Basic transformations:

Headline

Present Simple

PM VISITS MADRID

Participle 1

KIDS REFUSING TO DRINK MILK EPIDEMIC SWEEPING AFRICA

Infinitive

TRUMP TO VISIT LONDON TWITTER TO BAN POLITICAL ADS

Participle 2

QUEEN’S SPEECH APPROVED BY MPS

Omission of articles

PRESIDENT TO VISIT UK

Omission of some prepositions POPE VISITS JAPAN MONDAY

Ordinary Sentence

Past Simple / Present Perfect The Prime Minister has visited Madrid.

Present Continuous / Present Simple

Kids refuse to drink milk. An epidemic is sweeping Africa.

Appropriate future tense Donald Trump is to visit London.

Twitter is going to ban political advertising.

Passive Voice

The Queen’s speech has been approved by MPs.

Appropriate articles

The President is going to visit the UK.

Appropriate prepositions The Pope visited Japan on Monday.

  • NB! In headlines, colons and hyphens can replace conjunctions or verbs which join parts of the sentence.
  • Sometimes it may be helpful to read the sentence backward to understand the logical link within it.

E.g. ‘POINTS OF DISAGREEMENT’: IRAN NUCLEAR TALKS EXTENDED The talks over the nuclear deal with Iran have been extended as the parties failed to reach a comprehensive agreement so far.

  • NB! A headline may contain a noun phrase without a verb.
  • To understand such headlines it may be helpful to ask yourself questions about what has happened (Who? What? Why? Where?) and connect the ideas with an appropriate verb.
  • Use your logic and imagination!

E.g. INQUIRY INTO DEATH OF TEENAGER AT BOARDING SCHOOL The police have launched an inquiry into the death of a teenager at a boarding school.

  • NB! To save space, headlines use short words.
  • Below is a list of the most common short words used in newspaper headlines:

axe (v., n.) – to fire, to dismiss, to make smb redundant, to close down, to cancel; redundancy, dismissal

bid (v., n.) – an attempt; to make an attempt

blast (v., n.) – to explode; explosion

blaze (v., n.) – to burn; fire

curb (v., n.) – to restrain, to be subject to / impose restraints; restraint

hail (v.) — to praise, to celebrate

loom (v.) – to happen / occur soon

nuke (n.) – a nuclear weapon, a nuclear power station

plea (n.) – request

probe (v., n.) – to investigate; investigation

quiz (v., n.) – to interrogate; interrogation

rap (v.) – to criticize

row (v., n.) – to quarrel, to have a dispute, to have disagreements; a quarrel, a dispute, disagreements

spark (v.) – to cause, to trigger

toll (n.) – the number of deaths or casualties

vow (v., n.) – to promise; a promise

woo (v., n.) – to seek support of smb, to attract (e.g. voters)