TOEFL Writing: Build a Sentence
Controlled items testing sentence structure — new in the January 2026 test. For the first time in years the TOEFL marks grammar as its own task rather than only as part of a longer piece of writing.
What is being tested
- Word order, including where modifiers and adverbs sit.
- Agreement between subject and verb, and between pronoun and antecedent.
- Clause structure — how a subordinate clause attaches to a main one.
- Connectors used correctly rather than decoratively.
These are the things a long essay lets a careful writer avoid. A controlled item does not: there is one correct arrangement and the rest are wrong.
Preparing for it
- Work on the structures you avoid in your own writing — usually relative clauses and the perfect tenses.
- Read the complete item before arranging anything; the end of the sentence constrains the start.
- Check agreement last, as a separate pass. It is the error that survives a reading for sense.
- Move quickly. These items are short and the section is short.
This is the one place on the current TOEFL where conventional grammar practice translates directly into marks, which makes it unusually good value for a candidate who is strong on accuracy and slow at essays.
Build a Sentence — FAQs
2 questions
It is a controlled task testing structure. The point is that grammar is now assessed in its own right.
Yes, as part of how the writing is judged — but here it is the task itself.
More writing question types
Sources
Written from the test board's own published material and checked on 1 October 2026.