Arrange supplied words into one grammatical sentence.
Free to use and free to share. There is no sign-up, no score, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere.
Practise it now
Build a sentence that can stand up. Drag two bricks onto the plate.
This exercise practises order sentence elements alongside its own main skill, Main & Subordinate Clauses.
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A worked example
One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.
Finding the real subject
Worked example: see which noun the verb has to agree with.
Two nouns and one verb. Only one of the nouns can govern it.
Answer: The clasp of the necklaces is tarnished
How you get there
"The clasp of the necklaces is tarnished" is the one arrangement that agrees, because "is" has to match "clasp", the noun the sentence is really about, and not "necklaces", which is only standing nearby. "The necklaces of the clasp is tarnished" uses exactly the same words but puts "necklaces" where the subject belongs, and "is" cannot match "necklaces".
Why the other answers tempt
The noun nearest the verb is not always its subject: in "the roof of the stables", the verb belongs to "roof", not to "stables".
If they are stuck, say this
Shape will not settle this: either noun can head the sentence. Find the word that changes with number - is/are, was/were, has/have, does/do, or the -s ending on the verb itself - and ask which noun it has to agree with.
Build a sentence that can stand up. Drag two bricks onto the plate.
This engine’s own main skill is Main & Subordinate Clauses. It practises order sentence elements alongside it.
A main clause has a subject and a verb and makes complete sense on its own, so it can stand up by itself. A subordinate clause starts with a word like "because", "when" or "although" - it leans on a main clause and topples over without one. Two subordinate clauses have nothing to lean on, and two main clauses cannot simply be pushed together: they need a conjunction or a full stop between them.
What to say if they get stuck
Try putting a plugged brick on the plate all by itself and see what happens to it.
Bricks with a plug on the left are subordinate clauses: "because", "when", "although". They have to lean on something.
Every sentence needs exactly one brick that makes sense on its own - a main clause.
How order sentence elements differs from the skills beside it
The same exercise practises one other skill, and telling them apart is often the difficulty rather than the exercise itself. On this page the skill is: arrange supplied words into one grammatical sentence, and it stops where meaning and punctuation are fixed unless explicitly targeted.
Questions parents ask about order sentence elements
Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.
Arrange supplied words into one grammatical sentence. It is one of 41 named English skills in the 11+, in the grammar strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.
The noun nearest the verb is not always its subject: in "the roof of the stables", the verb belongs to "roof", not to "stables". The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.
Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Shape will not settle this: either noun can head the sentence. Find the word that changes with number - is/are, was/were, has/have, does/do, or the -s ending on the verb itself - and ask which noun it has to agree with.
The skill map draws the line here: Meaning and punctuation are fixed unless explicitly targeted. A question past that line is testing a different named English skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
The grammar strand holds 9 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to order sentence elements are select a clause connector, select a pronoun form and classify a word in context. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.
Use Clause Builder, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to order sentence elements, it runs in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. It also has its own link, so you can send it to a child without sending them anywhere else first.
Comprehension, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation are four different problems
A free diagnostic separates them, so practice goes where the gap actually is rather than on whichever one is easiest to set.
