We use this sentence pattern to tell general truths. In these sentences, the word “It” does not have any meaning. It is used as a placeholder.
- Learning English is good. = It is good to learn English.
It is good + infinitive…
- It is good to listen to other people’s opinions.
- It is good to be nice.
- It is good to work with other people.
Use “not to + verb” to show that it is good if we do not do something.
- It is good not to smoke.
- It is good not to judge other people by their appearance.
- It is good not to eat a lot of candy.
Note: Many English speakers use “to not + verb”. It does not really matter which one we use, but “not to + verb” is actually correct.
We can also make negative sentences using this sentence pattern.
It is not good + infinitive…
This has the same meaning as “bad + infinitive”.
- It is not good to smoke.
- It is not good to eat too much candy.
- It’s not good to watch a lot of TV.
- It isn’t good to lie.
- It isn’t good to be lazy.
When we want to be specific about what or who we are talking about, we can add “for + noun”.
It is good + for + noun + infinitive…
- It is good for children to play a lot.
- It is good for our health to exercise often.
- It’s good for you to learn a new skill.
- It’s good for everybody to study a foreign language.
Bonus Tips and Points
1. We can also use the future tense with this sentence pattern.
It + will be good (for + person) + infinitive…
- It will be good for me to take a vacation.
- It will be good to see my family.
- It will be good for my son to spend some time with his grandparents.
We can also use other grammar points that talk about the future.
- It is going to be good to see my sister.
- It might be good for me to take a little break from work.
- I think it is going to be good to work with them.
2. We can replace the word “good” with many other adjectives. We use the same sentence pattern. This sentence pattern is used a lot in English.
It is + adjective + infinitive…
- It is great to help others.
- It is wonderful for elderly people to have a job to do.
- It is fun to speak English.
- It is interesting to work with people from other countries.
- It is healthy to eat vegetables.
Real-World English Conversations
A) I’m going to visit my family this weekend.
B) That’s good. It’s good to spend time with family.
A) You’re right. Family is the most important thing.
A) Let’s go out tonight.
B) I think we should get started studying for the exam.
A) But the exam is not until next week.
B) It is good to start studying as early as possible.
A) It’s never good to lie.
B) I disagree. Sometimes, it is useful and good to lie.
A) Give me an example.
B) For example, if your hair looks terrible and I tell you it looks okay. That kind of lie is helpful because you feel better and I don’t feel bad for hurting your feelings.
Use these free English lessons to learn the most common sentence patterns in the English language. If you learn these sentences and questions, it will help you speak English well. Study the lessons thoroughly, practice making your own sentences, and come back to review often. If you do these three steps, your English speaking will improve quickly and you will be able to have natural English conversations.
English Sentence Patterns for Speaking Index
