TOEFL Build a Sentence: how it works and how to do well
Build a Sentence shows you a short two-line exchange where the reply is jumbled, and you move word and phrase tiles into place to make a correct sentence. It’s the first of three Writing tasks on the TOEFL iBT since January 2026, and it checks how well you know English sentence structure.
- Sentences to build
- 10
- Lines in each exchange
- 2
- For each correct sentence
- 1 point
- For the whole Writing section
- ~23 min
How Build a Sentence works
Each item is a short exchange between two people. The first line, often a question, is shown in full. The reply is shown as a frame: a few words already in place, with blanks between them.
Below the frame are tiles, and you move them into the blanks to make a grammatical reply that fits the first line. Some tiles are single words and some are phrases of two or three words, like “the bus” or “turned out”. There may be a tile that doesn’t belong: in ETS’s own sample, one tile is left over.
The reply can be a statement or a question. There are 10 items, shown one at a time, and the task checks sentence structure only: there are no ideas to think up.
It’s the first task in the Writing section, before Write an Email and Write for an Academic Discussion. The whole section takes about 23 minutes: 7 of them for the email and 10 for the discussion.
How it’s scored. Each sentence is worth one point, right or wrong. Every tile has to be in the right place to earn it, so read the whole reply before you move on. A wrong sentence costs you nothing more than that point, so never leave one unfinished.
Try it
Try it yourself
These exchanges were written for this guide in the same format as the real task. Tap the tiles into the blanks, then check your sentence.
Sentence 1 of 3
Make an appropriate sentence.
How did your presentation go this morning?
It blank 1 blank 2 blank 3 blank 4 blank 5.
Tap the tiles in order. Tap a placed tile to take it back.It went much better than I had expected. “Better than” makes the comparison, so “more” is the extra tile: “more better” isn’t English. “Had expected” comes last, because the expecting happened before the presentation.
Sentence 2 of 3
Make an appropriate sentence.
A new noodle restaurant just opened near the station.
Really? blank 1 blank 2 blank 3 blank 4 in the morning?
Tap the tiles in order. Tap a placed tile to take it back.Really? Do you know what time it opens in the morning? Inside a longer question, the question part takes normal word order: “what time it opens”, not “what time does it open”. So “does” is the extra tile.
Sentence 3 of 3
Make an appropriate sentence.
Why did you move to a different apartment?
My old one blank 1 blank 2 blank 3 blank 4 blank 5 blank 6.
Tap the tiles in order. Tap a placed tile to take it back.My old one was too far from the office where I work. “Where” introduces a place: the office where I work. “Which” would need “in” (the office in which I work), and there’s no “in” tile.
0/3 sentences
How to do well
Read the first line for clues. The reply has to fit it, so its tense and topic often tell you how the reply goes. A question about the past usually gets a reply in the past.
Find the verb first. Every sentence needs a subject and a verb. Place those, then build the rest around them: objects and details after the verb, describing words next to what they describe.
Treat phrase tiles as one piece. A tile like “much better” always stays together, so it’s one decision, not two. That makes the order quicker to see than it first looks.
Check which tile doesn’t fit. If one tile is left over, make sure it’s the one that would break the grammar, like “more” in front of “better”. Then read the whole reply once to yourself before you move on.
Try Build a Sentence in a real-format test
Writing Practice Test 1 has all three Writing tasks, timed and scored on the 1.0–6.0 band scale, with feedback on your email and your discussion post. Free, with no account needed.
Start Writing Practice Test 1