Once designing analogue fractional-order function blocks, the capacitive and/or inductive fractional-order elements (FOEs), also referred to as constant phase elements, being defined with their fractional order $$\alpha$$ α ($$0< \alpha < 1$$ 0<α<1 ) are required. Although currently capacitive FOEs are being discussed in the literature, still these passive elements are not readily available in discrete form and mainly do not offer the whole span of $$\alpha$$ α . Therefore, to overcome such an obstacle, we primary propose the transformation of FOEs and their fractional order $$\alpha$$ α to obtain the complement order $$\beta$$ β , whereas $$\beta =1{-}\alpha$$ β=1-α . Following the theory and mathematical description, also other transformation cases on fractional-order element are discussed and analysed in this paper. Using simple impedance converter employing single current conveyor and transconductance amplifier, the theoretical presumptions are verified both by simulations and experimental measurements.