The Academic Formulas List (AFL) Common academic word sequences

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This page describes the Academic Formulas List (AFL), explaining what it is and giving a full list of the AFL. There is also, in another section, an AFL highlighter which can be used to highlight AFL words in a text.

What is the AFL?

The Academic Formulas List (AFL) is a list of the most common formulaic sequences in academic English. It can be seen as a formulaic companion to the Academic Word List (AWL), consisting of formulas (recurring word sequences three to five words long) rather than single words. It was developed by Rita Simpson-Vlach and Nick C. Ellis from the University of Michigan. There are three separate lists: one for formulas that are common in both academic spoken and academic written language (the 'core' AFL), one for those which are special to academic spoken language, and one for those which are special to academic written language. The core list has 207 entries, while the spoken and written lists each have 200 entries, making 607 in total. The lists are prioritised according to a special measure of usefulness, devised by the researchers who made the list, called the formula teaching worth (FTW). Some of the phrases in the AFL also contain words in the AWL, e.g. the word consequence in the phrase as a consequence, though most of the words in the formulas list are from the GSL. Studying these formulas will provide another way to build up your academic vocabulary.

The Academic Formulas List

The 607 formulas in the AFL are listed below. The 207 formulas in the core list are given first, followed by the 200 formulas in the spoken list, and finally the 200 formulas in the written list.

Core AFL (Written and Spoken)

These formulas are common in both written and spoken English.

