Repeated words and transitions checker for TOEFL® writing

Repeated words and transitions checker

Why there is no limit on this page

ETS publishes no limit on repeating a word and no required number of transition phrases, so this tool sets neither and passes no judgement on your response. It counts what is in the text you paste and shows you the counts. Whether a repetition is a problem depends on the word and the sentence, which is a judgement you are better placed to make than a word counter is.

The rules you will find elsewhere — never use a word more than three times, use exactly five transitions, never start two sentences the same way — are somebody’s writing advice wearing the clothes of a test requirement. Some of it is decent advice. None of it is a rule, and treating it as one produces a recognisable kind of response: synonyms chosen for variety rather than precision, and connectives carrying weight the sentences do not.

What repetition is worth fixing

• Repetition you did not intend. The same evaluative adjective on every point, or one verb doing the work of four. That is worth catching. A key noun repeated because it is the right noun is not.
• Openers, more than words. Four sentences beginning “This shows” is more noticeable to a reader than any single repeated word, and it is the easiest of these to fix without losing precision.
• Transitions with nothing between them. A response that is mostly linking phrases reads as organised at the surface and empty underneath. The count here tells you how much of your text is signposting; only you can tell what it signposts.
• Do not swap in a synonym you are unsure of. A wrong word chosen to avoid a repeat costs more than the repeat did. This is the single most common way this kind of tool makes a response worse.

The transition phrases this tool looks for

A Reach120 list of the phrases that recur in practice responses, not an ETS list and not a list of phrases to avoid. A phrase’s presence here is not a verdict on the phrase.

• first and foremost
• last but not least
• on the other hand
• on the contrary
• as a result
• in conclusion
• in addition
• in contrast
• in my opinion
• in other words
• in general
• for example
• for instance
• to sum up
• to conclude
• all in all
• first of all
• as well as
• due to
• even though
• however
• moreover
• furthermore
• therefore
• nevertheless
• nonetheless
• consequently
• additionally
• similarly
• likewise
• meanwhile
• overall
• besides
• thus
• hence
• although
• despite
• finally
• secondly
• firstly
• thirdly

How the counting works

Words are lowercased and stripped of punctuation, then common function words (the, of, and, is, and about a hundred others) are excluded — repeating those is English, not a habit worth fixing. Transition phrases are matched as whole phrases before the word count runs, because most of them are made of function words and a plain frequency count would never see them. Sentence openers are the first two words of each sentence. Anything appearing fewer than 3 times is counted but not listed, which is a Reach120 display cut-off and not a rule about your writing.

The 3-use display cut-off is a Reach120 editorial threshold. It decides what is listed, not whether anything is wrong.

Common questions

How many times can I repeat a word in a TOEFL response?

ETS publishes no limit on repeating a word and no required number of transition phrases, so this tool sets neither and passes no judgement on your response. It counts what is in the text you paste and shows you the counts. Whether a repetition is a problem depends on the word and the sentence, which is a judgement you are better placed to make than a word counter is.

How many transition phrases should I use?

ETS publishes no number, so this tool will not give you one, and nothing here describes how ETS marks a response. Reach120’s own reading is that the count matters less than what sits between the phrases: a response built mostly of linking phrases reads as organised at the surface and thin underneath, and adding another connective does not fix that. The tool shows you which phrases you used and how often, and leaves the judgement with you.

Is repeating a word actually a problem?

Sometimes, and not usually the way people assume. Repeating a key noun is often the clearest choice available — swapping in a vague synonym to avoid repetition tends to cost precision, which matters more than variety does. What is worth catching is the repetition you did not intend: the same evaluative adjective on every point, or four sentences in a row opening the same way. That is what the openers list is for.

Why does the tool only list words used 3 times or more?

Because listing every word used twice would bury the three words used nine times, and the point of the tool is to show you the pattern rather than the whole text back. The 3-use cut-off is a Reach120 display decision, not a rule about your writing, and words under it are still counted in the totals.

How is this counted?

Words are lowercased and stripped of punctuation, then common function words (the, of, and, is, and about a hundred others) are excluded — repeating those is English, not a habit worth fixing. Transition phrases are matched as whole phrases before the word count runs, because most of them are made of function words and a plain frequency count would never see them. Sentence openers are the first two words of each sentence. Anything appearing fewer than 3 times is counted but not listed, which is a Reach120 display cut-off and not a rule about your writing.

Is my response stored or sent anywhere?

The text you paste is analysed in your browser and is never sent anywhere, stored, or seen by anyone. Closing the page discards it.