As you prepare for your IELTS test, you’ll probably hear lots of advice about using key words to help you. But what does this term actually mean? What is a key word and how can you find them quickly to be able to help you in the test?

What are key words?

Key words are sometimes called ‘content words’ because they are the words that communicate the meaning of the sentence. Let’s take a look at an example:

These words are the ones to help you focus on the main ideas and important details.

If you only read the words in bold in the sentence above, you can still get a general idea of the content of the sentence:

words… help… focus… main ideas… important details

Why? Because these are the words that carry the meaning of the sentence – they are ‘content words’ or key words.

If you do the same thing but, this time, only read the words that are not in bold, it doesn’t really work:

These… are… the… ones… to… you… on… the… and

This is because these words simply provide the grammatical structure for the content words.

How can I identify which words are key?

What do you notice about the types of key words in the example we just looked at? Or, to put it another way, which parts of speech usually carry meaning? You’ll see in the example that there are nouns, verbs and adjectives. You might also see examples of proper nouns, numbers and adverbs in your hunt for key words.

So, when you start practising, here are some key words you can try to quickly identify:

1. Nouns and verbs: Often, the main idea of a question is found in the nouns and verbs.

2. Proper nouns: The names of people, places, and organisations are usually important in questions and, thanks to capitalisation, fairly easy to scan for in a text. e.g. Einstein, Egypt, NASA

3. Numbers and dates: Dates, percentages, and other numbers are usually significant if included in questions and, again, easy to scan for in a text. e.g. 1965, 25%, 50 species

4. Adjectives, adverbs and modifiers: Descriptive words can also be keywords, especially if they relate to opinions, qualities and quantities. For instance, ‘There is a lot of useful information on the website’.

5. Question words: Paying attention to words like ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ can help you identify what type of information you’re looking for in the text. e.g. a person, a thing, a place, a time, a reason, etc.

Key words across IELTS

Noticing key words quickly is an important step in every part of the IELTS test. In Writing and Speaking, you’ll see and hear key words that will help you quickly understand the task or question and identify what your response must include. For now, though, let’s look at the two IELTS sections where the identification of key words is essential to improving your band score.

Listening

Understanding the key words in questions helps you prepare to listen as these tell you the context of the dialogue or monologue that you’re about to listen to. This can help you feel a lot more ready to listen and perhaps predict possible topics that the speakers will discuss.

More importantly, the key words of the questions are the actual focus of your listening. Identify these quickly and consider how they might be rephrased by the speaker(s). It’s these words, and their synonyms, that you need to listen out for so that you can answer the questions in the Listening test.

For more information about strategies to help with listening, check out our blog here 

Reading

This is probably the part of the test where you’ve already done the most practice of looking for key words.

Time management is crucial in the IELTS Reading test, so, rather than reading the whole passage, identifying key words can help you prioritise the words you need to locate in the text.

Let’s look at the title of a text:

Scottish Birdlife

What type of information do you think will be contained in the text? That’s right – information about the different types of birds in Scotland.

 Now, let’s look at some True, False, Not Given Questions:

1. The Capercaillie is known for its elaborate mating displays.

2. The Great Crested Grebe is commonly found in Scotland's coastal areas.

3. The Pink-footed Goose migrates to Scotland in the spring to breed.

Which words are the content words in each question? Which ones would you underline/highlight?  These are the key words that you are going to look for in the text so that you can find the information that will help you answer each question. What do you think? (answers at the end of the blog)

How did you do? Did you identify the same key words? Did you notice that the word ‘Scotland’ was not highlighted in bold in the answer key? Although this fits the category of being a content word because it carries information and is, of course, a proper noun, remember that the entire passage is about birdlife in Scotland. Therefore, you can assume that there are going to be repeated mentions of the word and that the other key words are more important when it comes to finding the information that will lead you to the answer.

For more information and advice on how to use keywords in locating answers, check out our series of 3 reading blogs: IELTS Reading Success.

Practising with key words

Like everything else in IELTS, and in life, practice makes perfect! Try to identify key words with sample IELTS reading tests  and, the more you practise this, the quicker you’ll be able to identify and locate the key words on your test day. Good luck!

Answers:

1. The Capercaillie is known for its elaborate mating displays.

2. The Great Crested Grebe is commonly found in Scotland's coastal areas.

3. The Pink-footed Goose migrates to Scotland in the spring to breed.