English: Punctuation

In punctuation questions, you get one sentence, split into four groups of words: A, B, C and D.

On each line there is either one mistake, or no mistake, and a wrong capital letter counts too. Your job is to find the group with the mistake in it. If there is no mistake, you choose N.

In GL's papers N is never printed next to the sentence: it is the fifth box on the answer sheet. The video above and the worked examples below work through the same two lines, with the groups in the same order.

The method

Four steps: read it for the meaning, look between the words, check the danger spots, prove it or choose N.

Worked example

Find the group of words with the mistake in it. If there is no mistake, choose N.

A. At the zoo, Evie B. watched a giraffes long C. neck stretch up to D. the highest leaves. N. No mistake

1. Read it for the meaning. Read the whole sentence first: At the zoo, Evie watched a giraffes long neck stretch up to the highest leaves. It pauses once, after zoo, and stops once, at the end. It tells you something; it doesn't ask.
2. Look between the words. Most mistakes are a mark that's missing, so check every gap and every word ending, and ask: is something missing here? A missing mark counts in the group of the word it should come after, just as the comma after zoo sits in group A.
3. Check the danger spots. Sentence ends first. This is one sentence that tells you something, so it ends with a full stop. That's right. Next, apostrophes. Check every word that ends in s. Leaves just means more than one leaf, so it needs no apostrophe. But the long neck belongs to one giraffe, so giraffe needs an apostrophe before the s, and there isn't one. That's the mistake. Pairs next: nothing opens here, so nothing is left open. Then commas. The comma after zoo comes after the opening words that say where it happened, and that's right. Last, capitals. At starts the sentence, and Evie is a name, so both need capitals. Zoo and giraffe are ordinary words, so they don't. So groups A, C and D all pass.
4. Prove it, or choose N. Clear a group only when every mark and every gap in it is right. Group B can't be cleared: put the apostrophe in, and the whole line is right. N is only for a line where every group passes, and this one has a mistake. So the answer is B.

Answer: B — watched a giraffes long (giraffes → giraffe's)

A second worked example

The video runs a second line through the same steps.

Find the group of words with the mistake in it. If there is no mistake, choose N.

A. How quickly the B. holidays have gone! C. On Monday, we D. go back to school. N. No mistake

• Read it for the meaning. How quickly the holidays have gone! On Monday, we go back to school. Two sentences: the first one exclaims, and the second one tells.
• Look between the words. Check every gap and every word ending for a missing mark: gone ends the first sentence with its exclamation mark, Monday has its comma, and school ends with a full stop. Nothing is missing.
• Check the danger spots. The first sentence starts with How, but it doesn't ask anything, so the exclamation mark is right. And On starts the next sentence with a capital. Holidays just means more than one holiday, so no apostrophe is needed. Nothing opens, so there's no pair to close. The comma after Monday comes after the opening words that say when. And Monday is a day of the week, so it needs its capital.
• Prove it, or choose N. Groups A, B, C and D all pass, so nothing is missing and nothing is wrong. So the answer is N.

Answer: N — No mistake (every group passes)

Things to watch out for

1. Look for what's missing. Most mistakes are a mark that isn't there, so you won't see anything wrong. Watched a giraffes long needs an apostrophe: giraffe's. So does cant reach the top: can't. And in the party late the, two sentences run together, so they need a full stop and a capital: the party late. The.
2. Lots of punctuation isn't a mistake. In the worked example, group A was the busiest, with a comma and two capitals, and every one was right. Group B had no marks at all, and that's where the mistake was. Never pick a group just because it's busy.
3. Pairs and sentence ends cross the groups. In My grandma (who is | eighty-one still | swims in the sea | every morning., a bracket opens in group A, so read on to find where it closes. It should close after eighty-one, in group B, but it never does. And in Is it time | to go yet. I | can't wait to see | the fireworks!, the question starts in group A, with Is, so the end of yet, in group B, needs a question mark, not a full stop.
4. One right mark doesn't clear a group. In The netball players' | kit bags went in | Mrs Wongs minibus | for the tournament., group C has Mrs Wong, with the capitals a title and a name need, and both are right. But the minibus belongs to Mrs Wong, so Wong needs an apostrophe before the s, and it's missing. So group C has the mistake.

Related

• The complete 11+ question-type guide
• English: Spelling — the same four groups, checked for letters
• English: Choose the Best Word — pick the word that is correct English and makes sense
• English: Word Classes — the job a word does on its line

All example questions come from the Brainblox question bank — practise this question type inside 25+ learning games, timed mock exams and focused practice. Brainblox is an independent app: not affiliated with, endorsed by or licensed by any exam board, school or assessment publisher, and it contains no past papers.