Practice materials to improve your writing

Phrase construction

Your feedback says:

PHRASE/CLAUSE CONSTRUCTION - you have used the wrong construction. For example, you might have used 'to' instead of 'that', or there may be a verbs missing from a clause

So what’s the problem? And what do you need to do?

Your first language may arrange words very differently from English. Words in English follow each other in very clearly defined patterns.

Here are some links to practise materials:

On this site:

On other sites:

• Dependent clauses and sentence types

• Exercise in compound nouns and modifiers

• Functions of clauses - Quiz

• Identifying clause arrangements

• Identifying independent clauses

• Identifying sentence types

• Recognising the functions of phrases

• Sentence variety

• Sentence variety and modifier placement

• Verbal and other phrases

If you find more useful exercises for any type of error, please let us know and we will add the links. Visit www.ngberger.com for other materials that may help you on your pre-sessional course or other studies in academic or business English.

Please send your comments to Norbert G. Berger. This document was updated 03/08/2003.

Error Typology - © English Language Centre, University of Exeter, UK. 2003.

For use within educational institutions as part of IT-assisted teaching provision only. If used outside the Universities of Exeter (UK) and Graz (Austria), acknowledgement must be made to the English Language Centre, University of Exeter. Not to be reproduced in a different medium or modified without permission.