt and Pepper:
○​ Uncountable because these are substances that are measured in quantity (like
a pinch or a teaspoon), but you don't typically count individual grains. When
referring to "salt" or "pepper" in general, we treat them as mass nouns
(substances or materials) rather than countable items. For example, you don't
say "two salts" or "three peppers" (unless you mean different types or specific
containers, like "two kinds of salt").
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3.​ Luggage:
○​ Uncountable because it refers to the total amount of bags or suitcases someone
has, not the individual pieces. You wouldn't say "luggages," but instead "a piece
of luggage" or "some luggage." It refers to the collection as a whole.

In short, these words are uncountable because they describe things that are seen as wholes or
masses, not individual, countable units. We often use quantifiers like "some," "a bit of," or "a
piece of" to talk about them.
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Verbs:
There are many different types of verbs, all with different functions and uses in
everyday language. This unit will teach you about main and auxiliary verbs, verb
inflection (or changing the form of the verb), different forms of verbs such as
past and present participles, modal verbs and a few other types too.

One easy way to identify a verb though is to put it in its infinitive form – which is
to put the word “to” in front of it.
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“To be”

The verb “to be” talks about the state of someone or something, such as “I am” or
“It is”. We generally make this one of the first things we teach our students, as it
allows them to make up basic sentences for themselves.

Different forms (or inflections) of the verb “to be”:

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Worked Examples

Alicja loves her cat which is black and white.

What is the verb here?

“Is” is the verb

Ollie’s students were being a bit silly in his class yesterday.

What is the verb here?

“Were being” is the verb

Jack has been to Asia several times.

What is the verb here?

“Has been” is the verb

Ollie has always wanted to be an English teacher.

What is the verb here?

“Has been” is the verb
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Past Participle:
↠In Past Simple (tense) timing is clear but in Past participle (verb form) timing is
not clear.

Present Participle:

Present participles are verbs that describe an ongoing action, and these are the
ones that include the “-ing” ending we commonly associate with verbs. Can also
function as part of a verb or adjective
Examples include: swimming, playing, typing, cooking, smiling, talking

Examples of Present Participles:

1.​ Part of a continuous tense:

○​ She is reading a book.​
("Reading" is part of the verb phrase "is reading," showing present
continuous tense.)
2.​ As an adjective:
○​ The crying baby woke everyone up.​
("Crying" describes the noun "baby.")
3.​ In participial phrases:
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○​ Walking down the street, I saw my friend.​

("Walking" introduces a participial phrase describing "I.")

Auxiliary Verbs:
There are three main auxiliary verbs we use in the English language. They are
be, have and do.

All four have different backgrounds and aspirations.

While "have" can act as an auxiliary (e.g., "I have eaten"), in this case, it is not
helping another verb. It is the main verb.

Modal Verbs:
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Transitive Verbs:
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Intransitive Verbs:
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How to tell the difference between Transitive and Intransitive

verbs?
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Verbs that aren’t verbs

1. Gerund

A gerund acts as a noun in a sentence. It can be:

●​ the subject of a sentence

●​ the object of a verb or preposition
●​ a complement (part of the predicate)

Examples of Gerunds:

1.​ Subject:
○​ Swimming is good exercise.​
("Swimming" is the subject of the sentence.)
2.​ Object of a verb:
○​ I enjoy reading.​
("Reading" is the object of the verb "enjoy.")
3.​ Object of a preposition:
○​ She is interested in learning Arabic.​
("Learning" is the object of the preposition "in.")
4.​ Complement:
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○​ My favorite hobby is drawing.​
("Drawing" completes the meaning of "is.")

"The most fun Jack had on his last holiday was swimming in the ocean."
Gerund (because "swimming" is functioning as a noun after "was")

2. Present Participle:

Present participles are verbs that describe an ongoing action, and these are the
ones that include the “-ing” ending we commonly associate with verbs. Can also
function as part of a verb or adjective
Examples include: swimming, playing, typing, cooking, smiling, talking

Examples of Present Participles:

4.​ “Is” is the verb:

○​ She is reading a book.​
("Reading" is part of the verb phrase "is reading," showing present
continuous tense.)
5.​ As an adjective:
○​ The crying baby woke everyone up.​
("Crying" describes the noun "baby.")
6.​ Passive voice:
○​ Walking down the street, I saw my friend.​

Conclusion:

Gerunds and present participles look the same (both end in -ing), but they
function differently.

