CELPIP Vocabulary Foundations
Build the core word-formation, register, and paraphrasing skills that underpin strong vocabulary scores across all four CELPIP skills.
Free to read.
About this course
Before chasing longer word lists, it helps to fix the underlying habits that make vocabulary use look strong or weak to a CELPIP rater: word form accuracy, appropriate register, and the ability to paraphrase instead of repeating the question's wording back. This foundations course covers those mechanics directly, in a short sequence you can complete before moving into topic-specific vocabulary work.
Lessons walk through word families (how a root like "decide" spreads across decision, decisive, decisively), collocational awareness, formal versus informal register for email versus survey-response writing, synonym precision (choosing the word that's actually correct, not just similar), and practical paraphrasing techniques for both writing and speaking tasks.
This course is meant to be a launching pad: finish it and the topic-based lessons in the Collocations Kit will make more sense and stick better, because you'll already have the framework — word form, register, paraphrase — for slotting new vocabulary into place instead of memorizing it in isolation.
The Celpip Plus team
Written and reviewed against the official CELPIP scoring criteria
Questions about this course
Yes. Every lesson is free to read, with no account needed.
Word families, register, synonym precision and paraphrasing — the mechanics behind strong vocabulary use. There's no standalone vocabulary section on the CELPIP test; these skills feed directly into your Writing and Speaking responses.
Vocabulary is one of the four criteria raters use to score Writing and Speaking, alongside Content/Coherence, Readability or Listenability, and Task Fulfillment. Listening and Reading use no criteria at all — they're scored by your pattern of correct answers, converted to a CELPIP level.
About 35 to 40 minutes to read all 12 lessons.