Sentence transformation is a common task in advanced English exams like the Cambridge CAE or CPE. It requires rewriting a sentence so that it means exactly the same thing as the original sentence, often using a specific keyword.

Key Strategies

• Identify the Grammar Target: Is the question testing passive voice, reported speech, conditionals, or a phrasal verb? Recognizing the pattern is the first step.
• Keep the Meaning Identical: Don't add new information or leave out crucial details from the original sentence.
• Check Tense and Agreement: A common mistake is changing the tense of the sentence during the transformation. If the original is in the past tense, the transformed sentence must also be in the past tense.

Practice is the only way to get comfortable with these transformations. Try identifying common patterns like changing 'too...to' to 'so...that'.