Grammar
Every word in a sentence does a job, and the right form of a word depends on the words around it. Here’s how to name every job and pick every form.
Chapter 1
What are grammar questions?
Every word in a sentence does a job: it names, does, describes or links. That job is the word’s type (or word class).
Word Types picks out one word and asks its type. Or it names a type, and you find the word. Word Forms, the other Rush game here, is chapter 4.
The sentence. The words around the picked-out word give its job away.
The question. “What type of word is it?” or “Which word is a verb?”
A tiny snail crawled up the slimy window.
What type of word is "crawled" here?
- Option 1: adjective
- Option 2: noun
- Option 3: adverb
- Option 4: verb
A Verbal question from Rush, level 1.
Every word has a job
Each word’s job is under it. The four big jobs each have a card below. The small words (determiner, preposition, conjunction, pronoun) are in chapter 3.
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Noun: a naming word
A person, place, thing or idea.
London, Tuesday and joy are nouns too. Test: can a, the or my go in front? A rabbit, the joy. Names like London get a capital letter instead.
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Verb: a doing or being word
What someone does, or what something is.
Being words count: is, was, are. Test: change the tense. A verb changes: yawns, yawned, will yawn.
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Adjective: a describing word
Tells you what a noun is like.
It sits before the noun (fluffy kitten) or after is or was (was sleepy). Test: does it describe a person, place or thing?
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Adverb: more about a verb, an adjective or another adverb
How, when, where, how often or how much.
Silently, soon, outside, never. Very and really too, as in very tired. Test: ask how, when or where. How did the owl fly? Silently.
Chapter 2
Solve it in 3 steps.
Here’s the question, one step at a time.
The question
A tiny snail crawled up the slimy window.
What type of word is "crawled" here?
- Option 1: adjective
- Option 2: noun
- Option 3: adverb
- Option 4: verb
A Verbal question from Rush, level 1.
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Step 1
Read the question line.
It picks out crawled and asks its type here: the job crawled does in this sentence.
A tiny snail crawled up the slimy window.
What type of word is “crawled” here?
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Step 2
Ask what job it does.
Ask the four big questions. Crawled doesn’t name, describe or say how. It says what the snail did: a doing word, a verb.
- Does it name a person, place or thing?No
- Does it say what someone does or is?Yes: verb
- Does it describe a noun?No
- Does it say how, when or where?No
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Step 3
Check it: change the tense (the time).
Only a verb changes when the tense does. Crawled changes every time, so it’s a verb.
The three wrong answers
| The mistake | Do this instead |
|---|---|
| Adverb. Crawled tells you how the snail moved, so it feels like a “how” word. | Crawled is the moving itself. An adverb would say how it crawled: slowly. |
| Adjective. It’s all about the snail. | Adjectives say what a noun is like: tiny snail. Crawled says what it did. |
| Noun. Crawl can be a noun: “swim the front crawl”. | Ask what it does here. After the snail, it says what the snail did. |
So it’s a verb. Crawled is what the snail did, and it changes with the time: crawls, crawled, will crawl.
Remember: Ask what it’s doing here.
Chapter 3
Small words and two-job words.
From level 2, Rush asks the small words too. At the top level, it picks a word that can do two jobs and puts both among the answers.
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Pronoun. Stands in for a noun.
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Determiner. Comes first, before a noun: which one, whose, how many.
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Preposition. Before a noun, often saying where or when.
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Conjunction. Joins two words, or two parts of a sentence.
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Modal verb. A helper before the main verb: can, will, must, might.
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Kinds of noun. A name (capital), a group, or something you can’t see or touch.
Small word? Look to its right.
The same word can do different jobs. What comes straight after it decides.
A noun after it: a preposition.
Words with their own verb: a conjunction.
Nothing after it: an adverb.
It works for this and that too: this book (a determiner), this is mine (a pronoun).
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Noun or verb? Look left.
After a, the or my: a noun. After I, she or they: a verb.
Trap: deciding from the word alone. Watch, light and play do both.
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Adjective or adverb?
Describes a noun: adjective. Says how it happened: adverb.
Trap: -ly isn’t always an adverb (lovely, lonely), and fast, hard and late are adverbs without it.
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-ing words
Describing a noun: adjective. What someone was doing: verb.
Trap: calling every -ing word a verb. Ask what it’s doing here.
Chapter 4
Word Forms.
The other Rush game on this page: the same word, changed to fit.
Word Forms gives you a word and asks for another form of it: more than one, the past, the form after has or had, a comparing word, an opposite or a new ending.
The wrong options are a letter or two off, so say it, then check every letter.
greedy, _____, greediest
Which word fills the gap?
- Option 1: greedier
- Option 2: greedyer
- Option 3: more greedyer
- Option 4: greedy
A Verbal question from Rush, level 2.
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Step 1
Say the pattern aloud.