Number	Formula	Freq per million (speech)	Freq per million (writing)	FTW
1	in terms of	337	282	3.53
2	at the same time	92	98	2.56
3	from the point of view	11	14	2.44
4	in order to	153	255	2.35
5	as well as	68	255	2.08
6	part of the	201	216	1.96
7	the fact that	178	203	1.96
8	in other words	146	89	1.9
9	the point of view of	10	15	1.89
10	there is a	143	223	1.72
11	as a result of	26	75	1.58
12	this is a	305	76	1.57
13	on the basis of	23	82	1.5
14	a number of	88	215	1.5
15	there is no	50	185	1.45
16	point of view	82	60	1.41
17	the number of	79	246	1.38
18	the extent to which	10	52	1.36
19	as a result	61	125	1.35
20	in the case of	32	135	1.32
21	whether or not	59	81	1.31
22	the same time	96	104	1.26
23	with respect to	44	104	1.26
24	point of view of	13	15	1.22
25	as a function of	19	36	1.19
26	at the same	109	117	1.19
27	the point of view	17	15	1.13
28	in such a way	13	19	1.11
29	the use of	27	270	1.11
30	in other words the	22	18	1.08
31	in terms of the	56	67	1.07
32	more likely to	42	76	1.06
33	likely to be	37	115	1.03
34	in this case	87	91	1.03
35	as opposed to	53	40	1.02
36	the way in which	27	39	0.94
37	based on the	30	134	0.91
38	can be used	13	89	0.87
39	the relationship between	21	75	0.87
40	it is not	33	188	0.81
41	and so on	153	68	0.79
42	on the basis	24	94	0.75
43	the difference between	44	38	0.74
44	it may be	45	87	0.72
45	the presence of	21	130	0.7
46	in the sense that	34	22	0.7
47	a variety of	26	91	0.69
48	different types of	24	28	0.69
49	extent to which	10	54	0.66
50	exactly the same	43	17	0.65
51	a series of	23	87	0.63
52	in relation to	12	91	0.63
53	it can be	55	97	0.63
54	the case of	39	168	0.62
55	in the case	36	153	0.62
56	large number of	10	35	0.62
57	that there is a	23	41	0.61
58	to some extent	26	18	0.6
59	that there is	69	116	0.59
60	the real world	19	18	0.57
61	is based on	17	59	0.56
62	due to the	21	127	0.55
63	ways in which	23	37	0.54
64	an example of	61	41	0.54
65	the fact that the	15	58	0.54
66	referred to as	11	31	0.52
67	may not be	33	49	0.52
68	way in which	45	54	0.51
69	it does not	13	68	0.48
70	from the point of	11	15	0.47
71	the development of	26	121	0.46
72	in the same	89	88	0.46
73	a result of	33	86	0.46
74	the basis of	27	108	0.45
75	the role of	25	121	0.43
76	there may be	26	32	0.43
77	difference between the	15	33	0.42
78	between the two	33	68	0.41
79	the size of the	17	32	0.41
80	the importance of	20	94	0.4
81	that there are	63	63	0.39
82	as a function	19	36	0.34
83	associated with the	12	54	0.31
84	the amount of	50	66	0.3
85	a function of	34	60	0.29
86	as an example	11	21	0.27
87	for example if	20	19	0.26
88	such as the	12	105	0.26
89	based on a	16	36	0.26
90	as part of	21	61	0.25
91	this is not	67	62	0.25
92	in which the	27	166	0.24
93	the effect of	20	110	0.24
94	in response to	14	57	0.22
95	related to the	21	77	0.22
96	each of these	24	33	0.21
97	the effects of	18	100	0.21
98	terms of the	58	79	0.2
99	we can see	26	12	0.2
100	there are three	10	15	0.2
101	for example the	17	84	0.18
102	according to the	20	70	0.18
