English Proofreading by Grade: Which Mistakes P1–P6 Children Learn to Spot

Proofreading questions look the same at every grade — “find the mistake and correct it” — but what is hidden in the sentence changes a lot between P1 and P6. A P1 child is looking for a missing capital letter. A P6 child may be looking for one wrong verb in the middle of an eight-sentence story.

Knowing which mistakes belong to which grade helps in two ways: you can practise what your child will actually meet, and you won’t worry when a P2 child misses a mistake that is really P5 material.

This guide follows the ladder we built ProofreadEasy on: 11 mistake types and 45 rules, each introduced at the grade where it typically appears in primary worksheets. Schools and syllabuses differ, so treat the grades as a guide, not a rulebook — if your child’s school teaches something earlier, practise it earlier.

The 11 types of mistakes in primary proofreading

Almost every planted mistake in a primary proofreading question falls into one of these groups:

Spelling — becuase → because
Capitals and full stops — tom is here → Tom is here.
Punctuation — dont → don’t
a / an / the — a apple → an apple
Plurals — two cat → two cats
Verb agreement — he go → he goes
Tenses — I eated → I ate
Prepositions — in Monday → on Monday
Pronouns — Me like it → I like it
Comparing — more taller → taller
Word choice — their is → there is

The types build on each other: a P4 passage still contains capital letters and plurals, alongside the new types. That’s why early habits matter so much.

P1: the edges of the sentence

P1 sentences are short (four to seven words) and each one hides one mistake. The mistakes are about what a sentence looks like on the page:

Capital letter at the start: my cat is black. → My cat is black.
“I” is always a capital: Mum and i went home. → Mum and I went home.
Names, days and months: We swim on monday. → We swim on Monday.
Full stop at the end: I like apples → I like apples.
a or an: I ate a egg. → I ate an egg. (and an before a silent h: an hour)
Plural after a number: I have two pencil. → I have two pencils.
Common spelling traps in everyday words.

What to practise at home: the “edges” check — first word, last word, names — on every sentence your child reads. It catches most P1 mistakes on its own; there’s a five-minute daily version in capital letters and full stops.

P2: number, person and time

P2 adds the mistakes that depend on understanding the sentence, not just looking at it. Many P2 sentences now hide two mistakes.

is / are, was / were: There is two cats in the classroom. → There are two cats…
has / have: They has a new teacher. → They have a new teacher.
-s on verbs: She play the piano. → She plays the piano. — and the reverse, They plays → They play.
Past tense with a time word: Yesterday we visit Grandma. → …we visited Grandma.
More plurals: boxs → boxes, babys → babies, childs → children.
Prepositions of time and place: in Monday → on Monday, at the kitchen → in the kitchen.
Pronouns: Him is my friend. → He is my friend.; This is me book. → This is my book.
Spelling with endings: runing → running, makeing → making.

The three “match” questions — how many? who? when? — find nearly all P2 grammar mistakes. If your child learns to ask them, P2 proofreading becomes much easier. For the grammar itself, GrammarEasy has parent-friendly guides to subject–verb agreement and in, on and at.

P3: punctuation and verb forms

P3 keeps single sentences but adds punctuation beyond the full stop, and more verb forms:

Question marks: Where is my bag. → Where is my bag?
Commas in a list: I like apples pears and grapes. → I like apples, pears and grapes.
Contractions: I dont know. → I don’t know.
Comma after Yes / No: Yes I can. → Yes, I can.
Irregular past tense: We goed to the park. → We went…
After did, will and is: did not went → did not go; will goes → will go; is play → is playing.
do / does: Do he like rice? → Does he like rice?
An extra “the”: We play the football after school. → We play football…
More pronouns: Come with I. → Come with me.; She hurt himself. → She hurt herself.

What to practise at home: read questions aloud with a rising voice — children who hear a question remember the question mark.

P4: passages, and mistakes that need the whole story

From P4, proofreading usually moves from single sentences to short passages of five or six sentences, with at most one mistake in a line. Some mistakes can only be found by reading the passage as a whole:

Tense across a story: a story that starts Last Saturday we went to the beach can’t suddenly say We build a sandcastle. → We built…
Who “he” or “she” is: if Grandma is the subject, He made us lunch → She made us lunch.
Apostrophes for owning: Toms bike → Tom’s bike.
Past participles: She has went home. → She has gone home.
Prepositions after words: good in maths → good at maths; afraid from dogs → afraid of dogs.
Comparing: more taller → taller, beautifuller → more beautiful, the most big → the biggest, gooder → better.
Confusable words: their / there / they’re, to / too, then / than, its / it’s, your / you’re, were / where.
Adverbs: She runs quick. → She runs quickly.

Read the whole passage once before hunting. A child who checks line by line without knowing the story will miss the tense and pronoun mistakes. The four-step checking routine starts with a read for meaning for exactly this reason, and the passage routine for P4–P6 has a worked example.

P5–P6: longer passages, subtler word choice

P5 and P6 passages are longer (six to eight sentences) and hide more mistakes, using every type above. Two word-form mistakes are added:

-ed or -ing: I was very boring in the lesson → I was very bored… (and an interested film → an interesting film)
Noun or adjective: The garden is very beauty. → …very beautiful.

The challenge at this level is less about new rules and more about stamina and focus: keeping the routine going through a whole passage without slowing down too much.

What to practise at home: time one passage a week. Speed is not the goal — but knowing how long a passage takes helps in exams. In Singapore, the PSLE tests this in Paper 2 — see PSLE English Editing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which proofreading mistakes are most common in primary exams?

Across all grades, the most frequent are capitals and full stops, verb agreement (is / are, -s on verbs), tenses and plurals. From P4, confusable words like their / there and then / than become common too.

My child is in P4 but still misses P1 mistakes. Is that a problem?

It’s very common. Capital letters and full stops are easy to understand but easy to skip when the sentence is longer. Add the “edges” check (first word, last word, names) to every passage and it usually improves within a few weeks.

How many mistakes are there in a proofreading question?

It varies by school and paper. Single-sentence questions usually have one mistake per sentence at P1 and sometimes two at P2–P3; passages at P4–P6 often have one mistake in some lines and none in others, and the question tells you how many to find.

Should my child learn grammar terms like “subject” and “past participle”?

Not necessarily. A child who can say “there are two, so it’s are” understands agreement without the term. Terms help later, but noticing and fixing the mistake comes first.

ProofreadEasy follows this grade ladder: choose your child’s grade, and every round contains the mistake types for that level, with an explanation of each one for parents. Coming soon to the App Store — see how it works.