Common SPaG Errors

Even confident writers make mistakes with Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar (SPaG). In the CSSE 11+ English paper, SPaG is assessed throughout — it affects your marks in both the comprehension and the creative writing sections. This lesson gathers together the most common errors students make so that you can learn to spot and avoid them.

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Top Spelling Errors

These are the words most frequently misspelled by Year 5 and 6 students:

Commonly misspelled	Common mistake	Correct spelling
definitely	definately, definatly	definitely
separate	seperate	separate
necessary	neccessary, neccesary	necessary
because	becuase, becasue	because
believe	beleive	believe
beginning	begining	beginning
occurred	occured	occurred
embarrass	embarass	embarrass
disappear	dissapear	disappear
immediately	immediatly	immediately
occasion	ocassion, occassion	occasion
recommend	recomend, reccommend	recommend
accommodate	accomodate	accommodate
rhythm	rythm	rhythm
successful	successfull, succesful	successful

Tip: Many of these involve double letters. When you are unsure, think about the word's root and apply the rules you learned in the spelling lesson.

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Top Grammar Errors

1. Subject-verb agreement mistakes

Incorrect	Correct	Why?
The group of children were noisy.	The group of children was noisy.	"Group" is singular.
Everyone are ready.	Everyone is ready.	"Everyone" is singular.
There was many people there.	There were many people there.	"People" is plural.

2. Could of / should of / would of

Incorrect	Correct
I could of helped.	I could have helped.
She should of known.	She should have known.

This is one of the most common errors in Year 5 and 6 writing. Always write have, not of.

3. Tense inconsistency

Incorrect	Correct
She walked into the room and sees a cat.	She walked into the room and saw a cat.
They were happy and decide to celebrate.	They were happy and decided to celebrate.

Rule: If you start in the past tense, stay in the past tense.

4. Double negatives

Incorrect	Correct
I don't want nothing.	I don't want anything.
She can't find nowhere to sit.	She can't find anywhere to sit.

Two negatives cancel each other out. "I don't want nothing" technically means "I want something" — not what the writer intends!

5. Wrong pronoun

Incorrect	Correct
Me and Tom went to the park.	Tom and I went to the park.
The teacher gave it to Tom and I.	The teacher gave it to Tom and me.

Trick: Remove the other person and see which sounds right. "Me went to the park" sounds wrong. "I went to the park" sounds right. "The teacher gave it to I" sounds wrong. "The teacher gave it to me" sounds right.

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Top Punctuation Errors

1. Missing apostrophes (or apostrophes in the wrong place)

Incorrect	Correct	Why?
The dogs bone.	The dog's bone.	Possession — the bone belongs to the dog.
The childrens' toys.	The children's toys.	"Children" is already plural and does not end in s — add 's.
Lets go!	Let's go!	Contraction of "let us".

2. Comma splices

A comma splice is when two main clauses are joined with just a comma (no conjunction).

Incorrect	Correct options
The rain stopped, we went outside.	The rain stopped, and we went outside. / The rain stopped**;** we went outside. / The rain stopped**.** We went outside.