Year 5 Speech punctuation, parenthesis and apostrophes worksheet

“Speech Interrupted Sentences” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 5 English unit “Speech punctuation, parenthesis and apostrophes”, for children aged 9 to 10, and takes about 20 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Week 3 of the year, 4 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Speech Interrupted Sentences

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 5 · English · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can punctuate a speech interrupted sentence with two commas and a small letter.

A Look back3 min

1.
Which word is a place name that needs a capital letter? My cousin lives in leeds.
cousinlivesleeds
2.
Which sentence asks a question and ends correctly?
Where is my coat.Where is my coat?Where is my coat!
3.
Which word is a describing word (an adjective)? The tall tree swayed.
talltreeswayed

B Watch me, then you4 min

Dad is cooking tea and Zara is hungry. Dad stirs the pan and says, “Tea is ready, so lay the table.” We will put said Dad in the middle.

A kitchen table with a teapot and a loaf of bread, no people

Watch me

Stop the first piece with a comma inside the marks, because Dad is still talking.

The reporting clause, said Dad, ends with a comma too.

The second piece starts small: so, not So.

“Tea is ready,” said Dad, “so lay the table.”

Now you

1.
Lena reads out: “The lamp is broken, so we need a torch.” Write it with “said Lena” after “broken,”.
2.
Which one is punctuated correctly?
“The lamp is broken,” said Lena, “so we need a torch.”“The lamp is broken”, said Lena, “so we need a torch.”“The lamp is broken,” said Lena, “So we need a torch.”“The lamp is broken.” said Lena, “so we need a torch.”

C Your turn8 min

Each row changes one thing. Keep the speech going, then check the commas.

A small wooden rowing boat tied to a harbour wall

1.
Jo calls: “Pass the water bottle, and grab a towel.” Write it with “called Jo” after “bottle,”.
2.
Ravi asks: “Can we stop at the café, or is it too far?” Write it with “asked Ravi” after “café,”.
3.
Maya shouts: “Hold the rope tight, or the boat will drift!” Write it with “shouted Maya” after “tight,”.
4.
Hal says: “The rain has stopped, so Priya can ride her bike.” Write it with “said Hal” after “stopped,”.

Say it out loud: Read each line aloud. Where does the speech stop for the reporting clause, and where do its two commas go?

D Spot the mistake3 min

An empty bus stop on a wet morning with a puddle

Kit wrote: “Before the bus comes,” said Ali, “We need our bags.”

1.
Write the line with the mistake fixed.

E Think deeper4 min

Write your own speech interrupted sentence, then explain your choice of break.

1.
Your sentence: Why did you choose this break point?

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Speech Interrupted Sentences · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. leeds

2. Where is my coat?

3. tall

B

1. Look for: Inverted commas round each spoken piece; comma after broken inside the marks; comma after said Lena; small letter for so; full stop inside the closing marks. If “So” has a capital letter, the child has started a new sentence. Say: Lena is still speaking, so the word stays small.

2. “The lamp is broken,” said Lena, “so we need a torch.” If the child picks the one with “So” capitalised, they have treated the second piece as a new sentence. Say: the speech goes on, so it stays small. If they pick a full stop after “broken,” say: the sentence is still going, so use a comma.

C

1. Look for: Speech 'Pass the water bottle,' then called Jo, then 'and grab a towel.' with commas after bottle and called Jo, and a small 'and'. If there is a full stop after “bottle” instead of a comma, the sentence has been split in two. Say: the first piece stops early, so it needs a comma while the sentence goes on.

2. Look for: Speech 'Can we stop at the café,' then asked Ravi, then 'or is it too far?' with a small 'or' and a question mark inside the closing marks. If the question mark is missing at the end, the child has lost the question. Say: a question still ends with a question mark, even when the sentence is split.

3. Look for: Speech 'Hold the rope tight,' then shouted Maya, then 'or the boat will drift!' with a small 'or' and an exclamation mark inside the closing marks. If the child writes “Or the boat will drift!” with a capital, they have made a new sentence. Say: the speech goes on, so “or” stays small.

4. Look for: Speech 'The rain has stopped,' then said Hal, then 'so Priya can ride her bike.' with a small 'so' and a capital P for the name Priya only.

D

1. Look for: Small letter w in 'we' so the speech continues; commas kept after comes and after said Ali; full stop inside the closing marks. If the capital W stays, the child thinks the speech has ended. Say: the second piece is still Ali’s words, so it begins with a small letter.

E

1. Look for: A correct speech interrupted sentence with two commas and a small letter after the clause, plus an explanation of a natural pause.

Words to use

Say“Which words are spoken? Put a comma before the first closing marks and after the reporting clause. Then check the next word is small unless it is a name or the word I.”

Instead of“Just put a full stop there and start a new sentence.”

After the sheet

Say a sentence at the table with a pause, such as “Please pass the bread, and then sit down.” Write it with speech marks, a comma at the pause and a comma after the reporting clause.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

3 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Brackets for extra facts(with a plan)
Dashes for dramatic effect(with a plan)
Apostrophes at sports day(with a plan)

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