Learn the TOEFL Academic Word List in French: 378 Definition Cards and the False Friends They Hide

Deck IG1333, Liste de vocabulaire académique TOEFL, holds 378 cards: an English headword on the front, a French definition on the back — not a translation. That single design choice decides how you should use it.

Three blocks, and only the first two are ranked

Cards 1–60 run Analyze → Vary. Cards 61–120 restart at Achieve and run to Transfer. Those are Academic Word List sublists 1 and 2, in frequency order — the 120 headwords you meet most often in a TOEFL reading passage. Cards 121–378 are then flattened into one A→Z run (Constant → Widespread), which dissolves the ranking entirely. Take the first 120 cards to mastery before touching the rest.

Also covered: assume, authority, constitute, context, distribute, estimate, evident, factor, formula, indicate, legislate, principle, proceed, deduce, implicit, isolate, phenomenon, prior, random, rely, sustain, undergo, ultimate, valid, virtual, voluntary, welfare, whereby.

Definitions carry Reading, not Writing

A gloss like Suivant comme résultat ou effet lets you recognise consequent in a passage, but never hands the word back to you in an essay. Add the one-word French equivalent to the hint field — all 378 hints are empty — so each card trains production as well: consequent → consécutif, derive → tirer de, sustain → soutenir.

The false friends nobody flagged

Not one card warns a French speaker that the cognate is a trap. The six that cost the most points:

• achieve = réussir, not achever (to finish off)
• assist = aider, not assister à (to attend)
• injure = blesser, not injurier (to insult)
• process = processus, not procès (a trial)
• scheme = plan, dispositif, not schéma (a diagram)
• labor = travail, not labourer (to plough)

Two repairs before your first review

One member per word family. 377 distinct headwords, zero derived forms: analyze with no analysis, analytical or analyst; assessment with no assess; economy with no economic. TOEFL Writing is scored on exactly those derivations — build four family cards for your twenty weakest words.

Two senses, one card, no word class. 178 of the 378 backs stack two meanings behind a semicolon — Contract is un accord and diminuer en taille, and Credit, Focus, Grade, Secure and Survey do the same — without ever saying which sense is the noun and which the verb. Tag them (n.) and (v.) as you review. Three cards also need a direct fix: Region appears twice (cards 106 and 287, with two different definitions — delete one), while Construct and Revenue are defined by their own French cognate, which teaches nothing. And note that Administrate is the AWL headword form; the verb you actually write is administer.

The English edition of the same 378 cards is broken down in TOEFL Academic Word List: 378 Flashcards, and the longer 564-word sibling list is covered in Memorize 564 IELTS Academic Vocabulary Words.

Open Flip It and look for deck IG1333 — Liste de vocabulaire académique TOEFL — in your library.