Say it with the gap filled: greedy, greedier, greediest. The gap is the -er word.
greedygreediest
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Step 2
Use the ending rule.
Greedy is short, so it takes -er, not more. A consonant then y turns the y to i, just as in greediest.
greedier
The y turns to i, then add -er.
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Step 3
Check every letter.
Greedyer kept the y. More greedyer uses more and -er together, which is never right. Greedy hasn’t changed.
So it’s greedier. A short word takes -er, and a consonant then y turns the y to i.
Remember: Say it, then spell it.
The six kinds Word Forms asks
| Kind | Rule | Example | Trap |
|---|---|---|---|
| More than one | Most add -s. After s, x, ch, sh: -es. Consonant then y: -ies. | boxes, babies, toys | |
| The past | Yesterday or last week? Use the past. Many have their own. | catch, caught | |
| After has, have, had | Has or have makes the present perfect, and had the past perfect. Both take the third form, not the plain past, though for most verbs the two are the same: has walked. | has taken | |
| Comparing | Short words: -er, -est. Long words: more, most. | bigger, more careful | |
| Opposites | Un-, dis- or in-. In- becomes il- before l, im- before m, p or b, ir- before r. | illegal, impossible, irregular | |
| Endings | The word it comes from decides: space, spacious; silent, silence. | spacious, silence |
Learn these by heart
No rule makes these, and they come up again and again.
- child → children
- mouse → mice
- tooth → teeth
- foot → feet
- goose → geese
- woman → women
- go, went, has gone
- take, took, has taken
- write, wrote, has written
- see, saw, has seen
Chapter 5: In the exam
Grammar in whole sentences.
Rush asks one word at a time. The exam puts grammar into sentences, with five options. The jobs and forms you know still decide it.
The questionThese days, my little brother ______ his teeth every morning.brush, brushes, brushed, brushing, brushs
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Step 1
Find the time word.
These days means now, and every morning means again and again. Brushed is out.
These days, my little brother … his teeth every morning.
Now, and again and again.
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Step 2
Find who’s doing it.
My little brother is one person, like he. He brushes, not he brush. Brushing needs is in front.
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Step 3
Check the spelling.
Brush ends in sh, so it adds -es, like a plural. Brushs isn’t a word.
brushes
So it’s brushes. These days means now, my brother is one person, and brush takes -es.
Remember: When? Who? Then spell it.
Other ways the exam asks it
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The twins hung ______ coats up.
their, there or they’re?
Their, there or they’re
They’re = they are. Their = belongs to them. There = a place.
The coats belong to the twins: their. Trap: there, because it sounds the same.
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Mum drove Leo and ______ to school.
I or me?
I or me
Take the other person out and say it.
Mum drove me, so it’s me. Trap: “Leo and I” sounds smart, but Mum drove I is wrong.
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The box of old coins ______ heavy.
was or were?
Was or were
Find what the sentence is about.
The box is heavy, one thing, so it’s was. Trap: coins is closer, so were sounds right.
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The fox crept silently past the hens.
What type of word is “silently” in line 3?
Word types in a passage
Find the line, read the whole sentence, ask its job.
Silently says how the fox crept: an adverb. Trap: answering without reading the line.
Chapter 6
Try it yourself.
Six real questions from Rush, easy to hard, 60 seconds on the clock.
Use the steps
- Read the question line.
- Ask what job it does.
- Check it: change the tense (the time).
Remember: Ask what it's doing here.
For parents.
More on grammar, and what parents ask us.
More on grammar
What Rush's grammar games don't ask
Rush asks word classes and word forms, one word at a time. Some papers also ask about clauses and phrases, subject and object (who does the action, and who or what it's done to), active and passive, and the names of tenses such as the present perfect. Those need a whole sentence taken apart, so practise them on paper. The word-class habit carries over: work out what each word is doing before naming anything.
Questions parents ask
Which word classes does my child need for the 11+?
Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs first, then pronouns, prepositions, determiners and conjunctions. Rush's Word Types also asks modal verbs (can, could, should, might) and kinds of noun: proper, collective and abstract.
What's the difference between a preposition and a conjunction?
Look at the words after it. A preposition comes before a noun or pronoun: 'before lunch', 'after the match'. A conjunction starts a clause with its own verb: 'before the bell rang'. The same word can be either, so the words after it decide.
Is a determiner the same as an adjective?
No. A determiner comes first and says which one or how many: the, a, my, this, every. An adjective describes. In 'my shiny watch', 'my' is the determiner and 'shiny' is the adjective.
What is a modal verb?
A verb that helps another verb and says how likely or necessary something is: can, could, will, would, shall, should, may, might and must. It comes before the main verb: 'you must stop', 'it might rain'. Check the job in the sentence: in 'she will win', 'will' is a modal verb, but in 'he wrote a will', it's a noun.
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