These bright, appealing grammar worksheets are a great help for practising and revising the use of ellipses in Y6. There are three worksheets in total, covering the following five sections – ‘understand’, ‘challenge’, ‘test’, ‘explain’ and ‘apply’.
- Understand
Students read a selection of sentences and indicate the purpose for which an ellipsis is being used.
- Challenge
Students write sentences in which ellipses are used to generate tension and uncertainty, in response to two image prompts.
- Test
Students distinguish between sentences that use ellipses correctly and incorrectly.
- Explain
‘Using your own words, explain the different ways in which ellipses can be used. Give examples.’
- Apply
Students are tasked with composing a short, tense passage of writing in which two ellipses are used for different purposes.
What is an ellipsis?
An ellipsis is a punctuation mark (’...’) that has four main uses:
- To create tension by adding a pause before the end of a sentence.
- To indicate that a sentence or thought is trailing off.
- To show that a character is uncertain or is hesitant in their speech.
- To indicate that words are missing from a sentence.
Ellipsis examples
- ’...and that was when the monster appeared.’
- ‘Where was I? I’m not sure I can remember…’
- ‘Perhaps ... but then again ... maybe not…’
- The mayor said: “People should definitely visit our town ... there are plenty of fun things to do.”
National Curriculum English programme of study links
[Year 6 detail of content to be introduced (statutory requirement)] Linking ideas across paragraphs using a wider range of cohesive devices: repetition of a word or phrase, grammatical connections [for example, the use of adverbials such as ‘On the other hand’, ‘In contrast’, or ‘As a consequence’], and ellipsis