Linking words for speaking and writing

Linking Words For the IELTS Speaking Task

1. ADDING MORE INFORMATION

• Another reason is

• Also

• And

• As well as

2. TIME PHRASES

If you need to describe ‘time’ in your speaking task, you can use any of the following linkers.

• At the moment

• At present

• Now

• These days

• Nowadays

• Before

• Back in the day

• Years ago

• At that time

• Then

• When I was little

3. CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS

• Because

• I suppose the best way to deal with this problem is

• The main reason is

• It was caused by

• One way to solve this could be

4. EXPRESSING IDEAS / STATING AN OPINION

• I think one important thing is

• I suppose the main difference is

• In my view, the key point is

• I believe that

5. GIVING EXAMPLES

• For instance

• Like

• For example

• Such as

6. CONTRASTING/OPPOSITE

• But

• While

• On the other hand

• Although

• Or

7. TO AGREE OR EXPRESS DISAGREEMENT

• I couldn’t disagree more

• I can’t agree with that

• I quite agree that

• Well, exactly

8. SIGNPOST WORDS

Signposting words and phrases will help guide the examiner through the information, especially for longer answers.

• To begin with

• However

• Unfortunately

• Similarly

• Nonetheless

• Fundamentally

• Incidentally

• Furthermore

Linking Words For IELTS Academic Writing Task 1

1. Contrast Words

• In contrast

• However

• whereas/while

• On the other hand

2. Linking Phrases

• In addition

• Furthermore

• Overall, it could be seen that

• According to the data

• It is clear that

3. Time Expressions

• in the year 2000

• at the end/beginning of the period

• over/throughout/during the period in question

• by 2000

• between 1998 and 2000

4. The Last Paragraph

• To conclude

• To sum up

5. Describing A Process

• After this,

• Next,

• The first step is that

• Following this

• Firstly, Secondly, Finally

• The following step is that

• The next step is that

• At the first stage

6. Describing A Map

• It is clear that the principal change was

• According to the map,

• One more striking change is

• Another notable development was

Linking Words For IELTS Writing Task 2

1. Listing

• Firstly, secondly, thirdly

• First, furthermore, finally

• To begin, to conclude

• Next

2. Adding more information

• Also

• Furthermore

• Moreover

• What is more

3. Similarity

• Equally

• Likewise

• Similarly

4. Giving examples

• For example

• For instance

• As follows:

• That is

5. Cause and consequence

• Because of

• Due to

• On account of

• Hence

• For this/that reason

• So that

• In that case

6. Generalizing

• In general

• Generally

• On the whole

• As a rule

7. Expressing An Alternative/contrast

• Alternatively

• Rather

• On the other hand

• The alternative is

• Another possibility would be

• However

• Nevertheless

• In spite of

• Despite

8. Conclusion

• In conclusion

• To conclude

• In brief

• To summaries

• Overall

• Therefore

Final Tips

• Avoid using formal linking words when speaking about yourself in the IELTS Speaking Test.

• Do not use the linking word ‘like’ in the writing tasks. You should only use it (occasionally!) in your speaking test to give examples.

• You will not get high scores for using a range of linking words if they do not fit the context so make sure you don’t use speaking linkers in writing task 1 or 2.

• Don’t worry too much about repeating some linking words while speaking. However, this will not be the case in the writing task. For the writing task, you need to show your proficiency in using different formal linking words.

• As mentioned earlier, connecting words for IELTS should fall in place naturally during your speaking test.

• In short, the more you practice speaking and writing, the more natural you will sound and the higher you will score.