P4 English: 4 common Synthesis and Transformation questions

English Synthesis and Transformation is not consistently taught and tested in Primary 4 classes and examinations. However, a number of schools do test this component in their Primary 4 English SA2.

Below are a few Synthesis and Transformation rules that commonly appear in the Primary 4 SA1 and SA2. Most schools test just one to 5 synthesis and transformation questions and award 1 mark for each question.

This will change in Primary 5 where Synthesis and Transformation is a whopping 10 marks. To top, it off any slight mistake can mean no mark is given to the question. It is ridiculously easy to lose marks fast in this section of the paper.

Here are 4 common Synthesis and Transformation questions that can be found in the Primary English SA2 papers.

1. Both..and

Example:

John likes to cycle. Mary likes to cycle.
Both John and Mary like to cycle.

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2. Either..or/ Neither..nor

Example:

The teacher was not in the classroom this morning. The students were not in the classroom this morning.
Neither the teacher nor the students were in the classroom this morning.

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3.  Prefer..to

This is another correlative conjunction.

John likes cycling. He likes playing tennis more.
John prefers playing tennis to cycling.

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4. Reported Speech

Reported speech is reporting to someone what has been said. When changing from Direct Speect to Reported Speech or from Reported Speech to Direct Speech, you need to watch out for:

• Tenses
• Pronouns
• Time
• Place

4.1 Tenses

We change present tense to past tense and past tense to present perfect tense.

Example 1:

“I like John,” said Mary. (Direct Speech)
Mary said that she liked John. (Reported Speech).

Example 2:

“I ate all the fruits,” said Shawn. (Direct Speech)
Shawn said that he had eaten all the fruits. (Reported Speech)

Modal Verbs

shall =>	should
can =>	could
may =>	might
will =>	would
must =>	had to

4.2 Pronouns

Pronouns refer to words like “she”, “I”, “us” and “them”. In reported speech we need to change the pronoun accordingly. Remember to change ‘we’ to ‘they’ and ‘us’ to ‘them’.

4.3 Time

We will also need to change time in Reported Speech.

tomorrow =>	next day/following day
next =>	following
yesterday =>	the previous day
last =>	previous
today =>	that day
ago =>	before
now =>	than

4.4 Change in place

The place in reported speech also needs to be changed

this =>	that
these =>	those
here =>	there

I hope that you found these few Synthesis and Transformation rules helpful.