103	the existence of	14	63	0.18
104	the concept of	21	70	0.18
105	in this way	17	67	0.17
106	focus on the	17	28	0.16
107	the nature of	19	85	0.15
108	the context of	15	89	0.15
109	a list of	31	32	0.15
110	this type of	18	40	0.14
111	such a way	13	19	0.13
112	the ability to	25	54	0.13
113	the idea that	59	38	0.13
114	a set of	21	68	0.11
115	other words the	22	18	0.11
116	parts of the	32	54	0.09
117	nature of the	18	77	0.09
118	the level of	31	77	0.05
119	this would be	41	18	0.05
120	is that the	117	94	0.04
121	is much more	11	17	0.04
122	the same as	44	40	0.04
123	to show that	22	37	0.04
124	there is an	20	41	0.03
125	the notion of	18	49	0.03
126	in the sense	52	38	0
127	in the context	11	61	0
128	the process of	37	68	-0.01
129	is not a	43	81	-0.02
130	both of these	23	12	-0.03
131	for example in	11	36	-0.03
132	the part of the	13	24	-0.05
133	the size of	28	46	-0.06
134	the form of	23	78	-0.06
135	the sum of	18	31	-0.08
136	the reason for	16	29	-0.09
137	a and b	16	48	-0.1
138	that this is	91	33	-0.11
139	fact that the	17	63	-0.11
140	this is an	54	19	-0.12
141	because it is	22	41	-0.13
142	have the same	38	23	-0.15
143	part of a	20	49	-0.18
144	the question of	24	64	-0.19
145	of these two	18	20	-0.21
146	the value of	16	60	-0.21
147	assume that the	11	23	-0.21
148	size of the	19	39	-0.21
149	in such a	18	46	-0.21
150	the distribution of	10	39	-0.22
151	of the same	32	70	-0.22
152	the meaning of	10	40	-0.23
153	view of the	20	51	-0.23
154	each of the	18	77	-0.24
155	which is not	21	27	-0.25
156	the issue of	16	36	-0.25
157	but this is	43	24	-0.26
158	if this is	40	21	-0.27
159	the rate of	14	47	-0.27
160	that we are	30	30	-0.31
161	with the same	20	25	-0.31
162	the result of	11	47	-0.31
163	the problem of	19	55	-0.31
164	is to be	16	85	-0.32
165	the study of	12	59	-0.32
166	which is the	71	34	-0.33
167	the definition of	16	23	-0.33
168	here is that	38	11	-0.35
169	from the point	11	16	-0.35
170	a form of	12	30	-0.36
171	the frequency of	13	26	-0.37
172	the order of	36	27	-0.37
173	the way that	58	15	-0.37
174	function of the	15	35	-0.37
175	of the two	29	73	-0.39
176	different from the	13	19	-0.39
177	the structure of	14	36	-0.42
178	what are the	60	13	-0.42
179	is that it	44	47	-0.42
180	the way in	30	40	-0.42
181	to use the	27	42	-0.44
182	be the case	15	17	-0.45
183	means that the	13	25	-0.48
184	value of the	13	34	-0.49
185	of the system	16	41	-0.5
186	of view of	13	18	-0.51
187	the work of	11	51	-0.54
188	example of a	23	13	-0.54
189	is the case	13	25	-0.55
190	is that there	23	19	-0.58
191	of the second	15	32	-0.58
192	the change in	15	17	-0.58
193	so that the	38	57	-0.59
194	is not the	27	56	-0.6
195	the area of	11	24	-0.61
196	form of the	11	30	-0.62
197	that is the	65	52	-0.63
198	and in the	54	85	-0.64
199	and the second	20	16	-0.66
200	of the fact	15	23	-0.67
201	the first is	10	26	-0.7
202	that in the	61	46	-0.77
203	and the same	17	17	-0.84
204	out that the	14	15	-0.91
205	the example of	14	11	-0.93
206	that in a	32	13	-1.08
207	is for the	16	11	-1.29

