Year 6 How to Use an Ellipsis SPaG Worksheets

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

This resource is part of the SPaG Gym collection.
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• Worksheets featuring five sections: understand challenge test explain and apply. Activities include SATs style questions and opportunities for creative writing responses with eye-catching images as prompts