Topic: Y6 GPaS (SPaG) Test

Relevant for the Year 6 GPaS test requirements, according to the UK National Curriculum. GPaS (Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling) is also known colloquially as 'SPaG'.

A new Englicious app for practising for this test (Paper 1) is now available from UCL. Click on the icon on the left for more information.

Y6 GPaS Test: Identify the subordinate clause

Find the subordinate clause in a range of examples

Identify the subordinate clauses in each of the following examples. Click on the words that comprise the subordinate clause to select or deselect them.

Y6 GPaS Test: Identify the subordinating conjunction

Find the subordinating conjunction in a range of examples

Identify the subordinate conjunctions in each of the following examples. Click on the word (or words) to select or deselect them.

Y6 GPaS Test: Identify the verbs

Find the verbs in a range of examples

Identify the verbs in each of the following examples. Click on the word (or words) to select or deselect them.

Y6 GPaS Test: Modal verbs and adverbs expressing modal meaning

Read each of the following examples carefully. Which kind of word indicates modal meaning (e.g. 'obligation', 'necessity', 'possibility', etc.)? A modal verb or an adverb?

Y6 GPaS Test: Noun or pronoun?

Work out whether the highlighted word is a noun or a pronoun

In each of the following examples, indicate whether the highlighted word is a noun or a pronoun:

Y6 GPaS Test: Noun or verb?

In each of the following examples, indicate whether the highlighted word is a noun or a verb:

Y6 GPaS Test: Preposition phrases, adverb phrases, and time

In each of the following examples, indicate whether time is expressed using a preposition phrase or an adverb phrase:

Y6 GPaS Test: Present or past tense?

In each of the following examples, indicate whether the highlighted verb is in present or past tense:

Y6 GPaS Test: Pronoun or preposition?

In each of the following examples, indicate whether the highlighted word is a pronoun or a preposition:

Y6 GPaS Test: Question, command, statement or exclamation

Identify the type of clause below. The punctuation has been removed to make the answers less obvious.

Y6 GPaS Test: Question, command, statement or exclamation: Advanced

Identify the type of clause highlighted in each multi-clause sentence below.

The punctuation has been removed to make the answers less obvious.

Y6 GPaS Test: Select the pronouns

In each of the following examples, select the pair of pronouns that correctly fills the blanks:

Y6 GPaS Test: Select the verb form

Select the correct verb form for each example.

Y6 GPaS Test: Spelling plurals

Select the correct plural form:

Y6 GPaS Test: Subordinate clause?

Select whether the example sentence contains a subordinate clause or not.

Y6 GPaS Test: Synonyms

Select the synonym of a given word, from a multiple choice list.

One of the words is a (near) synonym of the example word. Select it. Struggling? Try putting the given word and the options in a sentence, to explore their different meanings.

Clause types: statements, questions, commands and exclamations

The National Curriculum recognises four clause types (also called ‘sentence types’ ). They are usually used to ‘do different things’. These are statements, questions, commands and exclamations.

Each clause type has its own typical pattern (i.e. word order).

In statements, the Subject comes in its typical position before the verb. Here are some examples:

GPaS (SPaG) KS2 Tests

This page contains links to published GPaS tests on the Department for Education's website.

Published Tests

Below you will find links to copies of the GPaS test from previous years. Each link includes English grammar, punctuation and spelling test papers, mark schemes and level thresholds.

Auxiliary verbs

What is an Auxiliary verb?

In this short video, we look at a special set of verbs, called auxiliary verbs.

Modal auxiliary verbs

Modal verbs are a special type of auxiliary verb. Watch this short video to learn more.

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