Elementary school students make a variety of grammar mistakes. Some of the most common ones include:
Subject-verb agreement
Some elementary school students have trouble ensuring that the subject and verb in a sentence agree in number. For example, saying "He walk to school" instead of "He walks to school."
Grade 3 subject verb agreement worksheets
In our grade 3 grammar section, students are provided with worksheets to practice subject verb agreements.
Grade 4 subject verb agreement practice
Further subject verb agreement practice is provided at the grade 4 level.
Capitalization
Students may forget to capitalize the first letter of a sentence, proper nouns, and the pronoun "I".
Capitalization worksheets
We have worksheets for students to practice capitalization from kindergarten to grade 5. This page will be a good place to start:
Punctuation
Students may struggle with using correct punctuation marks, such as commas, periods, question marks, and exclamation marks.
Punctuation practice
Similarly, we have kindergarten to grade 5 worksheets for students to practice punctuation. To select your grade, start on this page:
Pronoun usage
Young students also struggle with using pronouns correctly, such as saying "Me and my friend went to the park" instead of "My friend and I went to the park”.
Pronoun worksheets
Using the pronouns “I” and “me” are covered in our grade 2 grammar section. This is the full list of pronoun worksheets for kindergarten to grade 5:
Run-on sentences
Young students often write sentences that go on for too long without proper punctuation or conjunctions. They need to learn about run-on sentences.
Run-on sentences and conjunctions practice for grade 4
In our grade 4 grammar section, we have several kinds of exercises covering run-on sentences. This first section asks students to rewrite run-on sentences as either compound or complex sentences.
Fixing run-on sentences
In these worksheets, students break up run-on sentences into two proper sentences.
Run-on sentences to compound sentences
These worksheets ask students to form compound sentences from run-on sentences.
Correcting run-on sentences for grade 5 students
In our grade 5 grammar section, we also have worksheets for students to correct run-on sentences.
Fragments
Elementary students sometimes write incomplete sentences, known as fragments, that lack a subject or verb, such as "Jumping on the trampoline."
Fragment or sentence worksheets for grade 2
In these worksheets, students are asked if the statements are a fragment or a sentence.
Grade 3 fragment or sentence practice
Similarly, we have a set of fragment or sentence worksheets for grade 3 students.
Fixing fragments to full sentences for grade 4
In grade 4, we have two sets of worksheets for students to practice fragments. In this first set, students are asked to fix fragments into full sentences.
Fragment or sentence worksheets for grade 4
This final set of worksheets ask students to identify fragments and sentences.
Homophones
Students may confuse words that sound alike but have different meanings, such as “their” and “there”, “its” and “it’s” and “to” and “too”.
Its or it’s worksheets
Students practice using “its” or “it’s” in these grade 3 worksheets.
Practice using to, too or two
Students complete sentences with to, too or two in these worksheets, helping them put the words into context.
Tense confusion
Students may also have trouble with using the correct verb tense, such as saying "I am go to the store" instead of "I am going to the store."
We have entire sections of verb tenses for grade 4 and 5. You’ll find those sections here.
Double negatives
Students may use double negatives incorrectly, such as saying "I don't have no pencil" instead of "I don't have a pencil."
Incorrect Word Forms
Students may use the wrong form of a word, such as using "runned" instead of "ran," or "swimmed" instead of "swam."
It's important to note that these mistakes are common for elementary school students as they are still developing their language skills. Teachers and parents can help them by providing examples, giving plenty of practice, and offering constructive feedback to improve their writing skills.