Spoken AFL

These formulas are common in spoken English.

Number	Formula	Freq per million (speech)	Freq per million (writing)	FTW
1	be able to	256	99	2.96
2	blah blah blah	29	0	2.92
3	this is the	340	60	2.77
4	you know what I mean	64	2	2.27
5	you can see	209	1	2.12
6	trying to figure out	19	1	2.05
7	a little bit about	47	0	2
8	does that make sense	29	0	1.99
9	you know what	228	2	1.99
10	the university of michigan	35	0	1.98
11	for those of you who	18	0	1.98
12	do you want me to	14	0	1.96
13	thank you very much	26	0	1.95
14	look at the	197	24	1.95
15	we're gonna talk about	20	0	1.95
16	talk a little bit	19	0	1.92
17	if you look at	80	0	1.89
18	and this is	248	20	1.87
19	if you look at the	27	0	1.8
20	no no no no	31	0	1.78
21	at the end of	89	60	1.74
22	we were talking about	23	0	1.65
23	in ann arbor	19	0	1.62
24	it turns out that	24	4	1.61
25	you need to	182	0	1.61
26	see what I'm saying	17	0	1.6
27	take a look at	31	1	1.58
28	you have a	215	4	1.57
29	might be able to	20	6	1.56
30	at the end	137	66	1.48
31	you want to	171	7	1.46
32	to do with	165	43	1.44
33	nothing to do with	22	9	1.43
34	know what I mean	65	3	1.42
35	you look at	137	1	1.42
36	university of michigan	44	0	1.42
37	what I'm talking about	13	0	1.41
38	the same thing	122	8	1.35
39	to look at	131	20	1.34
40	the end of	158	110	1.33
41	gonna be able to	18	0	1.32
42	we're talking about	61	0	1.28
43	to figure out what	12	1	1.27
44	so if you	170	0	1.24
45	so this is	173	0	1.23
46	if you want to	59	2	1.23
47	no no no	86	0	1.23
48	if you have	160	0	1.22
49	come up with a	17	1	1.21
50	we talked about	72	0	1.2
51	when you look at	22	0	1.2
52	in order to get	23	4	1.19
53	the end of the	88	59	1.19
54	oh my god	32	0	1.17
55	come up with	68	3	1.16
56	I was gonna say	26	0	1.16
57	and then you	170	1	1.16
58	a kind of	150	24	1.16
59	it doesn't matter	51	0	1.15
60	has to do with	31	3	1.14
61	you can look at	25	0	1.13
62	do you want me	16	0	1.12
63	little bit about	48	0	1.12
64	if you look	117	0	1.1
65	I just wanted to	28	0	1.1
66	you're talking about	57	0	1.08
67	what does that mean	22	0	1.08
68	the best way to	18	7	1.08
69	if you want	112	3	1.06
70	you know what i	73	2	1.05
71	we've talked about	24	0	1.05
72	we'll talk about	34	0	1.03
73	let me just	44	0	1.02
74	I was talking about	14	0	1.02
75	has to be	115	45	1.01
76	to talk about	93	9	1
77	it turns out	39	7	1
78	those of you who	27	0	0.99
79	you might want to	19	0	0.99
80	first of all	97	11	0.98
81	and so on and so	17	0	0.98
82	there was a	125	54	0.97
83	at the university of	22	8	0.97
84	yes yes yes	30	0	0.97
85	you can see that	45	0	0.96
86	I have a question	31	0	0.96
87	it has to be	37	6	0.93
88	we need to	102	30	0.92
89	what I'm saying	58	0	0.92
90	you want me to	22	0	0.92
91	all sorts of	50	1	0.91
92	as you can see	20	0	0.9
93	to figure out	53	4	0.9
94	keep in mind	22	3	0.9
95	what do you mean	29	0	0.89
96	it looks like	66	1	0.88
97	let's look at	38	0	0.87
98	you look at the	41	0	0.87
99	to make sure	57	6	0.86
