Paraphrasing · Word form

Word form in English paraphrasing

With this technique, the same word stays, in a different grammatical shape. This is the technique that rescues you when a word has no usable synonym. You keep the word and change what it is — verb to noun, adjective to adverb — and the sentence has to rebuild itself around the new shape. It is also the fastest way to compress two clauses into one.

The long versionwhat it is, what it costs, where it stops

9 examples6 moves and 3 worked rewrites

Guided practice3 steps, you write, then you compare

5 exercisesmeaning first, then production

Start here · the long version

What word form really asks you to do

Keeping the word and changing what it is — verb to noun, adjective to adverb — so the sentence has to rebuild itself around the new shape.

Why changing the form changes the sentence

A word’s form decides what job it is allowed to hold. Turn a verb into a noun and it can suddenly be the subject of a sentence; turn an adjective into an adverb and it now needs a verb to attach to. This is why the technique never changes only one word: the moment “decide” becomes “the decision”, the rest of the clause has to reorganise around a noun that was not there before. That forced reorganisation is the paraphrase.

It is also the technique that compresses. “Technology has advanced rapidly, which has made many manual jobs unnecessary” becomes “Rapid technological advances have rendered many manual jobs unnecessary”: two clauses become one, the sentence loses three words, and the register rises on the way. Compression is worth having for its own sake — the same content in fewer words reads as control, not as brevity.

And it is the one that rescues you when a word has no usable synonym at all. You do not need another word for “violent”. You need “violence”, or “violently”, and a sentence built around whichever one you chose.

Verb → noun

“decide” → “the decision”, “grow” → “growth”. The commonest move in academic English, and it usually lifts the register with it.

Adjective → adverb

“a significant increase” → “increased significantly”. Usually shortens the sentence, which helps when the prompt is long.

The preposition travels

“depend on” → “dependence on”, never “of”. “Invest in” → “investment in”. This is where these rewrites break.

Not every word has every form

“Announce” has no noun of its own — the noun is “announcement”. Forms are looked up, never derived by removing a suffix.

What it costs you to skip this

Skipping it caps how far a paraphrase can go: you end up with the prompt’s sentence structure and a few replaced adjectives, which is what a copied opening looks like even when no word was actually copied. Doing it wrong is worse in a specific way — a form error such as “dependable factors” or “the performing” is a vocabulary error and a grammar error at the same time, so a single slip costs on two criteria.

Where it stops applying

Not every word survives a change of form. “Different” has no usable adverb in most sentences — “differentially” means something else entirely — and forcing one produces a phrase no reader can parse. When the form does not exist, or exists and does not fit, leave the phrase alone and move something else instead. The technique is a tool, not a quota to fill.

Examples · the move in two sentences

A paraphrase changes the words and keeps the claim

That is the whole job, and it is harder than it sounds: the fastest way to lose marks is to write something in better English than the prompt that no longer says what the prompt said. Here is what this particular technique moves.

The original

Nowadays, crimes are becoming more violent.

Word form

The paraphrase

Currently, crimes are being committed more violently.

The adjective “violent” became the adverb “violently”, and the sentence then needed a verb for it to modify: “are becoming” turned into “are being committed”. No synonym was found for the key word — it is the same word in a different grammatical coat.

When you need it
This is the technique that rescues you when a word has no usable synonym. You keep the word and change what it is — verb to noun, adjective to adverb — and the sentence has to rebuild itself around the new shape. It is also the fastest way to compress two clauses into one.

The moves

What you can change, and where the meaning breaks

Not every move is equally safe. Three of these you can make without thinking; the last two are where paraphrases stop being paraphrases.

Verb → noun

Safe move

“decide” → “the decision”, “grow” → “growth”, “introduce” → “the introduction”. The commonest move in academic English, and it usually pulls the register up with it.

Adjective → noun

Safe move

“violent” → “violence”, “poor” → “poverty”, “able” → “ability”. The sentence then needs a new verb: “is becoming more violent” → “shows increasing violence”.

Adjective → adverb

Safe move

“a significant increase” → “increased significantly”. This one usually shortens the sentence, which helps when the prompt is long.

Noun → verb

Check as you go

“there was a reduction in costs” → “costs fell”. Strong and direct, but it changes what the subject of the sentence is, so check the rest of the clause still agrees with it.

The preposition travels too

Where meaning breaks

“depend on” becomes “dependence on”, never “dependence of”. “Invest in” becomes “investment in”. Every form change can move a preposition, and that is where these rewrites break.

