Combining Sentences Naturally

Can you combine two short sentences into one, more natural sentence?

Notice

  • My neighbour is a doctor. She helped me last week. → My neighbour, who helped me last week, is a doctor.
  • The cafe just closed. We used to go there. → The cafe where we used to go just closed.
  • The building is very old. It was designed by a famous architect. → The building, which was designed by a famous architect, is very old.

Rule

Native-sounding writing combines short, choppy sentences using relative clauses instead of repeating the noun. This is one of the biggest jumps from A2 to B1 writing — fewer, richer sentences instead of many short ones.

Practice

  1. Combine: “My aunt lives in Rome. She is a chef.”
    Answer: My aunt, who is a chef, lives in Rome.
  2. Combine: “This is the park. We played here as children.”
    Answer: This is the park where we played as children.
  3. Combine: “That is Tom. His sister is my best friend.”
    Answer: That is Tom, whose sister is my best friend.
  4. Combine: “The book was fascinating. I read it last month.”
    Answer: The book, which I read last month, was fascinating.
  5. Combine: “My boss called me. He was in a meeting.”
    Answer: My boss, who was in a meeting, called me.

Connect

See how relative clauses combine ideas naturally in real texts.

Try Reading Quiz →

CEFR: Writing — write simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest.

Azizul Hakim
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