English sentence starters

Use these essential English sentence starters to organise your ideas clearly and improve your speaking performance in exams such as IELTS and the Versant English test.
  
    


  
      Function
      Simple
      Advanced
    

  
      Starting answers / Giving an opinion
      “I think…”
“For me…”
“I feel that…”
      “In my opinion,…”
“I would say that…”
“From my point of view…”
    

      Adding details
      “Also…”
“Another thing is…”
“And then…”
      “In addition to that…”
“Another important point is…”
“I should also mention that…”
    

      Giving reasons
      “Because…”
“The reason is…”
“So…”
      “This is mainly because…”
“One reason for this is that…”
“This happens because…”
    

      Telling stories
      “First…”
“Then…”
“After that…”
      “At the beginning…”
“Later on…”
“In the end…”
    

      Describing routines / Habits
      “I usually…”
“I often…”
“Sometimes I…”
      “Most days, I…”
“In my daily routine, I…”
“I tend to…”
    

      Comparing
      “It’s like…”
“It’s different from…”
“But…”
      “It’s similar to…, but…”
“Compared to…, I think…”
“On the other hand…”
    

      Buying time
      “Let me think…”
“Well…”
“Actually…”
      “Let me think for a moment…”
“That’s a good question…”
“I need a second to think about that…”
    

      Describing changes or trends
      “Now it’s different.”
“It used to be…, but now…”
“It’s changing.”
      “Recently, I’ve noticed that…”
“Over time, this has become…”
“It has gradually changed because…”
    

      Ending or finishing answers
      “That’s it.”
“That’s all.”
“So, yes.”
      “So that’s my main idea.”
“That’s basically it.”
“To sum up, I’d say…”
    



  