Say It Another Way: Three Quick Paraphrasing Moves

Level: B2–C1 · 5-minute read

In exams, essays and emails, you often need to say the same idea in different words. Teachers call it paraphrasing, and many learners find it hard because they try to replace every word with a synonym. That usually produces strange sentences. Good paraphrasing changes the structure as well as the words.

Here are three moves you can use on almost any sentence.

Move 1: Change the word class

Turn a verb into a noun, or an adjective into an adverb.

• The population grew quickly. → There was a rapid growth in the population.

• Prices increased sharply. → There was a sharp increase in prices.

• She decided to leave. → She made the decision to leave.

Move 2: Switch active and passive

Move the focus from the person to the action, or the other way round.

• The council built a new library in 2020. → A new library was built by the council in 2020.

• Many students use the app. → The app is used by many students.

Move 3: Use a synonym — but only for the key word

Change one or two important words, not all of them. Keep small words like the, in and of as they are.

• The main reason was the cost. → The chief reason was the expense.

• The results were surprising. → The results were unexpected.

A warning: synonyms are rarely perfect matches. Big and enormous are not the same size. If you are not sure, keep the original word and change the structure instead.

Put the moves together

Original: The number of tourists visiting Oman rose significantly between 2015 and 2020.

Paraphrase: Between 2015 and 2020, there was a significant rise in the number of tourists who visited Oman.

The meaning is the same, but the sentence starts differently, rose has become a rise, and visiting has become who visited.

Practise

Paraphrase each sentence using at least two moves.

1. Many people believe that technology improves education.

2. The company employed 200 new workers last year.

3. Fuel prices fell dramatically in March.

Possible answers:

1. It is widely believed that education is improved by technology.

2. Last year, 200 new workers were taken on by the company.

3. There was a dramatic fall in fuel prices in March.

Train your speed

Paraphrase Sprint gives you 100 sentences to paraphrase in timed rounds, with three model rewrites for every sentence and a score tracker to measure your speed. It is part of the Exam Quick-Packs bundle with five more exam skills packs.

Practise this: Paraphrase Sprint — short drills to reword sentences fast, part of the Exam Quick-Packs bundle.