--- title: SATs: grammar, punctuation and spelling paper — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «SATs: grammar, punctuation and spelling paper», a lesson of the english course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The GPS paper tests grammar, punctuation and spelling: a 45-minute paper of about 50 short questions, plus a separate spelli --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / SATs: grammar, punctuation and spellin… # SATs: grammar, punctuation and spelling paper Lesson 52 of the english course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/0/) — The GPS paper tests grammar, punctuation and spelling: a 45-minute paper of about 50 short questions, plus a separate spelling test of 20 words. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/1/) — Many questions ask what job a word does: an adjective describes a noun ("a quick fox"), and an adverb tells how, when or where something happens ("ran quickly", "ran yesterday"). - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/2/) — Little words change everything: "Circle the word that is NOT a noun" asks the opposite of "Circle the noun", so read the whole question. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/3/) — Some questions ask for Standard English, the form used in tests and formal writing: "we were", not the dialect "we was", which is fine at home but loses the mark here. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/4/) — Picture Ella saying "Fronted adverbials are bussin'" ("bussin'" means great): a fronted adverbial is a phrase at the start of a sentence telling when, where or how, followed by a comma, as in "After lunch, we played." - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/5/) — The grammar and punctuation paper takes 45 minutes and is worth 50 marks; the spelling test has 20 words. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/6/) — In the spelling test, each word is read aloud on its own and in a sentence, and you write it in a gap. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/7/) — An adjective describes a noun ("a tall tree"); an adverb describes a verb, telling how, when or where ("she sang loudly"). - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/8/) — A fronted adverbial comes at the start of a sentence and is followed by a comma: "Later that day, it snowed." - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/9/) — A semicolon can join two full sentences that are closely linked: "It was raining; we stayed in." - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/10/) — If one side of a semicolon could not stand alone as a sentence, the semicolon is wrong there. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/12/) — When you rewrite a sentence in the passive, keep the same tense: past stays past. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/13/) — "We was" is a dialect form; the Standard English form is "we were", and Standard English is what the test asks for. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/14/) — Missing a small word like "not" can turn a right answer into a wrong one. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/15/) — Leaving about five minutes to check catches careless mistakes. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/16/) — Grammar terms are useful because they let you talk about how sentences work, though nobody needs to know every term perfectly. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/17/) — "Mardy" is a Leeds and Midlands word for grumpy or sulky. - ← previous: [SATs: the reading paper](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/51-sats-the-reading-paper/) - next →: [Writing assessment and the "Year 6 panic"](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/53-writing-assessment-and-the-year-6-panic/) - ↑ back to [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/)