How do I learn written English

Write better English, hints and tips

  • How can I write better sentences?
  • How can I make my written text sound interesting?
  • Do I have to use complicated sentence structures?

These are just some of the questions that students keep asking themselves.

A basic requirement for writing is the command of the word order in the English sentence. Often an attempt is made to first write the text in German and then "translate" it into English. This is not a good way. It is better to start right away in the foreign language. Let's take a closer look at a few steps.

How do I write better sentences in English?

Make simple sentences more interesting by including adjectives, adverbs, places and times. Let's show this with an example:

Your job is to write something about the last weekend or vacation.

Often times, all you can think of is the facts about the weekend or vacation. You then use this to form short, simple sentences:

  • I was at my grandma.
  • It was nice.
  • The weather was OK.
  • We were at a lake.
  • We went swimming.

These sentences still sound boring. It often says what / were and we don't find more than one fact in these sentences. How can you write better sentences now? Here are a few tips:

1. Use appropriate verbs

  • I. visited my grandma.
  • We walked to a lake.

2. Use adverbs and adjectives

  • We slowly walked to a quiet lake.

3. Include location and time information

  • We walked to a quiet lake on Saturday morning.

But beware! Don't make the sentences too complicated - don't overdo it. The sentence shouldn't be too long, as the following example shows:

We slowly walked to an extremely quiet lake on the early Saturday morning.

4. Don't write so many fact phrases - use them better ones Constructions

It was nice. → We were having a great time.
The weather was OK. → The sun was shining, but it was a bit windy.

5. Combine sentences in a meaningful way

The three sentences:

  • The weather was OK.
  • We were at a lake.
  • We went swimming.

you could of course other connect: → The weather was OK other we were at a lake other we went swimming.

But this does not result in better sentences. Connect the sentences a little more logical, as the actions have expired, for example:

→ It was very warm, so we walked to a quiet lake and went swimming there.