Year 4 · Grammar and punctuation
Practice: punctuating a whole conversation
Use and punctuate direct speech, including inverted commas
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Use and punctuate direct speech, including inverted commas
Key learning points
- • The four-part rule
- • Questions and exclamations
- • New speaker, new line
- • Reporting clause first
This lesson at a glance
- 20 minutes
- 19 parts to scroll through
- 4 quick checks
- No marked quiz yet
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 19
Watch first
Practice: punctuating a whole conversation
Learn exactly where speech marks go around a character's words.
In a nutshell
Use and punctuate direct speech, including inverted commas
What you already know
Part 2 of 19
Before we start
What you already know
You can use inverted commas around what someone says.
Key words
Part 3 of 19
Key words
Words you'll need today
- inverted commas
- The speech marks around the words spoken.
- reporting clause
- The 'said Mia' part that tells us who spoke.
- new speaker, new line
- Every time someone different speaks, start a new line.
Learning cycle
Part 4 of 19
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Part 1 — The rules
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 5 of 19
Learn
The four-part rule
Capital letter to start the speech. Punctuation before the closing inverted comma. Inverted commas around only the spoken words. Then the reporting clause. 'I found it,' said Mia. Note the comma inside the speech marks, not after them.
Explore the idea
Part 6 of 19
Learn
Questions and exclamations
'Where was it?' asked Dad. 'Under the sofa!' she said. When the speech ends with ? or !, you do not add a comma as well, and the reporting clause still starts with a small letter because the sentence is not finished.
Quick check
Part 7 of 19
Quick check
Which is punctuated correctly?
Quick check
Part 8 of 19
Quick check
'Are you coming?' ___ Leo.
Reset break
Part 9 of 19
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 2 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Learning cycle
Part 10 of 19
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Part 2 — Writing a conversation
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 11 of 19
Learn
New speaker, new line
Every change of speaker begins on a new line, indented. This is why written conversations look like a staircase down the page — the layout itself tells the reader that someone else is talking.
Explore the idea
Part 12 of 19
Learn
Reporting clause first
You can put the reporting clause at the front: Mia said, 'I found it.' Then the comma comes before the inverted commas and the speech starts with a capital. Mixing up which side the comma goes on is the most common slip.
Quick check
Part 13 of 19
Quick check
When do you start a new line?
Quick check
Part 14 of 19
Quick check
Which is right?
Common mix-ups
Part 15 of 19
Common mix-ups
Things people often get wrong
- Putting the comma outside the closing inverted comma.
- Starting 'said Mia' with a capital S mid-sentence.
- Keeping two speakers on the same line.
Challenge round
Part 16 of 19
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Challenge round
Part 17 of 19
Game · Fill the gaps
Finish the sentences
Choose the word that belongs in each gap.
Capital letter to start the ____.
Punctuation before the closing ____ comma.
Inverted ____ around only the spoken words.
Mastery quiz
Part 18 of 19
No quiz for this one
This lesson has no marked quiz attached yet.
Lesson round-up
Part 19 of 19
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
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Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo the work
Your written work for this lesson
This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.
The last bus
The bus shelter smelled of wet coats. Mira pressed her timetable flat against the glass, as though staring at the numbers might make the 9:42 appear. Rain tapped the roof in small, impatient fingers. Somewhere behind her, a shop shutter came down with a sound like a full stop.
She had been brave all day. She had been brave in the corridor, brave at lunch, brave when the register reached her name and nobody looked up. Being brave, she decided, was mostly a matter of keeping your face still.
Headlights swung around the corner and lit the puddles gold. Mira picked up her bag. Tomorrow she would say something. Tonight she would simply go home.
Original extract written for Good Learning Co.
Reading questions
- Find two words or phrases that show how Mira is feeling, and explain what each one suggests.
- How does the writer use the weather and the sounds to build the mood? Use a short quotation.
- Write the next paragraph in the same style, keeping the writer's short sentences at the moments that matter.
Reading response
ReadingRead the extract again, then write about how the writer makes you feel that way. Use a short quotation and explain your choice of words.
2 paragraphs (PEE)
Extended writing
WritingWrite your piece in full, then redraft the opening so it hooks the reader.
250–350 words
Reading log
ReadingNote the book, the pages you read and one thing you noticed about the writing.
20 minutes' reading
Saved as you type.
Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover