commonly used words in essays

100+ Useful Words and Phrases to Write a Great Essay

By: Author Sophia

Posted on Last updated: October 25, 2023

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How to Write a Great Essay in English! This lesson provides 100+ useful words, transition words and expressions used in writing an essay. Let’s take a look!

The secret to a successful essay doesn’t just lie in the clever things you talk about and the way you structure your points.

Useful Words and Phrases to Write a Great Essay

Overview of an essay.

Useful Phrases for Proficiency Essays

Developing the argument

The first aspect to point out is that…
Let us start by considering the facts.
The novel portrays, deals with, revolves around…
Central to the novel is…
The character of xxx embodies/ epitomizes…

The other side of the argument

It would also be interesting to see…
One should, nevertheless, consider the problem from another angle.
Equally relevant to the issue are the questions of…
The arguments we have presented… suggest that…/ prove that…/ would indicate that…
From these arguments one must…/ could…/ might… conclude that…
All of this points to the conclusion that…
To conclude…

Ordering elements

Firstly,…/ Secondly,…/ Finally,… (note the comma after all these introductory words.)
As a final point…
On the one hand, …. on the other hand…
If on the one hand it can be said that… the same is not true for…
The first argument suggests that… whilst the second suggests that…
There are at least xxx points to highlight.

Adding elements

Furthermore, one should not forget that…
In addition to…
Moreover…
It is important to add that…

Accepting other points of view

Nevertheless, one should accept that…
However, we also agree that…

Personal opinion

We/I personally believe that…
Our/My own point of view is that…
It is my contention that…
I am convinced that…
My own opinion is…

Others’ opinions

According to some critics… Critics:
believe that
suggest that
are convinced that
point out that
emphasize that
contend that
go as far as to say that
argue for this

Introducing examples

For example…
For instance…
To illustrate this point…

Introducing facts

It is… true that…/ clear that…/ noticeable that…
One should note here that…

Saying what you think is true

This leads us to believe that…
It is very possible that…
In view of these facts, it is quite likely that…
Doubtless,…
One cannot deny that…
It is (very) clear from these observations that…
All the same, it is possible that…
It is difficult to believe that…

Accepting other points to a certain degree

One can agree up to a certain point with…
Certainly,… However,…
It cannot be denied that…

Emphasizing particular points

The last example highlights the fact that…
Not only… but also…
We would even go so far as to say that…

Moderating, agreeing, disagreeing

By and large…
Perhaps we should also point out the fact that…
It would be unfair not to mention the fact that…
One must admit that…
We cannot ignore the fact that…
One cannot possibly accept the fact that…

Consequences

From these facts, one may conclude that…
That is why, in our opinion, …
Which seems to confirm the idea that…
Thus,…/ Therefore,…
Some critics suggest…, whereas others…
Compared to…
On the one hand, there is the firm belief that… On the other hand, many people are convinced that…

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Phrases For Balanced Arguments

Introduction

It is often said that…
It is undeniable that…
It is a well-known fact that…
One of the most striking features of this text is…
The first thing that needs to be said is…
First of all, let us try to analyze…
One argument in support of…
We must distinguish carefully between…
The second reason for…
An important aspect of the text is…
It is worth stating at this point that…
On the other hand, we can observe that…
The other side of the coin is, however, that…
Another way of looking at this question is to…
What conclusions can be drawn from all this?
The most satisfactory conclusion that we can come to is…
To sum up… we are convinced that…/ …we believe that…/ …we have to accept that…

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Nur Syuhadah Zainuddin

Friday 19th of August 2022

thank u so much its really usefull

12thSeahorse

Wednesday 3rd of August 2022

He or she who masters the English language rules the world!

Friday 25th of March 2022

Thank you so so much, this helped me in my essays with A+

Theophilus Muzvidziwa

Friday 11th of March 2022

Monday 21st of February 2022

100 Of The Most Common Words In English

The words we’ve compiled here probably look familiar: they are the 100 most frequently written words in the English language. Many of the most frequently used words in English are important, fundamental parts of speech like articles , conjunctions , and prepositions .

