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Sentence starters

Sentence Starters

Sentence starters can help you to express your ideas more clearly. They can also help you to practice or review specific aspects of language.

1 Express yourself

This is a fairly elementary exercise to get students expressing their own ideas.

(download PDF)

Express yourself

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2 Adjective sentence starters

An adjective sentence starters exercise for English language students to review and/ or practice expressing themselves with adjectives.

(download PDF)

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3 Present perfect sentence starters

This is a sentence starter exercise which attempts to cover many of the variations of the usage of the present perfect tense.

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Present perfect sentence starters

4 Job interview sentence starters

This is a useful exercise for preparing for and practicing job interviews.

(download PDF)

5 Letter writing sentence starters

Letter writing sentence starters can help improve the writing skills of Business English students.

(download PDF)

6 Reflective sentence starters

A more advanced exercise for students with really good grammar, language and critical thinking skills.

(download PDF)

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7 Flight attendant sentence starters

Sentence starter (or complete the sentence) exercises are a good way to introduce, practice and review the language of flight attendants.

(download PDF)

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Writing topic sentences

6 Exercises for Teaching Topic Sentences

19th December 2024

Why should students learn about topic sentences?

A topic sentence is the most important sentence in a paragraph. It tells the reader what the paragraph is about. If you don’t know how to write a topic sentence, your paragraph will probably be confusing. A well-written topic sentence can make your paragraph more interesting.

Writing basic topic sentences

This topic sentence worksheet helps students transform basic statements into clear paragraph openings. The examples show how to turn simple phrases like “The park has stuff” into precise previews that outline three key features. The practice section uses pictures to prompt students to complete structured sentences about food, movies, careers, travel, annoyances and computer use.

(download PDF)

Subscribe to Eslflow

Subscribe to get full access to the latest and best resources from eslflow.com. There are no ads in the newsletter and you will receive entertaining, high quality, and up-to-date teaching resources regularly. Also, if you take out a paid subscription, you can download large collections of PDF, audio and video materials in zip files.

Introduction to topic sentences quiz

Testing students’ knowledge of paragraph structure, this quiz focuses on topic sentence fundamentals. The seven multiple-choice questions cover definition, purpose, writing techniques, and common mistakes, with a complete answer key included.

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Understanding topic sentences

This topic sentence practice sheet guides students through two key skills. Students first select the strongest sentences from groups of three options, then transform overly general statements into specific, meaningful topic sentences using clear examples as models.

Understanding topic sentences exercises (PDF)

Creating topic sentences from supporting ideas

Working backward from supporting details, this ESL worksheet teaches students to create strong topic sentences. Six sets of related statements help students identify main ideas and craft introductory sentences that effectively preview paragraph content.

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Finding and creating topic sentences

This topic sentence practice offers a dual approach to paragraph structure. Students alternate between spotting topic sentences in completed paragraphs and crafting their own introductory statements for incomplete ones, with an answer key provided for self-checking. The passages range from personal essays about mothers to debates about school uniforms.

(download PDF)

Other resources

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