How can you tell they’ve got it: Expressing Time, Place and Cause?

If they’ve got it, you’ll see things like: Use time conjunctions to connect clauses (e.g., 'We went inside because it was raining', 'After the bell rang, we lined up'); Use adverbs of time and cause within sentences (e.g., 'First, she opened the door. Then, she stepped outside. Therefore, she got wet.'); Use prepositions of time and cause in phrases (e.g., 'during the lesson', 'before lunch', 'because of the rain'). Or just try it together: When your child writes a story, do they use time words like "after", "while", or "soon" to show the order things happened — rather than starting every sentence with "then"?

English Grammar & Punctuation Ages 7–8

Expressing Time, Place and Cause

Your child can join ideas to show when and why. They use words like when, before, because and so, as in we went in because it rained.

In curriculum terms

Use conjunctions (when, before, after, while, so, because), adverbs (then, next, soon, therefore) and prepositions (before, after, during, in, because of) to express time, place and cause within and across sentences

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.

Use time conjunctions to connect clauses (e.g., 'We went inside because it was raining', 'After the bell rang, we lined up')
Use adverbs of time and cause within sentences (e.g., 'First, she opened the door. Then, she stepped outside. Therefore, she got wet.')
Use prepositions of time and cause in phrases (e.g., 'during the lesson', 'before lunch', 'because of the rain')

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Try this together

When your child writes a story, do they use time words like "after", "while", or "soon" to show the order things happened — rather than starting every sentence with "then"?

Where this sits on the map

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

Builds on

Prepositionsages 5–7Using prepositions for time/cause builds on Y1 prepositions

Subordinate clausesages 6–9Time/cause conjunctions extend Y2 subordination/co-ordination

Expressing Time, Place and Causethis skill · ages 7–8

Unlocks

Fronted Adverbials and Commasages 8–9Fronted adverbials build on understanding conjunctions, adverbs, and prepositions to express time and cause

Conjunctions, Prepositions and Interjectionsages 10–11Explaining the function of prepositions in general and in context builds on practical experience using prepositions and adverbs for time, place, and cause

Expanded noun phrasesages 9–10Prepositional phrase use is enriched by experience using conjunctions, adverbs, and prepositions together to express time, place, and cause

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

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9E4LA06low confidenceYear 4 · Language

understand that complex sentences contain one independent clause and at least one dependent clause typically joined by a subordinating conjunction to create relationships, such as time and causality

AC9E3LA08low confidenceYear 3 · Language

understand that verbs are anchored in time through tense

AC9E2LA06low confidenceYear 2 · Language

understand that connections can be made between ideas by using a compound sentence with 2 or more independent clauses usually linked by a coordinating conjunction

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

Adjectives vs adverbsages 7–8 Choosing A or Anages 7–8 Grammar Terms: Clauses and Conjunctionsages 7–9 Irregular past tense verbsages 7–8

All Grammar & Punctuation skills →