Watch the plural

Where meaning breaks

“an analysis” / “several analyses”, “a criterion” / “three criteria”, “a phenomenon” / “two phenomena”. Changing a Greek or Latin noun changes its plural in a way no spell-checker will flag.

Watch three · then do four

Follow every word that moved

Each example lists exactly what changed, so you can check the claim survived the journey.

Worked example · Word form

Original: Nowadays, crimes are becoming more violent.

Paraphrase: Currently, crimes are being committed more violently.

What moved: violent (adjective) → violently (adverb) · are becoming → are being committed

Why this works: Once the adjective became an adverb it needed a verb of its own, and “become” could not supply one. Changing a word’s form almost always forces a second change nearby: that is the technique working, not a mistake.

Worked example · Word form

Original: Cement solidification depends on several factors related to its production, mixture and transport.

Paraphrase: How well cement solidifies is dependent on several production, mixture and transport factors.

What moved: solidification (noun) → solidifies (verb) · depends (verb) → is dependent (adjective) · the three nouns became modifiers

Why this works: Notice that the preposition survived the change: “depends on” became “is dependent on”, never “dependent of”. That preposition is the commonest casualty of this technique.

Worked example · Word form

Original: Technology has advanced rapidly, which has made many manual jobs unnecessary.

Paraphrase: Rapid technological advances have rendered many manual jobs unnecessary.

What moved: advanced (verb) → advances (noun) · rapidly (adverb) → rapid (adjective) · technology (noun) → technological (adjective)

Why this works: Three form changes in five words, and the two clauses collapsed into one. The compression is the side effect worth having: the same content in fewer words reads as control.

What goes wrong

The mistakes this technique produces

These are real sentences from a WeLearn classroom, not invented errors. Most of them are calques: English words in a Spanish shape, which is exactly what paraphrasing under time pressure produces.

Cement production correlates to dependable factors for its solidification.

Two form errors in one line. “Dependable” means trustworthy; the adjective from “depend on” is “dependent”. And “correlate” takes “with”, not “to”.

Repaired: Cement production correlates with the factors its solidification depends on.

The increase in crime levels is noticeable differentially.

The adjective “different” was forced into an adverb that means something else. Not every word has a usable form in every slot; when it does not, keep the phrase and move something else.

Repaired: The increase in crime levels is noticeable across different regions.

The government made an announce about the new policy.

“Announce” is a verb only; the noun is “announcement”. Removing a suffix is not the reverse of adding one — English noun and verb forms have to be looked up, not derived.

Repaired: The government made an announcement about the new policy.

Now you try · with the scaffolding on

Build it one step at a time

Compress two clauses into one by changing the form of two words. Nothing will be replaced with a synonym.

The material

Sentence: “The council applied the policy inconsistently, which reduced public trust.”

Step 1Turn the verb into a noun

“Applied” is doing the work in the first clause. Write its noun form — and the preposition that has to come with it.

Your version0 words · minimum 3

3 more words before you can compare. Writing it yourself first is the whole exercise.

Step 2Change the adverb to match

Step 3Write the whole sentence

Exercises · step 1, the meaning

Before you judge a rewrite, learn to spot what changed

Producing a paraphrase is the second skill. The first is noticing when a sentence that reads perfectly well has quietly stopped saying the same thing.

Step 1 · the meaning

Which one still says the same thing?

The sentence you have: The level of crime has increased noticeably across different regions.

All three are written in good English. Only one of them makes the same claim as the original. Find it before you write a single paraphrase of your own.

Exercises · step 2, production

Choose the paraphrase that moves everything and changes nothing

Every wrong option here is wrong for its own reason, and it says so. Three of them are grammatical English — that is the point. Nothing on this page is scored automatically.

Paraphrase this: Air travel has grown rapidly, and airports have struggled to cope.

Choose an option first

Paraphrase this: Students who are able to think critically perform better at university.

Choose an option first

Paraphrase this: The policy was applied inconsistently, which reduced public trust.

Choose an option first

Paraphrase this: Cities that invest in cycling infrastructure see fewer road deaths.

Choose an option first

The other techniques

Four more ways to move a sentence

Synonyms

The words change and the claim does not.

6 moves · 4 exercises Word order

The same information arrives in a different order.

6 moves · 4 exercises Voice

The doer and the thing done change places.

6 moves · 4 exercises Sentence structure

The same ideas arrive as a different number of sentences.

6 moves · 4 exercises