Year 3 English · Key Stage 2 · Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation – English Appendix 2

Year 3 time, place and cause: conjunctions and prepositions

Good writing tells the reader when something happened, where it happened and why. In Year 3, children learn three kinds of word that do this job: conjunctions such as when, before, after, while, so and because; adverbs such as then, next, soon and therefore; and prepositions such as in, during and because of. They also learn the grammar words clause, subordinate clause, conjunction and preposition.

Time, place and cause, explained

Compare “We ate our picnic” with “After the rain stopped, we ate our picnic under the oak tree because the grass was too wet to sit on.” The second sentence gives the reader a time, a place and a reason. Year 3 is where children start to build sentences like this on purpose, rather than writing a string of short sentences linked by “and then”. The topic is about choosing the right small word to carry each piece of information.

Many of these words are conjunctions, which join two clauses. A clause is a group of words built around a verb. Some clauses can stand alone as a sentence (“The bell rang”). A subordinate clause cannot: “when the bell rang” or “because it was cold” leaves the reader waiting for the main idea. Words for time include when, before, after and while. Words for cause include because and so. Children are taught to spot the clause, find the joining word and say what it adds.

Adverbs do a different job. Words such as then, next and soon move a story forward in time, and therefore shows that one thing is the result of another: “It was raining. Therefore, we stayed in.” An adverb like this does not join two clauses on its own, which is why it usually sits at the start of a new sentence or inside a clause. You may hear the older word “connective” used for all of these linking words. The national curriculum names them by their job instead: conjunction, adverb or preposition.

Prepositions come before a noun, a pronoun or a longer noun phrase and show how it relates to something else. They can show time (before breakfast, after school, during the film), place (in the box, under the bed, behind the door) and cause (because of the rain). A useful test is what follows the word. A preposition is followed by a noun phrase (“before lunch”). A conjunction is followed by a clause with its own verb (“before we had lunch”). So before and after can be either, depending on the sentence.

The word lists in the national guidance are examples, not a complete set, and schools choose which words to focus on and in what order. In class you will see children combining two short sentences using a conjunction, finishing sentence stems such as “I stayed inside because…”, swapping a repeated “and then” for a more precise word, and underlining the clause in a sentence they have read. The same skills turn up in history timelines and in science explanations that need “because”.

Words your child will hear

Conjunction: A word that joins two clauses, such as when, while, because or so. Before and after can also be conjunctions.
Clause: A group of words built around a verb. “Mia ran inside” is a clause.
Subordinate clause: A clause that adds extra information to a main clause and cannot stand alone as a sentence, such as “because it started to rain”.
Preposition: A word that comes before a noun or noun phrase to show time, place or cause, such as during, under or because of.
Adverb: A word that says more about a verb or a whole sentence. Then, next, soon and therefore are adverbs used to show time and cause.
Connective: An older word for any linking word. Some schools still use it, but the national curriculum sorts these words into conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Year 3 says:

Pupils should be taught expressing time, place and cause using conjunctions, adverbs or prepositions
Pupils should be taught to recognise and use the grammatical terminology: preposition, conjunction, clause, subordinate clause

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: improving a short passage

These sentences are short and disconnected. Rewrite them so the reader knows when, where and why: “Mia ran inside. It started to rain. She hung up her coat. It was wet. She was cold.”

Read it aloud. Every sentence is correct, but the reader cannot tell what happened in what order, or why Mia did anything.
Start with cause. Mia ran inside because it started to rain. “Because” joins the two ideas, and “because it started to rain” is a subordinate clause: it has its own verb but cannot be a sentence on its own.
Add time. “Then” moves the story on to the next thing that happened. A time phrase works too: “After a few minutes” starts a new sentence and shows time has passed. Here “after” is a preposition, because a noun phrase (a few minutes) follows it.
Add place with prepositions. Say where the coat went: on the hook behind the door. Both “on” and “behind” come before a noun phrase and show position.
Use “so” for a result. Mia was still cold, so she wrapped herself in a blanket. “Because” points back to the reason, while “so” points forward to the result.
Check each sentence: does it have a main clause that makes sense alone, and is the extra information joined on with the right word?

Mia ran inside because it started to rain. Then she hung her wet coat on the hook behind the door. After a few minutes, she still felt cold, so she wrapped herself in a blanket.

Common mistakes and how to help

Using “then” to join two sentences: “She ate her tea then she went out”

In speech, we chain events together with “and then”, and “then” feels like a joining word. It is an adverb, so on its own it cannot join two clauses, and the sentence runs on.

What helps: Offer three fixes: a full stop and a new sentence (“She ate her tea. Then she went out.”), “and then”, or a real conjunction: “She went out after she had eaten her tea.”

Mixing up “because” and “so”

Both link a reason to a result, so children swap them and write “I went to bed early so I was tired”. The words have different jobs even though the idea is the same.

What helps: Ask which part is the reason. “Because” introduces the reason: “I went to bed early because I was tired.” “So” introduces the result: “I was tired, so I went to bed early.”

Writing a subordinate clause as a whole sentence: “Because it was raining.”

Children answer “Why?” out loud in exactly this way, and it sounds natural in conversation. On paper the thought is unfinished, because the main idea is missing.

What helps: Ask “Is the idea finished?” then attach the clause to its main clause: “We stayed in because it was raining.” Or put it first: “Because it was raining, we stayed in.”

Following “because of” with a clause: “because of it was raining”

“Because” and “because of” sound similar, but “because of” is a preposition and needs a noun phrase after it. “Because” is a conjunction and needs a clause with a verb.

What helps: Compare the two side by side: “because of the rain” (noun phrase) and “because it was raining” (a clause with a verb). If there is a verb after it, use “because”.

How to help at home

Why-chains at tea. Ask a question such as “Why did you pick that book?” and ask your child to answer with “because…”. Then add a result with “so…”. Swap roles and let your child ask you.
Hide and describe. Hide a small object in the room and give clues using words of place: “It is under something soft, behind something tall.” Your child follows the clues, then hides something for you.
Sentence stems. Say half a sentence and let your child finish it: “Before we left…”, “While I was brushing my teeth…”, “We took umbrellas because…”. Notice together how the second half changes with each starter.
Retell the day without “and then”. Ask your child to tell you about their day, using different time words each time: before, after, while, soon, next. Count how many different ones they manage.
Spot the little words in a book. Choose a page of a story and hunt for words that show time, place or reason. Ask whether each one is followed by a noun phrase (preposition) or by a group of words with a verb (conjunction).

Updated 20 October 2026.