●​ Gerund: Acts as a noun.​

Examples:
○​ Swimming is good exercise. (Swimming is the subject of the
sentence).
○​ I enjoy reading. (Reading is the object of the verb "enjoy").
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●​ Present Participle: Acts as part of a verb tense or as an adjective.​

Examples:
○​ She is swimming. (Swimming is part of the verb tense "is
swimming").
○​ Look at the burning building. (Burning describes the noun
"building").

3. Past Participle:

Conclusion:
Participles can act as adjectives ending in -ing or -ed.
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4. The infinitive

“I want to cook”
“I remembered to cook”
“I like to eat”

Where want, remembered and like is the verb.

1.​ An infinitive is the base form of a verb, often preceded by "to" (to +
verb), but it cannot act as a complete verb without an
auxiliary/helping verb.

●​ Correct:
○​ I want to run. (To run is an infinitive acting as the object of "want").
●​ Incorrect:
○​ I to run. (To run cannot act as a verb without "want," "like," or similar
verbs).

2.​ An infinitive can also be used as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb:

As a noun:

●​ I love to travel. (To travel acts as the object of the verb "love," telling what I
love).
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As an adjective:

●​ She has a book to read. (To read describes "book").

As an adverb:

●​ He runs daily to stay fit. (To stay fit explains why he runs).

Teaching advice:

ING forms, we just need to let the students know they play different roles. They
play like verbs, adjectives, nouns - just depending on how we use them. And if
you're not sure if something's a noun or an adjective, maybe try swapping the
word out with something, something else. For example, the sport is great, and it
still makes a similar kind of meaning, doesn't it?
"I love cooking". "Cooking" here is the noun, like "I love bread", so we talk about
cycling, skiing, cooking, swimming, all these activities we often use with ING. We
teach -ING as nouns.
Keep it simple to start with, saying yes when we're expressing activities, hobbies
and interests, and that's your context, use ING. It's a good starting point.

OK, so far, OK I think. Now, your students have got a really, really tough job. Once
they start using the ING forms, they're going to have a real problem with - when
do I use the ING? And when do I use something else?

Let me show you an example. "I enjoy cooking", but what about this one? "I
want..." Students might think, "Well, hold on. I enjoy cooking. Why can't I say "I
want cooking"? But this makes sense, surely. But no, of course, English doesn't
make sense. So we say "I want to cook". So here, this verb takes the full infinitive.
This one - "to cook", and it's just the case that we have to show the students that
some verbs go with ING and some verbs go with the infinitive. That's just the way
it is, and they have to learn it.

And then there are some verbs that go with both. So, for example, "I like
cooking", great! Or is it "I like to cook"? Both work equally well. So, not only do
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they need to know which verb goes with ING and which verbs go with the full
infinitive, they also need to know which verb goes with either.

And then, we have some verbs that will change their meaning. They can go with
either ING or the full infinitive but it does change their meaning. So, for example,
"I remembered to cook" and "I remembered cooking". And there is a slight
difference of meaning here. So "I remembered cooking" - I remembered the
activity. "I remembered to cook." - I remembered the intention of starting the
activity.
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Adjective:

Most of the time we find adjectives before nouns:

We need to remember that adjectives sometimes come after the noun they are
modifying and they will usually follow one of these verbs, which talk about
senses and perception:

For example, we say: “be happy”, “feel hungry”, “smell delicious” or “appear
grumpy”.
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In the sentence "Jack has become disinterested in his job in IT", we look for
words that describe something (adjectives describe nouns or pronouns).

Breaking it down:

1.​ "Jack" is the subject (noun) of the sentence.

2.​ "Has become" is the verb (it tells us what Jack is experiencing or doing).
3.​ "Disinterested" describes Jack's state or condition. It tells us that Jack
feels no interest or enthusiasm.

This makes "disinterested" an adjective because adjectives describe or modify

nouns. Here, "disinterested" describes Jack.

How to identify an adjective:

●​ Ask: What is this word telling us about the noun?

●​ Here: What do we learn about Jack?
●​ Answer: Jack is disinterested.

Adjective Order:
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Adverbs:

Nice is an adjective that is being modified by the adverb “extremely”

Terribly is an adverb that modifies the adjective hot.

Jack taught his lesson well today.
Well is an adverb because it modifies the verb taught.
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Adverbs of Frequency:

Indefinite

Definite:

Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, annually

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the one in tick is wrong idk why tho

Incorrect:

"Alicia walks her dog daily twice."

Sounds awkward and disorganized because "daily" and "twice" clash when placed this way.
English prefers a more structured word order, like "twice daily."

