How can you tell they’ve got it: Expanded noun phrases (age 9+)?

If they’ve got it, you’ll see things like: Identify the preposition and noun phrase within a prepositional phrase, e.g. in 'under the old bridge', 'under' is the preposition and 'the old bridge' is the noun phrase; Add prepositional phrases to expand sentences with detail about where, when, or how, e.g. 'The cat slept' → 'The cat slept on the warm windowsill throughout the afternoon'; Distinguish prepositional phrases functioning as adjectives (modifying nouns: 'the house on the hill') from those functioning as adverbs (modifying verbs: 'she ran across the field'). Or just try it together: When your child writes directions or descriptions of a place — like "behind the old tree" or "near the top of the hill" — do they use prepositional phrases naturally to show where or when something is?

English Grammar & Punctuation Ages 9–10

Expanded noun phrases (age 9+)

Your child can add phrases that tell where or when. The cat slept becomes the cat slept on the warm windowsill all afternoon.

In curriculum terms

Form and use prepositional phrases (preposition + noun phrase) to add detail about time, location, or direction within sentences, recognising how they function as adjective or adverb phrases

Ages are typical, not deadlines — follow your child’s pace. How to help at home →

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

Identify the preposition and noun phrase within a prepositional phrase, e.g. in 'under the old bridge', 'under' is the preposition and 'the old bridge' is the noun phrase
Add prepositional phrases to expand sentences with detail about where, when, or how, e.g. 'The cat slept' → 'The cat slept on the warm windowsill throughout the afternoon'
Distinguish prepositional phrases functioning as adjectives (modifying nouns: 'the house on the hill') from those functioning as adverbs (modifying verbs: 'she ran across the field')

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Try this together

When your child writes directions or descriptions of a place — like "behind the old tree" or "near the top of the hill" — do they use prepositional phrases naturally to show where or when something is?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on

Prepositionsages 5–7Constructing prepositional phrases requires knowledge of the most frequent prepositions of location and direction

Expanded noun phrasesages 8–10Prepositional phrases are a key mechanism for expanding noun phrases; learners must understand NP expansion before analysing how prepositional phrases function

Expressing Time, Place and Causeages 7–8Prepositional phrase use is enriched by experience using conjunctions, adverbs, and prepositions together to express time, place, and cause

Fronted Adverbials and Commasages 8–9Fronted adverbials often contain prepositional phrases; prior work with adverbials builds awareness of how preposition phrases function in sentences

Expanded noun phrases (age 9+)this skill · ages 9–10

Unlocks

Nothing on the map depends on this yet.

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Where this fits in the official school curriculum — our best automated guess, not yet checked by a person.

Show candidate curriculum codes · 3 ACARA · 2 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9E4LA08medium confidenceYear 4 · Language

understand how adverb groups/phrases and prepositional phrases work in different ways to provide circumstantial details about an activity

AC9E5LA06low confidenceYear 5 · Language

understand how noun groups can be expanded in a variety of ways to provide a fuller description of a person, place, thing or idea

AC9E6LA06low confidenceYear 6 · Language

understand how ideas can be expanded and sharpened through careful choice of verbs, elaborated tenses and a range of adverb groups

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2E4LA07medium confidenceEnglish · Level 4 · Language strand

VC2E5LA06low confidenceEnglish · Level 5 · Language strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

Adjective Order in Sentencesages 9–10 Brackets and dashes for parenthesisages 9–10 Cohesion within paragraphsages 9–11 Commas Before Joining Wordsages 9–11

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