Linking Words For FCE and CAE

One of the secrets to improving your score on the Cambridge exams and your English in general is to increase your vocabulary.  The student roughly needs to double his or her vocabulary in order to prepare for the FCE, and then again in order to take the CAE.  Some of the most useful words that students need to learn are the words that are used to connect together ideas and paragraphs. This will help not only with the organization of their writing, but also with their comprehension of the questions in Reading and Use of English section.  Knowing the correct answer in this part of the exams often depends on how well the student understands the question.

These words and expressions can sometimes be translated directly from English into Catalan and Spanish, but often times an equivalent translation is better.  This is why the easiest way to learn these words is to group them in charts next to their equivalents.  As they are studying these words the students will notice that many of these words mean the same thing.  For example in Spanish, the English word, “however,” can be translated either as sin embargo or no obstante.  The same is true in English, and moreover one of the things that the Cambridge Exams tests students on is to see if they know more than one way to say something in English.

The easiest way to learn new vocabulary is to group the words together and compare them directly with their Catalan and Spanish equivalents.

in the first place en primer lugar en primer lloc
not only … but also no solo pero tambien no només però també
as a matter of fact de hecho de fet
in addition de la misma manera a més
coupled with junto con juntament amb
first, second, third primero, segundo, tercero primer, segon, tercer
not to mention por no mencionar per no parlar
to say nothing of no decir nada de per no dir res de
equally important igualmente importante igualment important
by the same token de la misma manera per la mateixa raó
equally igualmente igualment
identically idénticamente idènticament
uniquely únicamente única
moreover además a més
as well as tanto como així com
together with juntos con juntament amb
likewise igualmente igualment
comparatively relativamente comparativament
correspondingly correspondientemente corresponentment
furthermore además a més
additionally adicionalmente a més

 

Written by Mike Dean Alger for Aston School

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