Comparative:
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Superlatives:
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When 2 people, superlative is the comparitive

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Parts of Speech:
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Prepositions:
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Quiz yourself:

Phrasal Verbs:
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Conjunctions:
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Discourse Markers:
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Determiners:

Others:
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Reported Speech:

Students have difficulty with IMPERATIVES:

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Passive voice:
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We use the passive voice when we don’t know who did the action or it isn’t that important, or

when it is obvious who did the action.

The passive voice can also be used to emphasise the result of the action, e.g. Murder on the

Orient Express was written rather than who wrote it.

The passive voice is also a way of indicating a different register of language use. That is, when

we want to sound more formal, we use the passive voice more often.

How to change from Active to Passive voice?

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So, when you're teaching the passive voice, you need to remember that the tense
of the passive needs to match the tense of the active.
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Tenses & Aspect:

Tense is when something happened in time.
Aspect is how something happened in time.

Present Simple:
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Present Simple is used when:

1.something that's true in the present, like "I am a teacher"
2.to express habits and routines, things that we do on a regular basis. So, it could
be "I play basketball every Sunday" or "I sometimes go shopping" or something
we never, ever do "She never drives to work."
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3.to express facts and general truths. So for example, "water boils at 100°C" or
"light travels at 300,000 kilometres per second."
4. Fixed Future Event

Another use that can be quite confusing for our students is when we use present

simple to express a future event, so "the plane leaves at 10:00." And that could be

tomorrow morning, next Tuesday, next week. It's in the future.​

And just because we're talking about the future, it does not make it a future tense

because we still have "leave", that infinitive verb. It's not "left". It's not anything

else, or "will leave", or "it's leave", so it's a present simple tense. "The theatre

opens at 6:00 this evening", for example. "Opens" - the form of that verb, as we

saw before I open, you open, they open, we open.​

That's the how you build the present simple. So, it's called present simple, even

though the meaning is in the future and to help students understand well, "when

do we use this tense and not another tense for the future?" Well, here we need to

really sort of build a context for helping them.​

So the context here generally are timetables and programmes and planned

events that perhaps somebody else has actually planned.​

So quite often we'll use it with transport and entertainment and that sort of thing.
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The word "goes" is used here because the sentence likely describes a habitual
action or a general truth, something Jack regularly does during school holidays.
The present tense "goes" is appropriate for this kind of statement.

If the sentence were describing a specific instance in the past, then "went" would
be correct. For example:

●​ Jack went to his apartment for a break during last year's school holidays.

Context determines the correct tense. Since the given sentence appears to
describe a routine or current fact, "goes" fits better.
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Present Continuous:

We use the verb “be” plus a present participle to form the present continuous
tense.
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“I work in Scotland” is used for permanent status so it’s present simple. You can
use both these examples to demonstrate the difference better.

It's still correct if we say you always argue. That's fine. But if we say you're always
arguing, it gives an extra flavour, an extra emphasis of annoyance.
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the present simple is much more fixed and planned and timetables, schedules,
programmes, where this one is more about an arrangement. Between two people,
perhaps. So, "I'm flying to Paris next week."

So, here we're talking about the the future arrangements. If I said "I fly to Paris
next week "essentially. OK, but there we're really emphasising that it's perhaps a
planned event, much more that somebody else has planned on our behalf.

And it's actually a much more certain future, than perhaps, "I'm flying to Paris
next week." "I'm meeting Boris on Tuesday." I've given Boris a call, made an
arrangement. "OK. See you at 9:00."

But it's not a programme. It's not a schedule. It's not as fixed as the present
simple is.

Present Simple (e.g., "I fly to Paris next week")

●​ Usage: This is used for scheduled events or fixed timetables—things that

are definite and not likely to change.
○​ Example: "The train leaves at 8:00 PM." (A train schedule is fixed.)
●​ Why it's more "fixed": It emphasizes the idea that the event is part of a
schedule, often organized by someone or something else (like a company
or airline).
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Present Continuous (e.g., "I'm flying to Paris next week")

●​ Usage: This is used for personal plans or arrangements, especially those

you have made yourself.
○​ Example: "I'm meeting my friend tomorrow." (You arranged this
meeting personally.)
●​ Why it's less "fixed": It reflects a more personal involvement in the plan. It
shows that you've taken steps to make it happen (e.g., buying a plane
ticket, calling a friend), but it’s not tied to something as rigid as a timetable.

