{"id":2713,"date":"2016-01-29T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T17:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=2713"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:44:21","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:44:21","slug":"sentence-shift-for-esl-students-part-3-shifts-in-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/sentence-shift-for-esl-students-part-3-shifts-in-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Sentence Shift for ESL Students, Part 3: Shifts in Meaning"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is my third post on the complicated but important idea of shift<\/em> in sentences. Sentence shift happens when there is a significant change in the tone or meaning of the words in a sentence. A shift sentence first says one thing, and then says something else that is almost completely opposite. This idea of English shift is central to the GRE Verbal<\/a> section. Understanding sentence shift also useful in the academic reading and listening on the TOEFL.<\/p>\n

For a full, detailed explanation of sentence shift, see the first post in this series<\/a>. For a look at the shift in the connotation<\/a> of a sentence, see my second post on shift<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned in Part 2, some sentences show a shift in connotation. In connotation shifts, the emotional \u201cmood\u201d associated with the words at the beginning of the sentence is different from the emotional mood at the end. But there are other shift sentences that contrast the definitions of words, not the suggested tone. Let\u2019s look at an example of this kind of \u201cdefinition-shift\u201d:<\/p>\n