KS2 English textbook

Chapter 6: Modal verbs, the perfect form and the passive

Strand Grammar
Level Year 6
Practice 104 questions with step-by-step solutions

National Curriculum for England, Key Stage 2 English, Year 6. Content: Use modal verbs (might, should, will, must) and modal adverbs (perhaps, surely, possibly) to show degrees of possibility (Y5-6 grammar), Use the perfect form of verbs (have or has with the past participle) to mark relationships of time and cause (Y5-6 grammar), Identify the subject and the object of a sentence (Y5-6 grammar), Use the active and the passive voice, and explain how a passive changes the focus of a sentence (Y5-6 grammar).

Open Year 6 chapter

By the end of this chapter you will be able to

Choose a modal verb or modal adverb that shows how certain the speaker is
Form the perfect with has or have, then the past participle
Name the subject and the object of a sentence
Change an active sentence into the passive, and back again
Explain why a writer might choose the passive, to focus on the object or to leave out the doer

You should already know

Verbs, the simple past and the present tense (Year 4 grammar)
Relative clauses and expanded noun phrases (Chapter 5 of this book)

Where this leads

Formal and informal English, and the subjunctive (Chapter 7 of this book)

Lessons in this chapter

Read the whole chapter on one page (good for printing).

Practise with real exam questions

The DfE publishes every past KS2 test, with mark schemes, for free.

KS2 English past papers