Glue words quiz

Delete three glue words from each of the following sentences.

• I got off of the bus and met up with my friend.
• She was outside of our favourite cafe, so we went on in and sat right down.
• To save on time, we cut out the small talk and got straight down to the gossip.
• We covered off a lot before calling the waiter over and dividing up the bill.
• Before heading off home, we agreed that I would call her up next week.

Tip: Glue words

'Glue' words hold together 'working' words (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs). Some examples of glue words are: the, it, that, and, of, a, but, as, while, because, though, unless, where.

Glue words are useful, but many writers use too many. Sentences with minimal glue words are more concise and convey their meaning quickly.

Minimising glue words may require re-writing, but sometimes you can simply delete extra words from a sentence.

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