english

English phrases

Sentence starters, transitional and other useful words.

It can sometimes be difficult to start a sentence to express ideas, or find words to show the relationship between ideas. Below is a list of possible sentence starters, transitional and other words that may be useful.

Furthermore, Academic Phrasebank by Dr John Morley is worth taking a closer look.

Table of Contents

• Introduce
• Add background ideas
• Add ideas
• Add rare ideas
• Add common ideas
• Add inconclusive ideas
• Add others’ ideas
• Add examples
• Compare and contrast
• Show relationships or outcome
• Conclude

Introduce

• In this essay
• This essay discusses
• …is defined as…
• …are identified as…
• …is explored…
• The definition of … will be given
• …is briefly outlined…
• The issue focused on…
• …is demonstrated…
• …is included…
• …is explained…
• The key aspect discussed…
• …are presented…
• …is justified…
• Views on … range from …to…
• …is evaluated…
• …is examined…
• The central theme…
• …is described…
• …is analysed…
• Emphasised are…

Add background ideas

• In the past,
• Historically,
• Traditionally,
• Customarily,
• Beforehand,
• Originally,
• Prior to this,
• Earlier,
• Formerly,
• Previously,
• Over time,
• At the time of…
• Conventionally,
• Foundational to this is…
• In earlier…
• Initially,
• At first,
• The traditional inter
• Recently …
• Until now,

Add ideas

• Also,
• Equally important…
• Subsequently,
• Futhermore,
• Moreover,
• As well as…
• Next
• Another essential point
• Additionally,
• More importantly,
• In the same way
• Another
• Then,
• In addition,
• Besides,
• Then agian,
• Firstly,…secondly,…thirdly,…finally,…
• To elaborate,

Add rare ideas

• A few
• Subsequently,
• …is uncommon
• …is scarce…
• Rarely …
• …is rare…
• … is unusual …
• Seldom …
• Few …
• Not many …

Add common ideas

• Numerous …
• Many …
• More than …
• Several …
• Almost all …
• The majority …
• Most …
• Commonly …
• Significant …
• … is prevalent …
• .. is usual …
• Usually …

Add inconclusive ideas

• Perhaps …
• … may be …
• … might be …
• There is limited evidence
• … is debated …
• … is possibly …
• … could …
• … may include …

Add others’ ideas

• According to
• Based on the findings of
• … proposed that…
• As explained by
• … states that…
• … claims that…
• However,… stated that
• … suggested…
• … concluded that…
• Similarly,… stated that
• … for example,…
• … agreed that…
• Based on the ideas of
• … defined… as
• .. relates…
• As identified by…
• … disputed that…
• … contrasts…
• With regard to…
• … concluded that…
• … confirmed that…
• … argues…
• … highlights…
• … demonstrates…
• … found that…
• … identifies…
• … wrote that…
• … demonstrated…
• … also…
• … reported…
• … pointed out that…
• … maintained that…
• … hypothesised that…
• ..expressed the opinion..
• … also mentioned…
• … asserts that…
• … identified…
• ..goes on to state/suggest
• .. emphasises
• … challenges the idea…
• … showed that…
• …explored the idea…

Add examples

• For example, …
• … as can be seen in …
• … supports …
• An illustration of …
• … as demonstrated by …
• … is observed …
• Specifically, …
• • … is shown …
• … exemplifies …
• Such as …
• As an example …
• To illustrate, …
• For instance, …

Compare and contrast

• Similarly,
• In the same way …
• Likewise, …
• In comparison …
• Complementary to this …
• Then again, …
• However, …
• This is in contrast to …
• In contrast, …
• And yet …
• Nevertheless, …
• Conversely, …
• On the contrary, …
• On the other hand, …
• Notwithstanding …
• Whereas …
• In contrast to …
• That aside, …
• While this is the case …
• … disputes …
• Despite this, …

Show relationships or outcome

• Therefore …
• As a result …
• For that reason …
• Hence, …
• Otherwise, …
• Consequently, …
• The evidence suggests..
• It can be seen that …
• With regard to …
• After examining ….
• These factors contribute
• It is apparent that …
• Considering..it can be
• Subsequently, ….
• The effect is …
• The outcome is …
• The result …
• The correlation …
• The relationship …
• The link …
• The convergence …
• The connection …
• … interacts with …
• Both ….
• … affects …
• Thus it is …
• … causes …
• … influences …
• … predicts …
• … leads to …
• … informs …
• … presupposes
• … emphasises
• … demonstrates …
• … impacts on …
• … supports …

Conclude

• In summary,
• To review,
• In conclusion,
• In brief,
• To summarise,
• To sum up,
• To conclude,
• Thus,
• Hence,
• It has been shown that,
• In short,