25 somple English expressions

Some of my ESL students litter. Their writing. They throw wordy phrases into their sentences like used potato chip bags on the ground. The result? Dirty sentences.

Like litter on the street, there is just too much messy stuff. Students use three words when one word is good enough. I wonder why? Do students think more words are better? I hope the answer is no.

Here is my idea. Good writing is clean. It uses only the words you need to express an idea. No extra packaging. Great writing does not need fancy words. Great writing is a clear idea that is easy to understand. Want to stop littering your sentences? Read on.

Wordy Expressions

Maybe you use expressions like the ones taught in TEFL or TOEIC textbooks. Those word lists are great for passing a test, but they are not always useful for academic essays or business writing.

Here is list of 25 common expressions that will help you write shorter and better sentences. There are expressions and phrases plus the simple terms. The simple terms tell us the same idea but they are easier to write and remember. And, you are less likely to make a mistake with simple expressions.

25 Simple Expressions

Wordy Expression		Simple Expression
1	a large number of	many
2	during the time that	while
3	due to the fact that	because
4	because of the fact that	because
5	in the event that	if
6	in order to	to
7	blue in colour	blue
8	until such time as	until
9	has the ability	can
10	in spite of the fact that	although
11	an estimated	about
12	in the near future	soon
13	at the present time	now
14	if this is not the case	if not
15	it would appear that	apparently
16	has the opportunity to	can
17	at this point in time	at this point
18	a majority of	most
19	hold a meeting	meet
20	in most cases	usually
21	in many cases	often
22	in some cases	sometimes
23	with regard to	regarding
24	place an order	order
25	it is probable that	probably