Year 6 Key terminology, including determiners, fronted adverbials and parenthesis worksheet

“Little words, big meaning” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 6 English unit “Key terminology, including determiners, fronted adverbials and parenthesis”, for children aged 10 to 11, 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. Weeks 1 to 2 of the year, 4 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Little words, big meaning

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 6 · English · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can spot determiners and explain how they shape the noun after them.

A Look back3 min

1.
Circle the noun in: the quiet garden.
thequietgarden
2.
Read: I jump in the river. We sing at school. Write each word in the right column.
riverjumpschoolsing
Noun Verb
3.
Circle the pronoun in: Ola kicked it.
Olakickedit

B Watch me, then you4 min

Ola and her class stood in a museum. The guide said, ‘Look at this enormous painting.’

Watch me

this is a demonstrative. It points at one painting.

enormous is an adjective. It sits between this and painting.

this still introduces painting, even with enormous in the way.

Now you

1.
Circle the determiner in: those tall trees.
thosetalltrees

C Your turn8 min

Circle the word that fits the gap. Listen to the sound of the word straight after the gap.

1.
We saw ______ elephant at the zoo. Circle the right word.
aan
2.
We saw ______ old giraffe at the zoo. Circle the right word.
aan
3.
We saw ______ huge elephant at the zoo. Circle the right word.
aan
4.
We saw ______ giraffes at the zoo. Circle the right word.
asome

Say it out loud: Which word sat straight after the gap, and how did it change your choice?

D Spot the mistake3 min

Sam says: “The determiner has to sit right next to the noun, so ‘this big mistake’ is wrong.”

1.
Is Sam right? Circle your answer.
Yes, Sam is rightNo, Sam is wrong

E Think deeper4 min

A school coach parked beside a stone museum on a sunny day

1.
Write two sentences about a school trip. In one, use a quantifier. In the other, use a demonstrative. Underline each determiner and label it Q or D.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Little words, big meaning · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. garden

2. Noun: river, school · Verb: jump, sing If your child puts jump in the noun column, point to 'I jump in the river'. Ask: in this sentence, is jump a thing, or what I do?

3. it

B

1. those

C

1. an If your child circles a, ask them to say the first sound of elephant out loud. Vowel sounds take an.

2. an If your child circles a because giraffe starts with g, point to old. The sound straight after the gap decides, and old starts with a vowel sound.

3. a If your child circles an because elephant starts with a vowel, point to huge. The sound straight after the gap decides, and huge starts with a consonant sound.

4. some If your child circles a, ask them to read the sentence with a. A means just one, but giraffes means more than one.

D

1. No, Sam is wrong If your child circles Yes, they believe a determiner must touch its noun. Point to this, then big, then mistake. Ask: does this still introduce mistake?

E

1. Look for: Two sentences: one with a quantifier (some, many, a few, no) and one with a demonstrative (this, that, these, those), with each determiner underlined and labelled.

Words to use

Say“Read the sentence once with the determiner, then once with a different one. What changed in the meaning?”

Instead of“That is right, and that is wrong, and you should know the rule by now.”

After the sheet

Set out three cups on the table. Say ‘Pass me a cup’, then ‘Pass me that cup’, then ‘Pass me some cups’. Ask your child what changes each time, then swap roles.

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:

Starting sentences in new ways(with a plan)
Brackets, dashes or commas?(with a plan)
Synonyms, antonyms and small words(with a plan)

Every Year 6 English worksheet

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