Key Difference

●​ Present Simple: Suggests a higher level of certainty or external control. It’s

not about you arranging it; it’s about following something already
established (like a timetable or official plan).
○​ Example: "The plane departs at 6:00 AM." (It’s scheduled.)
●​ Present Continuous: Focuses on the personal nature of the arrangement,
showing that it’s something you planned or are involved in.
○​ Example: "I’m flying to Paris next week." (You decided this and took
action to arrange it.)

The difference is more about tone and implication:

●​ "I fly to Paris next week." → Sounds formal, fixed, and based on external
schedules.
●​ "I'm flying to Paris next week." → Sounds conversational, personal, and
focused on your plans.

Past Simple:
We use the past simple to talk about a past event that is now finished, and we are
usually able to say when it happened. E.g Anne walked to the park yesterday
afternoon.
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if you wanted to have it in the negative, what you'd have to add is the verb "to do".
So, for example, in the negative, we'd say "I didn't speak", or if we wanted to ask a
question you could say "did he speak?"

Uses of Past Simple Tense:

1.to highlight something that happened in the past, a completed action in the
past. So for example, I could say "I lived in Spain."
2.to describe actions that happened in the past that are habitual, are routine. So
you could say "when I was younger I played football."
3.to talk about things that were true for some time in the past. So, for example, I
lived in Spain for two years.

Past Continuous:
We use the past continuous to talk about something that “was happening” in the

past over a period of time.

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For example:

Anne was walking to the park when she saw Jack.

The past continuous is similar to the present continuous – with the difference

being that we put the verb “be” into its past simple form: was/were.
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Uses of Past Continuous:

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Also very good for setting the scene e.g sun and birds
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Present Perfect Simple:

The present perfect simple is used in several situations:

●​ When something happens in the past, but at no specific point in time.

●​ When an action starts in the past and is still continuing in the present

●​ When an action has recently finished.

●​ This tense can be used to link past events or actions with present effects

or results, for example: "Alicja has tidied up the room". The emphasis here

is on the result, as we can see the room is now tidy.

●​ We can use it to talk about an event that has recently stopped – "Ollie has

cooked dinner".

●​ We can use it for a completed action that has an effect on the present –

"Anne has lost her wallet" (so she needs to find it).

●​ We can also use it to talk about “past experience” events at non-specific

times in the past, as in the example we used above: "I have eaten octopus".

We don’t know when they ate the octopus, nor how many times they have

eaten it, just that it has happened.

It’s the auxiliary verb have which is in its present form in the sentence, which is

why we call it present perfect (past perfect is a separate tense and uses the

auxiliary in its past form – had).

This means it could have an impact on the present.

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one more thing to know about this tense is about the verb go.

What is the past participle of go? It is ‘gone’. However, we can also replace ‘have

gone’ with ‘have been’.

Compare the two sentences below:

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I visited China in 2014 is Past Simple

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Joe is alive and Nixon is dead.

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Already is a present perfect word and You don’t use it with simple present;
however they do this in American English, but not in British English. It should be “I
have done it already”.
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Present Perfect Continuous:

The present perfect continuous is something that is happening in the present,
either with a duration or with a sense of recency. We use it when we are
focussing on the duration of something, rather than the fact that it has happened.
The action is often unfinished.
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The present perfect continuous can also be used to show that something is
temporary. So for example, "I've been cycling a lot recently". I don't usually
cycle. Or "Usually, they work from home, but they've been working from a cafe in
the centre for the last few weeks."
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Another interesting use of the present perfect continuous is to emphasise the

result that comes from the action itself. It doesn't matter if the whole action is
finished or not. There is evidence of the result. Take these examples - "I've been
making dinner, so the kitchen is dirty." or "She's been painting, so she's covered
in paint".

Tip:
As you can see, the context often determines the meaning. That's why it's so
important not to teach tenses in isolation. Make sure there's always a clear
meaningful context to enable the students to grasp the meaning correctly.

Past Perfect Simple:

The past perfect simple describes something that happened in the past,
describing an action that is completed before another event or action took place.
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You will find that learners tend to overuse the past perfect. They think "ohh, it's a
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long time in the past so I'll just use past perfect." Of course, we don't use it like
that. So we need to emphasise to students that it's really used to show an action
in the past, before another action in the past.

Past Perfect Continuous:

The past perfect continuous describes something that happened in the past, but

describes an ongoing action.

The past perfect continuous is used to talk about a temporary past event that

happened before another event or action took place.

