When learning English or any other language for that matter, one good exercise is to perform sentence transformations. In a nutshell, this is the process of taking one sentence and rewriting it using a different grammar construct.
Essentially, you will look to express the exact same idea. However, you will be presenting it in a different way. If you need an example, look at these following sentences:
Example 1:
This is my first time in the US.
I am here in the US for the first time.
Example 2:
The course I finished took me over 3 years to complete.
It took me three years to finish the course that I took.
Notice that while the two sentences on each example are differently constructed, they say essentially the same thing.
Language Tests
The ability to rewrite sentences in such a way that they have the same meaning as the original is a major sign of your progress in learning a new language. In fact, almost all major ESL and EFL examps include this as part of their tests, a major testament to its importance.
Practicing
If you want to practice on this end and don’t have an instructor to grade you, try using a language software to help you out. Open your favorite English blog, for instance, and copy several sentences off it, rewriting them one by one. Then, run a grammar software to find out the correctness of your rewrite.