100	if you wanted to	19	0	0.85
101	make sure that	56	7	0.84
102	end up with	38	4	0.84
103	and you can see	39	0	0.84
104	came up with	31	1	0.84
105	doesn't have to be	17	0	0.83
106	I mean if you	41	0	0.83
107	you've got a	58	0	0.83
108	gonna talk about	41	0	0.82
109	how many of you	17	0	0.82
110	I mean if	104	0	0.81
111	look at it	80	2	0.81
112	piece of paper	16	2	0.81
113	and so forth	60	17	0.8
114	and you can	142	3	0.79
115	looking at the	84	12	0.79
116	we're gonna talk	23	0	0.79
117	go back to the	22	4	0.79
118	you know what I'm	24	0	0.76
119	that you can	136	1	0.76
120	we're looking at	26	0	0.76
121	what I mean	102	6	0.74
122	do you know what	31	1	0.73
123	how do you know	20	2	0.73
124	you don't need to	20	1	0.73
125	you're looking at	32	0	0.72
126	turns out that	28	4	0.72
127	it could be	84	23	0.72
128	figure out what	26	1	0.72
129	if you've got	32	0	0.72
130	I wanted to	84	3	0.71
131	you could you could	15	0	0.71
132	might be able	20	6	0.7
133	trying to figure	20	1	0.7
134	what you're saying	40	0	0.67
135	we have to	117	20	0.67
136	I'm talking about	32	0	0.67
137	so you can	114	0	0.66
138	this kind of	95	23	0.65
139	don't worry about	13	0	0.65
140	it's gonna be	70	0	0.64
141	if you have a	45	0	0.64
142	wanna talk about	21	0	0.64
143	so you can see	18	0	0.64
144	I want you to	37	0	0.63
145	to look at the	27	7	0.63
146	to each other	46	24	0.62
147	the kind of	119	24	0.62
148	at this point	54	31	0.61
149	one of these	88	24	0.6
150	and if you	132	2	0.6
151	you think about it	26	0	0.59
152	talk about the	74	2	0.59
153	it might be	64	36	0.59
154	for those of you	23	0	0.59
155	to do with the	43	18	0.59
156	I'm not gonna	45	0	0.58
157	was talking about	38	0	0.58
158	have to do with	20	2	0.58
159	tell me what	25	1	0.57
160	look at this	57	1	0.57
161	in a sense	74	15	0.56
162	okay I don't know	14	0	0.56
163	I'll talk about	14	0	0.56
164	you need to do	15	0	0.56
165	do you want	69	3	0.55
166	we talk about	41	0	0.54
167	any questions about	14	0	0.53
168	come back to	37	1	0.53
169	you can see the	28	0	0.53
170	the reason why	36	8	0.52
171	it in terms of	14	2	0.52
172	what I want to	17	3	0.52
173	we looked at	22	3	0.51
174	if you wanna	64	0	0.51
175	take a look	41	1	0.5
176	if you were to	22	0	0.5
177	I'll show you	21	0	0.49
178	talking about the	64	3	0.49
179	that make sense	31	1	0.49
180	this is this is	39	0	0.48
181	how do we	59	5	0.48
182	we were talking	26	0	0.48
183	wanna look at	19	0	0.48
184	you're trying to	38	0	0.47
185	a look at	61	5	0.47
186	if you were	76	3	0.47
187	you're interested in	21	0	0.47
188	to think about	81	5	0.46
189	gonna be able	18	0	0.46
190	by the way	65	4	0.45
191	we look at	43	7	0.45
192	I think this is	26	0	0.45
193	but if you	94	2	0.45
194	at some point	24	7	0.44
195	I'm gonna go	24	0	0.44
196	thank you very	27	0	0.43
197	can look at	34	0	0.43
198	what happens is	40	0	0.43
199	on the board	30	3	0.42
200	um let me	17	0	0.42

Written AFL

These formulas are common in written English.

