NAPLAN Grammar and Punctuation — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which sentence uses an apostrophe correctly?
- The dog wagged its' tail.
- The dogs' tails wagged happily. (Correct answer)
- The dog's wagged their tails.
- The dog wagged it's tail.
Correct answer: The dogs' tails wagged happily.
'Dogs'' shows plural possession (the tails belonging to more than one dog). 'Its' (no apostrophe) is the correct possessive for 'it'.
Question 2: Choose the sentence with correct capital letters.
- We Visited Sydney In January.
- we visited Sydney in january.
- we visited sydney in january.
- We visited Sydney in January. (Correct answer)
Correct answer: We visited Sydney in January.
Sentences start with a capital, and proper nouns (Sydney) and months (January) take capitals. Capitalisation is tested in NAPLAN Language Conventions.
Question 3: Which word is a verb in this sentence? 'The kangaroo jumped over the fence.'
- jumped (Correct answer)
- over
- fence
- kangaroo
Correct answer: jumped
'Jumped' is the action word (verb). 'Kangaroo' and 'fence' are nouns; 'over' is a preposition.
Question 4: Which sentence uses commas correctly in a list?
- We bought apples, bananas, and grapes. (Correct answer)
- We, bought apples bananas grapes.
- We bought apples bananas and grapes.
- We bought, apples bananas grapes.
Correct answer: We bought apples, bananas, and grapes.
Items in a list are separated by commas. NAPLAN assesses correct comma use in lists.
Question 5: Which sentence is a question and needs a question mark?
- What time does the bus arrive (Correct answer)
- Please close the door
- I like reading books
- The sun is shining today
Correct answer: What time does the bus arrive
'What time does the bus arrive?' asks something and needs a question mark. Choosing the correct end punctuation is a NAPLAN skill.
Question 6: Choose the correct word: 'There ____ three birds in the tree.'
- are (Correct answer)
- am
- was
- is
Correct answer: are
'Birds' is plural, so the verb must agree: 'are'. Subject-verb agreement is tested in NAPLAN grammar.
Question 7: Which sentence uses the correct pronoun?
- I and Sam went to the park.
- Sam and I went to the park. (Correct answer)
- Me and Sam went to the park.
- Sam and me went to the park.
Correct answer: Sam and I went to the park.
'Sam and I' is correct when the people are the subject doing the action. A trick: remove 'Sam and' — you would say 'I went', not 'me went'.
Question 8: Where should the full stop go? 'The match was exciting our team won by two goals'
- After 'match'
- No full stop is needed
- After 'exciting': 'exciting. Our team won by two goals.' (Correct answer)
- After 'team'
Correct answer: After 'exciting': 'exciting. Our team won by two goals.'
This is a run-on sentence. A full stop after 'exciting' separates the two complete ideas. Sentence boundaries are assessed in NAPLAN.
NAPLAN Grammar and Punctuation
Which sentence uses an apostrophe correctly?