A selection of English ESL sentence transformation printables

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

how to apologize, say sorry, forgive and express regret in English

how to ask for information and make inquiries in English

how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

how to deny or admit something in English

how to describe things or people in English

how to emphasize important things in English

how to encourage or discourage people in English

how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

An exercise in which the students are supposed to rewrite the sentences using the words in brackets. It might be useful especially for people who are getting ready for exams such as FCE, CAE, etc.

SENTENCE TRANSFORMATIONS 11 (TOO and ENOUGH)

Have you ever heard of the Quasi? This tribe follows a peculiar ritual when their chief moves to the eternal hunting grounds. 



It is only the shaman who is privy to the chief's dying words. The shaman then is obliged to communicate the chief's advice to the tribe. However, none of the actual words having spoken by the dying chief can be uttered until the mourning is over. (None, except for "grammar" words like "I," "the," "and," "for," "should," etc., without which it would be impossible to say anything.)



Should any tribesmember utter any of the chief's last "content" words the evil spirits from the other world will steal the soul of the passing leader, and terrible suffering will be brought upon the tribe.



Students' task: split into groups, and paraphrase  (=rewrite) the last words for the shaman so that he can communicate the message to the tribe safely. Students only get points for sentences/phrases that no one else thought of. (I heard this idea from a teacher of mine, Ildiko Lazar, who had also heard it from someone else. :)

The Chief's Last Words (Sentence transformation)

SENTENCE TRANSFORMATIONS 14 (PRESENT PERFECT and PAST SIMPLE)

SENTENCE TRANSFORMATIONS 7 (ALTHOUGH, DESPITE, IN SPITE OF)

SENTENCE TRANSFORMATIONS 8 (ALTHOUGH, DESPITE, IN SPITE OF)

SENTENCE TRANSFORMATIONS 13 (PRESENT PERFECT and PAST SIMPLE)

Taking vocabulary as/like/ as if/though from FCE Gold Unit 3 and reviewing content from Unit 2, this activity practices Use of English Part 4 Sentence Transformation from the FCE Use of English test.

Use between 2 to 5 words to transform the sentence.

Cut into strips and work with a partner, or give one to each student in the class and use as a mixer.  

Key provided.

FCE Use Of English Part 4 Sentence Transformation

SENTENCE TRANSFORMATIONS 15 (USED TO, BE USED TO, GET USED TO)

SENTENCE TRANSFORMATIONS 16 (USED TO, BE USED TO, GET USED TO)

Students learn the srtucture of the simple present sentence and how it is transformed in question and answers. It goes from easier to more advanced and includes exercises (writing) and a pairwork (speaking).

present simple - sentence structure, questions and answers

This is to practice the English sentence structure (Subject - Verb - Object - Adverb - Preposition).

Cut out the strips, then cut into pieces. Mix up the pieces of each sentence, and have students put the words in the correct order.

If students have some knowledge of English, you can practice making new sentences by replacing the words in each.

** If you'd like the Korean version, send me a message and I can send you the file.

Sentence Structure & Word Order

Instructions




1.	Cut out all the pieces.




2.	Separate the pieces into their categories (1~3)




3.	Put the be verb, article, s, and ? pieces to the side.




4.	Start with 1. Mix up all the sentence pieces.




5.	Have the students put them in the correct order. Have them add the correct be verb, article, s, and ? pieces.





** Important: Practice declarative, negative, and interrogative sentence separately. So, for example, to practice declarative, you will need the am, is, are, a, and s pieces, but NOT the not and ? pieces, which are used for negative and interrogative practice (respectively). You can also practice negative interrogatives. 





*Side note: Practice declarative, negative, and interrogative sentence separately. So, for example, to practice declarative, you will need the am, is, are, a, and s pieces, but not the not and ? pieces, which are used for negative and interrogative practice (respectively). You can also practice negative interrogatives.





** Extra Practice – If students have some knowledge of English, you can practice making new sentences by replacing the words with new nouns and adjectives.





** Optional – Use the last page as a template to translate each sentence into the students’ native language, and have them place the sentence pieces next to each sentence.

50 SENTENCE TRANSFORMATION English ESL worksheets pdf & doc