Number	Formula	Freq per million (speech)	Freq per million (writing)	FTW
1	on the other hand	40	119	2.84
2	due to the fact that	2	13	2.64
3	on the other hand the	3	24	2.55
4	it should be noted	0	17	2.51
5	it is not possible to	0	15	2.44
6	a wide range of	4	31	2.42
7	there are a number of	5	14	2.41
8	in such a way that	9	11	2.32
9	take into account the	2	11	2.27
10	as can be seen	0	15	1.79
11	it is clear that	3	33	1.72
12	take into account	8	19	1.7
13	can be used to	5	45	1.64
14	in this paper we	0	14	1.64
15	are likely to	7	61	1.61
16	in the next section	0	15	1.6
17	a large number of	7	22	1.59
18	the united kingdom	1	25	1.57
19	on the basis of the	4	23	1.57
20	that there is no	5	32	1.56
21	over a period of	5	13	1.55
22	as a result of the	5	17	1.55
23	can be seen in	0	17	1.52
24	a wide range	6	33	1.51
25	there are a number	6	14	1.47
26	it is interesting to	0	15	1.47
27	it is impossible to	0	12	1.47
28	it is obvious that	0	11	1.46
29	it is possible to	2	48	1.46
30	it is not possible	1	18	1.45
31	been carried out	0	17	1.45
32	can be found in	0	18	1.45
33	it is important to	1	43	1.4
34	was carried out	0	26	1.39
35	is likely to be	3	38	1.38
36	wide range of	5	36	1.37
37	the same way as	5	15	1.37
38	due to the fact	2	13	1.36
39	in accordance with the	2	12	1.36
40	it is necessary to	1	26	1.35
41	the other hand	41	120	1.35
42	can be seen	6	87	1.35
43	it is likely that	0	18	1.31
44	such a way that	9	11	1.22
45	to carry out	7	29	1.22
46	it is possible that	0	19	1.22
47	with respect to the	6	37	1.2
48	give rise to	3	19	1.18
49	carried out by	2	20	1.17
50	whether or not the	3	18	1.13
51	in the present study	0	11	1.11
52	should be noted	0	18	1.07
53	be carried out	1	18	1.06
54	the other hand the	3	24	1.06
55	does not appear	1	13	1.04
56	his or her	3	34	1.01
57	is not possible to	0	15	0.99
58	shown in figure	0	40	0.96
59	be used as a	0	17	0.95
60	for the purposes of	1	24	0.95
61	be regarded as	1	40	0.94
62	to ensure that the	0	17	0.93
63	allows us to	7	15	0.93
64	it has been	12	79	0.92
65	little or no	3	16	0.9
66	carried out in	0	25	0.9
67	to distinguish between	1	21	0.88
68	in accordance with	6	26	0.88
69	they do not	6	56	0.88
70	at this stage	7	33	0.88
71	is based on the	3	22	0.88
72	shown in table	0	30	0.87
73	in the absence of	5	41	0.86
74	we have seen	5	26	0.83
75	to determine whether	2	16	0.82
76	in the context of	7	57	0.79
77	a high degree	1	13	0.78
78	the difference between the	8	14	0.78
79	an increase in the	6	13	0.78
80	it is possible	6	83	0.77
81	can be achieved	0	17	0.77
82	insight into the	0	16	0.77
83	can be expressed	1	23	0.75
84	we assume that	5	20	0.75
85	they did not	6	26	0.73
86	there has been	8	33	0.72
87	on the part of	8	31	0.7
88	in this paper	4	62	0.7
89	the purpose of this	2	13	0.7
90	less likely to	5	23	0.68
91	a large number	9	23	0.67
92	can easily be	0	15	0.67
93	with regard to	4	40	0.66
94	there are several	6	18	0.66
95	over a period	5	14	0.66
96	in this case the	8	27	0.66
97	in conjunction with	6	23	0.65
98	at the time of	7	32	0.65
99	we do not	4	38	0.64
100	has been used	4	20	0.63
101	appears to be	9	53	0.63
102	to do so	23	55	0.63
103	there are no	21	39	0.62
104	on the other	77	147	0.62
105	has also been	1	25	0.61
106	it is worth	0	20	0.61
107	can be found	1	33	0.61
108	the next section	1	19	0.6
109	are a number of	6	14	0.6
110	this paper we	0	16	0.6
111	be seen as	8	44	0.6
112	be related to the	1	12	0.59
113	to ensure that	5	44	0.59
114	it is important	3	66	0.59
115	be explained by	0	15	0.58
116	same way as	5	15	0.58
117	see for example	0	20	0.58
118	the presence of a	1	24	0.58
119	that it is not	3	17	0.58
120	in some cases	19	32	0.58
121	to the fact that	10	23	0.57
122	high levels of	6	17	0.56
123	most likely to	3	26	0.56
124	it appears that	6	29	0.56
125	it follows that	1	31	0.55
126	can also be	6	52	0.55
127	it is clear	3	39	0.54
128	by virtue of	6	25	0.54
129	the most important	21	53	0.53
130	an attempt to	12	29	0.53
131	it is impossible	1	17	0.53
132	factors such as	0	14	0.53
133	is consistent with	0	29	0.53
134	total number of	2	20	0.53
135	similar to those	0	22	0.52
136	as part of the	8	26	0.52
137	can be considered	0	18	0.52
138	at the outset	3	11	0.51
139	in more detail	3	13	0.51
140	should not be	6	51	0.51
141	could be used	4	19	0.51
142	appear to be	7	47	0.5
143	as a consequence	3	24	0.5
144	in this article	3	28	0.5
145	assumed to be	1	39	0.49
146	in the form of	9	46	0.48
147	as a whole	26	43	0.48
148	important role in	2	13	0.47
149	it is interesting	1	18	0.46
150	does not have	9	25	0.46
151	none of these	6	15	0.46
152	as shown in	0	66	0.45
153	is likely to	9	80	0.45
154	this means that	6	36	0.45
155	be noted that	0	21	0.45
156	be achieved by	0	13	0.45
157	depends on the	18	44	0.44
158	at least in	19	35	0.44
159	a small number	4	12	0.43
160	in table 1	0	29	0.43
161	in most cases	3	17	0.43
162	depending on the	14	29	0.41
163	in both cases	5	17	0.41
164	the validity of the	1	18	0.41
165	small number of	5	18	0.4
166	their ability to	7	19	0.4
167	need not be	0	25	0.4
168	needs to be	30	45	0.4
169	have shown that	2	30	0.39
170	it is necessary	2	34	0.39
171	been shown to	2	31	0.39
172	such as those	0	21	0.39
173	are as follows	0	16	0.38
174	for this purpose	1	15	0.38
175	is determined by	3	23	0.38
176	it is difficult	0	27	0.37
177	even though the	8	21	0.37
178	this does not	4	28	0.37
179	was based on	7	19	0.37
180	the nature of the	8	43	0.37
181	in the course of	13	27	0.37
182	degree to which	1	26	0.37
183	be argued that	0	17	0.36
184	in terms of a	8	15	0.36
185	for this reason	3	21	0.36
186	are based on	9	24	0.36
187	in a number of	7	19	0.36
188	two types of	7	21	0.34
189	the total number	4	18	0.34
190	is more likely	5	19	0.34
191	which can be	7	57	0.34
192	are able to	7	37	0.32
193	be considered as	0	22	0.32
194	be used to	8	77	0.31
195	b and c	5	17	0.31
196	depend on the	7	30	0.3
197	is that it is	3	19	0.3
198	is affected by	0	11	0.3
199	should also be	2	18	0.3
200	if they are	10	33	0.3

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