If those terms sound like gobbledygook to you, or you haven’t heard them since third grade English class, we understand. So we’re going to give you a rundown of these frequently-used words and break down their parts of speech along the way. As an added bonus, we have some helpful suggestions for more interesting synonyms (or words with similar meanings) that you might want to try instead.

Note: this list doesn’t include multiple forms of the same word. For example, we have only included do , not does , doing , and did . Also, each of these words may have multiple meanings. We have listed them here by their most common part of speech. For example, the word this can be a pronoun, adjective, or adverb, depending on the context, but we have it listed under pronoun because that’s one of its most common uses.

Ready? Let’s go!

Most-used articles

An article denotes whether a noun is specific or unspecific. There are three articles in English , and they are some of the most frequently used words:

Most-used verbs

A verb is a word that describes an action, state, or a relation between two things.

To be or not to be?

The verb to be and its various forms ( is , am , were , etc.) is used constantly in writing and speech. It’s an important verb, to be sure (we just used it again), but be mindful of how often it pops up in your writing. Try substituting one of these alternatives:

Helper (auxiliary) verbs

These overused verbs are used to create verb forms that indicate time or mood and are not usually found on their own.

Action verbs

These frequently used verbs describe movements and actions. And these verbs, like to be , have a tendency to get overused. When you’re writing, instead of repeating these same verbs, mix it up with some of the synonyms we have suggested after each below:

do : accomplish, prepare, resolve, work out
say : suggest, disclose, answer
go : continue, move, lead
get : bring, attain, catch, become
make : create, cause, prepare, invest
know : understand, appreciate, experience, identify
think : contemplate, remember, judge, consider
take : accept, steal, buy, endure
see : detect, comprehend, scan
come : happen, appear, extend, occur
want : choose, prefer, require, wish
look : glance, notice, peer, read
use : accept, apply, handle, work
find : detect, discover, notice, uncover
give : grant, award, issue
tell : confess, explain, inform, reveal

Most-used adverbs

An adverb is a word that modifies verbs, clauses, adjectives, and other adverbs. For example, in the sentence I drove quickly, the word quickly is an adverb modifying the verb drove . The most common adverbs are:

Instead of these typical adverbs, why not choose some of these more colorful alternatives?

immediately
additionally

Most-used nouns

A noun is a word that describes a person, place, or thing. There are surprisingly few nouns in the top 100 most frequently written words in the English language. However, the nouns we do use most describe things that are fundamental:

The thing about “thing”…

One of the most common nouns is thing . When you’re writing, you should try to avoid this word as much as possible! Nine times out of 10, thing can be replaced with a more accurate and precise description. For instance, instead of writing “We weren’t able to find the thing,” write, “We weren’t able to find the million-dollar treasure. ” It is more clear, interesting, and compelling.

Most-used pronouns

A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun. We use pronouns to avoid repeating the same nouns.

Most-used adjectives

An adjective is a word that modifies, or describes, a noun or pronoun.

Is “good” really good enough ?

One of the most frequently used adjectives is good . We think good is, well, not that good of a word. It’s boring! Instead of this common word, try one of these more illustrative synonyms next time:

Other frequently used adjectives are not as easily replaced. Makes sense why they are used all the time then, right?

Most-used conjunctions

A conjunction is a word that links words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. These little words do important work, which helps explain why we rely on them so much.

Here are the most-used conjunctions:

Most-used prepositions

A preposition is a word that links one phrase to a phrase that is modifying or describing, it. Often it is used to describe the spatial or temporal relationships between things: in The book is on the table , the preposition on describes where the book is.

Here are some common prepositions:

There are around 150 prepositions or prepositional phrases in the English language. And many of them don’t get much use. Some prepositions you might want to try to spice up your writing are:

notwithstanding
pursuant to
by virtue of

When writing, keep this list in mind. Some words you can’t necessarily avoid—like prepositions and conjunctions—but, when it comes to verbs or adjectives, try to think outside of the box and pick words that might not get their time in the spotlight.

It will make your work more interesting to read—and build your vocabulary, too!