This paper investigates, for the first time, the applicability and effectiveness of He’s semi-inverse variational principle method and the ansatz method on systems of nonlinear fractional partial differential equations. He’s semi-inverse variational principle method and the ansatz method are used to construct exact solutions of nonlinear fractional Klein–Gordon equation and generalized Hirota–Satsuma coupled KdV system. These equations have been widely applied in many branches of nonlinear sciences such as nonlinear optics, plasma physics, superconductivity and quantum mechanics. So, finding exact solutions of such equations are very helpful in the theoretical and numerical studies.