KS2 English textbook

Chapter 8: Semi-colons, colons, dashes, bullet points and hyphens

Strand Punctuation
Level Year 6
Practice 92 questions with step-by-step solutions

National Curriculum for England, Key Stage 2 English, Year 6. Content: Use a semi-colon, colon or dash to mark the boundary between two independent clauses (Y5-6 punctuation), Use a colon to introduce a list or an explanation (Y5-6 punctuation), Punctuate bullet points consistently, as fragments or as complete sentences (Y5-6 punctuation), Use a hyphen to avoid ambiguity, e.g. re-cover and recover, and in compound adjectives (Y5-6 punctuation).

Open Year 6 chapter

By the end of this chapter you will be able to

Join two closely related sentences with a semi-colon, and start the second clause with a small letter
Use a colon after a complete sentence to introduce a list
Use a dash, with a space either side, to mark a boundary between two clauses
Punctuate a bulleted list consistently
Use a hyphen to show what goes with what, and to avoid a misreading

You should already know

Full stops, commas and sentences (Year 4 punctuation)
Direct speech and its punctuation (Chapter 9 of this book, and Year 4 Chapter 5)

Where this leads

Brackets, dashes and commas for parenthesis (Chapter 9 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