Paraphrasing is an essential skill in summarizing, English composition, and reading comprehension. First, we will learn synonym replacement and changes in parts of speech.
Basic Rules
① Synonym replacement:
- important → crucial / essential / vital / significant
- big → large / huge / enormous / vast
- difficult → challenging / tough / demanding / arduous
- happy → glad / pleased / content / delighted
- think → believe / consider / suppose / assume
- show → demonstrate / reveal / indicate / illustrate
② Changes in parts of speech: Express the same meaning using a different part of speech.
- Verb → noun: “She decided quickly.” → “She made a quick decision.”
- Adjective → noun: “He is creative.” → “His creativity is impressive.”
- Verb → adjective: “This works well.” → “This is well-functioning.”
- Noun → verb: “There was a lot of progress.” → “Things progressed a lot.”
③ Rephrasing with an opposite word + negation:
- difficult → not easy
- safe → not dangerous
- common → not rare
- expensive → not cheap
④ Adjusting strength:
- happy → ecstatic (very) / content (calmly)
- big → enormous (very) / moderate (to a moderate degree)
- always → invariably (strong) / usually (weak)
Original: Education is important for everyone.
Paraphrase ① (synonym): Education is crucial for everyone.
Paraphrase ② (change in part of speech): The importance of education applies to everyone.
Paraphrase ③ (opposite + negation): Education is not optional for anyone.
Paraphrase ④ (reconstruction): Everyone needs to receive an education.
Points to Note
① Subtle differences between synonyms: Few words have exactly the same meaning. “kill / murder / assassinate” differ according to context (general killing / intentional murder / political assassination).
② Collocations may change: strong tea ⇔ × powerful tea. Replacing a word with a synonym can sometimes damage the collocation.
③ Changing the part of speech also changes the sentence structure: Changing “She decided quickly. (SV adverb)” to “She made a quick decision. (SVO)” changes the adverb quickly into the adjective quick.
④ Avoid excessive paraphrasing: Replacing “She” with “The young woman” or “The female student” every time sounds unnatural. It is OK to leave pronouns as pronouns.
⑤ Use in examinations: Paraphrasing is essential in summary questions (copying is penalized), and answer choices are often paraphrased as well.
- Synonym replacement: important → crucial / essential / vital
- Changes in parts of speech: verb↔noun, adjective↔noun
- Opposite word + negation: difficult → not easy
- Adjusting strength: happy → ecstatic / content
- Synonyms can have different collocations
Practice
- Paraphrase the following sentence by changing the part of speech: He decided immediately.
- Rephrase “difficult” using an opposite word + negation.
- Give five synonyms for “important.”