IELTS WORD COUNT
Do you want to know more about how the words are counted in IELTS?
Here are IELTS word counting rules:
Very short words always count as one word. For example, ‘the’, ‘a’, ‘an’, and ‘at’ all count as one word each.
Hyphenated words, such as ‘two-thirds’, ‘ex-president’, and ‘fifty-five’ all count as one word each.
N.B. Numbers between 21-99 (except 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90) are always hyphenated when written. For example, 21=twenty-one, 55= fifty-five, and 72 = seventy-two. Therefore, these numbers count as one word each in IELTS Writing, Reading and Listening.
Words like ‘sailboat’ are called compound nouns because they combine two words (sail+boat). Compound nouns count as one word each.
Numbers, dates, and time are counted as words in IELTS writing. For example, ‘5,000’ = one word, 10-06-2019 = one word, and 12:00pm = one word. However, dates such as 14th May are counted as two words in Writing and one word and one number in Listening.
Words with a symbol such as percentages, prices, times, etc will only count as one word each. For example, 25% = one word, 19.95$ = one word, 9am = one word. Symbols do not count.