ESL Worksheets for Creating Sentences

These worksheets give English learners the building blocks to create sentences. Once students have had some practice,  they should be able to generate cohesive sentences on their own. These worksheets can be printed out and used in class. What Makes a Good Sentence A good sentence can be thought of as an answer to  some or all of the following question words: Who?What?Why?Where?When? Take a look at the role answering each of these questions plays: Who? - Subject - Who performs/performed/ will perform an action (can also be things)What? - Verb - Which actionWhy? - Reason - Phrase explaining the reason for the actionWhere? - The place - Where the action happens/happened/will happenWhen? - Time - When the action happens / happened / will happen Its important to note that each sentence must contain at least who and what, but can also include why, when and where. Keep the order of who, what, why, when, and where when using the sentence  worksheets--even when not using all five categories--and youll always write a perfect sentence! Sentences Worksheets - Practice Exercise 1: Does the section in  italics  tell the reader who did something, what they did, why they did it, where it happened, or when it took place? My friend bought a purse at the mall  yesterday.Jennifer had eaten dinner before her friend arrived.  The told us about the situation  in order to warn  us about the thieves.I decided to enter the contest  in Denver  next month.John and Alan  flew to Boston to meet their clients.Susan asked for help  at school  last week. Answers when - yesterday expresses when the action happenedwhat - had eaten dinner expresses what was donewhy - in order to warn gives the reason for the actionwhere -  Denver tells us where something will take placewho - John and Alan are who did somethingwhere - at school tells us where something happened Exercise 2: Provide appropriate information to fill in the gap in these sentences following the who - what - why - where - when format.   _________________ travelled to Boston for an interview last week.  The children _________________ because they had the day off from school yesterday.My boss wrote a memo to ________________ two weeks ago.Susan took a cab to get to work on time _________________._______________ decided to take the day off three days ago.I bought two new books _______________ on vacation next week.I hope youll be able to join me for lunch _________________ tomorrow.The car ______________ to avoid the dog in the road. Possible Answers My friend / Peter / Susan / etc. - WHOslept in late / played outside / had some fun / etc. - WHATstaff / Mary / Peter / etc. - WHYyesterday / two days ago / last week / etc. - WHENI / My colleagues / Susan / etc. - WHOto read / to enjoy / for entertainment / etc. - WHYdowntown / at the restaurant / in the lunchroom / etc. - WHEREswerved / accelerated / slowed down / etc. - WHAT Exercise 3: Take one entry from who  and what and add other elements (in the same order) to create well-formed English sentences. Not all combinations make sense or are grammatically correct. Its also not necessary for all categories. Try writing down the five categories and creating your own sentence worksheets. Notice that all verbs are in the past tense on this practice  worksheet. You can create sentence worksheets using any variety of tenses. Keep the same order and you will always create well-formed sentences using this exercise. Who My dogA business personThe school principalLady GagaJennifer?... What ran awaysangaskedtelephoned?... Why for a raiseabout a jobto ask some questionsfor an hourfrom our home?... Where in Chicagoat workin the arenaon the coastin the suburbs?... When last Saturdaytwo years agoon Wednesdayin 1987yesterday morningat three oclock?... Possible Answers My dog ran away from our home on Wednesday. The school principal telephoned to ask some questions.  Lady Gaga sang for an hour in the arena. Jennifer asked for a raise two years ago in Chicago.A business person telephoned to ask some questions at work last Saturday.Jennifer asked for a raise on Wednesday.The school principal asked some questions for an hour at school yesterday morning.