Vocabulary

VOCABULARY LIST
Key English Test (KET)
Key English Test for Schools (KETfS)

Updated June 2009
KET Vocabulary List
© UCLES 2009

Introduction to the KET Vocabulary List
The KET Vocabulary List gives teachers a guide to the vocabulary needed when preparing students
for the KET and KET for Schools examinations.
Background to the List
The KET Vocabulary List was originally developed byCambridge ESOL in consultation with external
consultants to guide item writers who produce materials for the KET examination. It includes
vocabulary from the Council of Europe’s Waystage (1990) specification and other vocabulary which
has been shown by corpus evidence to be high-frequency.
The list covers vocabulary appropriate to this level of English and includes receptive vocabulary
(wordsthat the candidate is expected to understand but which is not the focus of a question), and
productive vocabulary (words that the candidate needs to know in order to answer a question).
The list does not provide an exhaustive list of all words which appear on the KET and KET for
Schools question papers and candidates should not confine their study of vocabulary to the list
alone.
How theList is Updated
The vocabulary of English changes over time, with words being added and other words falling into
disuse. In order to maintain its currency, the list is updated on an annual basis by the addition and
removal of words, using a corpus-based approach. Suggested additions to the wordlist are collated
and the frequency of these words is obtained by reference to established corpora(electronic
databases). The corpora in question represent receptive and productive language in general
contexts. The main corpora used for the validation of the KET Vocabulary List are:
 the Cambridge Learner Corpus (CLC) which includes over 20 million words of written learner
English;
 the British National Corpus (BNC) which includes 100 million words of written and spoken native
speaker data.Organisation of the List
 Word sets
Some categories of words a learner at this level might be expected to know are not included in the
alphabetical list but are listed separately. Words formed with common affixes, some compounds and
words from some common word sets, e.g. days of the week are described below and in Appendix 1.
Although some ‘grammar words’ (pronouns, modals, etc.) areincluded, the Language Specifications
section of the KET and KET for Schools Handbooks (available from www.cambridgeesol.org) should
be consulted for a more complete listing.
 Exemplification
Example phrases and sentences showing how words might be used are given only where words
with different meanings need to be constrained e.g. the use of bank is followed by ‘I changed my
money in a bank’i.e. is limited to the idea of a financial institution: candidates are not expected to
know other meanings, such as ‘a river bank’.
 Prefixes and Suffixes
A list of possible prefixes and suffixes is provided in Appendix 2, and these may be combined with
the vocabulary items in the list as appropriate. Words with an affix which is not included in the
appendix are listed separately in thealphabetical list.

 Compound Words
Compound words are not included in the list where both individual words are present and the
meaning of the compound is literal and transparent, e.g. coursebook, school children, shopping
centre.
 Multi-word Verbs
All multi-word (or phrasal) verbs that a KET or KET for Schools candidate might be expected to
know are included in the list. These verbs include‘literal’ verbs (i.e. where the meaning is
transparent) e.g. sit down, go out and ‘non-literal’ verbs e.g. look after, get up.
 Topic Lists
In Appendix 3 words have been grouped together under common KET and/or KET for Schools
themes, such as ‘House and Home’, ‘Work and Jobs’ and ‘Food and Drink’.
Unsuitable Topics
Cambridge ESOL examinations must not contain anything that might offend or...