1.3 Punctuation, gender, vocabulary

English home language

Grade 5

Jeepers creepers

Module 4

Punctuation; gender; vocabulary

Follow the paws . . .

Gemma and Pasha will be travelling with us this year. We will meet up with them in each unit. Look out for them and their friends!

What is Gemma doing wrong? Why is she not making sense?

That’s right !!

We stop at the end of a sentence when we speak. Sometimes while we are speaking, we even pause a while. We use our voices differently when we ask a question or exclaim at something. When we write, we use full stops, commas, question marks and exclamation marks – and this makes what we say, easier to understand.

Let’s start with the capital letters

Briefly jot down where we would use capital letters.

Circle all the places in the following paragraph where capital letters have not been used:

Let’s quickly make notes so that we do not forget what we have discovered.

We use capital letters for the following:

• specific names of people and places, of towns and countries, of buildings, of books – in fact, anything that is a proper noun (do you still remember what you learnt about proper nouns last year?). Write down a few examples and do the same for each of the following:
• names of the days of the week, months of the year and festivals
• the first word of a new sentence:
• the word “i”
• Can you think of three more examples? Write them down.

STOP! CHECK! REWRITE CORRECTLY!

1. xuas tied mr baboon up and drank water from the dam.
2. sir warthog, jack jackal and leo leopard refused to guard the dam on monday and tuesday.
3. i read this story to thandi, susie and calvin.
4. peter promised to buy the book in cape town after christmas.

Now I know where to use capital letters! [LO 4.4.3; 6.2.6]

Punctuation

What are the following punctuation marks called and how are they used?

1. λ A full stop is used _____ . Complete and give an example.
2. ? A question mark is used ____ . Example (write your own sentence):
3. ! An _____ mark is used to show ____ . Example: (own sentence)

STOP! CHECK! REWRITE CORRECTLY!

• mr tortoise said he would save the water for the animals
• no
• did the leopard and jackal offer to help
• may i have some more water
• let me go
• xuas hopped onto mr tortoise’s back and sat down
• Commas are used:

• to separate the items in a list, e.g. ____

to separate the rest of the sentence from the person being spoken to, e.g. (Thank you, Thabo.) Write down your own example.

• to stress specific words in the beginning of a sentence, e.g. (Yes, I will go home now.) Write down your own example.
• to separate the two parts of a sentence when a person or thing is described or named in two ways, e.g. Gemma, the naughty puppy, chewed up my slippers. (Can you give your own example?)

STOP! CHECK! REWRITE CORRECTLY IN YOUR BOOK OR ON A SHEET OF PAPER

(The asterisks serve as clues to help you.)

1. *bees love roses * pansies * poppies and dahlias *
2. *maja * the bee * is sunning herself on a petal *
3. *no * leave the insect alone *
4. *yes * *I don’t mind spiders at all *
5. *peter * my friend * is frightened of spiders *
6. *mark * are you also scared *

And how about these?

1. i’ll beat you with my tail
2. xuas slapped smacked beat and hammered mr tortoise on his back
3. mr leopard come and see what is happening at the dam
4. no leave mr baboon alone
5. are you also sly mr tortoise
6. tortoise lion leopard and jackal laughed to see the hare’s short tail
7. xuas the clever hare had outwitted them again