So, for example, "She was exhausted because she was hoovering the house."
This sentence means that she was exhausted because she was hoovering at that
very moment. She was exhausted because she had been hoovering the house.
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This sentence means that she was exhausted because she had been hoovering
over a period of time, she was still hoovering at that moment, or she had just
finished.
Past continuous highlights interrupted actions while past perfect continuous
highlights a duration of time before something else in the past.
Now, common problems we find with the past perfect continuous. Students tend
to avoid using more complex tenses like the past perfect continuous. Make sure
you concept check the tense well and provide relevant contexts for loads of
meaningful practise.

Future Simple:
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”I’m playing a gig tonight” and not “I pay a gig tonight”

"I will play a gig tonight." Unless, of course, you're deciding right now.

But in actual fact, you would say "I'm playing a gig tonight" because it's, you know,
it's planned and organised.

Future with "going to"

This is the same as the future simple, describing something that will happen in

the future, but focussing on future intentions and plans.

But this time we use “going to” instead of “will”.

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For example:

Anne is going to walk to the park tomorrow.

We construct the sentence using “going to” + the infinitive to talk about future
plans, intentions and predictions.
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So, rather than "I think it will rain." Here, we're saying "Look at those massive
black clouds. It's going to rain." So, the emphasis is much more on the certainty
because we have evidence.

Now, it can be a little bit tricky for students and actually native speakers too,
because say, "look at those clouds. I think it'll rain." Well, that's not incorrect, is it?
However, it's all about Emphasis.

So, "look at those clouds. I think it'll rain." It's not quite the same thing as saying
"look at those clouds. I think it's going to rain." That's what we need to get across
to the students, that there are these different ways and it's really about emphasis.
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Discuss Tina’s routine

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Future Continuous:
describes something that will happen in the future as a temporary situation at a
specific time.
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That's actually 3 verbs involved in this tense, so students might shy away from
using it, but if we give them a really clear context of when we use the future
continuous like, for example, when we're mentioning an action in progress at a
given time.

So, we've got time references in the future. Then, the students can find it a lot
easier to use when they have that context.

So again, plenty of practise in the classroom and using future simple as well as
future continuous.

Future Perfect Simple:

describes something that will happen and be completed or show an action’s
duration up until a certain point.
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So, normally we'd use future perfect to express the first action in the future, and
another tense to express a second one, but here in this example, the student has
used the future perfect to express the 2nd action. So, this is a common problem.

So, what we want to be correct is we will have finished is the first action. Yep,
that's the first one there. Before we run out. And that's the second action. So, they
just need to get it the right way round.
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Future Perfect Continuous:

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Conditionals:
They are made up of two clauses – an “if” clause (condition) and a main clause (result) – that

are closely related to each other. We divide them into different categories depending on their

complexity:

●​ Zero conditional

●​ First conditional

●​ Second conditional

●​ Third conditional

●​ Mixed conditionals
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Why do we use conditionals in English?

Primarily to talk about imaginary or possible situations.

Most conditionals do use the word “if” but there are alternatives you can use.
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Zero Conditional:
It has the simplest grammar structure.
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First Conditional:
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Will can come in the first clause too.

Second Conditional:
are used to talk about situations that are unlikely but not impossible.
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Third Conditional:

Mixed Conditionals:
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Punctuation:
Why is Punctuation important?
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Full Stop:
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Commas:
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When to not use commas?

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Semicolon:
Two independent sentences
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Colons:
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Exclamation Marks:
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Quotation Marks/Inverted Commas:

Hyphens:
We can hyphenate these:
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Rules for Hyphens:

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Bullet Points:
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Parenthesis:

Apostrophes ‘
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Abbreviation:
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Tips:
Punctuation is a part of almost everything we do in English, so that gives lots of opportunity to

ask questions about it naturally as part of a lesson. For example, when you teach a question,

like “What is your name?”, when students see this written on the board they can see that we

start a question with a capital letter, and that we have a question mark at the end. Any time you

write something on the board, if you make sure it is accurate then students will absorb a lot of

the punctuation as a part of the wider piece of language they are learning.
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Also, it’s worth double-checking your handouts, anything you display on the wall, and anything

you get from the internet, to make sure the punctuation is used accurately all the time, so

students are seeing correct use of punctuation all the time in class. This includes making sure

that you are using British or American English consistently, rather than swapping between the

two, because each have slight differences.

Remember to correct your students’ punctuation if they use it incorrectly, or elicit where there

are different possibilities in terms of how punctuation can be used. You could also give

students texts which are missing the punctuation to see if they can complete it correctly, or do

dictations where students can again use your intonation to infer where the punctuation goes.

It’s also a good idea to put a chart on the wall of your classroom that shows the punctuation

symbols, as a reminder to students what they look like and how to use them in their writing.