Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar Set 4
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar Set 4 is a further practice set for the accuracy strand of 13+ Common Entrance English, focusing on the difference between commonly confused word pairs, correct use of the hyphen in compound describing words, and consistent use of tense and pronoun across a passage.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Revise commonly confused words that trip up even confident writers: less/fewer (fewer for countable nouns, less for uncountable), lay/lie, and bought/brought.
- Learn to use a hyphen to join two words acting together as a single describing word before a noun, such as a well-known author or a five-year-old child.
- Check that pronouns match their nouns in number and gender throughout a passage, and that a pronoun's reference is never ambiguous.
- Keep verb tense consistent within a sentence or paragraph unless there is a clear reason to shift, and watch particularly for irregular past tenses such as swam, brought and began.
- Learn the difference between homophones that depend on meaning rather than sound alone, such as its/it's, so a spelling choice always matches the intended sense.
- When editing your own writing, read it aloud in your head, since hearing the rhythm often reveals a missing word, a repeated word or an inconsistent tense more reliably than silent reading.
Worked example
Rewrite this sentence correctly, choosing the right word from each pair and adding a hyphen where needed: There were less than ten well known runners at the fund raising race, and fewer people watching than last year.
- Check 'less than ten runners': ten runners is a countable noun, so 'less' should be 'fewer'.
- Check 'fewer people watching': people is also countable, so 'fewer' is already correct here.
- Add a hyphen to each compound describing word before its noun: 'well known runners' becomes 'well-known runners', and 'fund raising race' becomes 'fund-raising race'.
- Combine the corrections into the full sentence. Final answer: There were fewer than ten well-known runners at the fund-raising race, and fewer people watching than last year.
Practice questions
Type your answer and press Check to be marked straight away, or reveal the answer and mark yourself.
Q1Choose the correct word: We had ___ time to finish the test than we expected. (less / fewer)Show answer
Answer: less (time is uncountable).
Q2Choose the correct word: There were ___ people at the concert than last year. (less / fewer)Show answer
Answer: fewer (people is countable).
Q3Add a hyphen where needed: a ten year old girl won the competition.Show answer
Answer: a ten-year-old girl (the compound describing word before the noun needs hyphens).
Q4Identify and correct the pronoun error: 'The dog wagged their tail happily.'Show answer
Answer: their should be its (the dog is a single, non-human animal, so use 'its').
Q5Correct the tense error: 'Last week, she swims to the buoy and back without stopping.'Show answer
Answer: swims should be swam (the sentence is set in the past, 'last week').
Q6Which sentence is correct if you mean you carried your umbrella with you: 'I brought my umbrella yesterday' or 'I bought my umbrella yesterday'?Show answer
Answer: 'I brought my umbrella yesterday' (brought means carried; bought means purchased).
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a 13+ Common Entrance exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Correct the error in this sentence and explain why: There were less than twenty pages left in the notebook.
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Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
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Rewrite this sentence, adding a hyphen where needed and correcting the homophone error: Each essay needs it's own well written cover sheet by Friday.
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Correct the FOUR errors in this passage, rewriting it correctly: last tuesday the class visited a museum and see a real dinosaur skeleton but there was less exhibits than they're guide had promised
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Free printable worksheet
Want more practice on paper? Download the spelling, punctuation and grammar set 4 worksheet pack - 12 pages of exam-style questions with a full mark scheme. One email opens every download in this browser for 14 days - no account, no card. Print it for personal and classroom use.
This topic is chapter 34 of 13+ English Workbook, the whole course as one free printable PDF.
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