Sentence Transformation

Students rewrite each sentence: active to passive, reported speech, questions and more. They see how many words they need. When they check, each word turns green (right place), amber (wrong place) or grey (not in the answer), so they know exactly what to fix.

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Ideas for using it

• Grammar practice after presenting a point. Passives, reported speech, conditionals, wishes: anything where one sentence becomes another.
• Question forms. Give the answer and a question word in brackets. Students write the question. Very useful for Business English small talk and interviews.
• Joining sentences. Two short sentences become one with who, which, although or because.
• Exam preparation. Sentence transformation is a classic exam task. The word count works like the word limit in exam key word transformations.
• Online lessons. Share your screen. Finished sentences stay on the page, numbered, so you can say "look at number 2" as a hint.
• Homework or self-study. Share the link. The colours show students exactly which words to fix, so they can work it out alone.
• Print it. Every activity also prints as a worksheet with an answer key.

Tips for good sentences

• Give one answer and make it the natural one. The word count steers students towards it, for example whether to include "by" plus the agent.
• Write answers in full forms: was not, not wasn't. Students are asked to do the same.
• Use brackets in the sentence to give a key word or question word when more than one answer is possible.
• To mix tasks in one set, make the instruction general ("Rewrite each sentence as shown in brackets.") and put the task in brackets after each sentence: (passive), (reported speech), (question with where).

Make your own

Type each sentence and its answer. Students get a link; you can also print the activity as a worksheet.

Make a rewrite activity

Ready-made rewrite activities

Grammar

• Write the Question A2
• Adjectives to Adverbs B1
• Passive Voice: Famous Buildings B1
• Reported Speech: Statements B1