托福写作词汇常见错误主要是分为以六个类别做的整理：容易混淆的词汇、固定搭配问题、表达受中文影响的问题、动词形式不正确以及名词的单复数、冠词的使用及用词与文章风格不符等。

容易混淆的词汇

考生由于对形似、意近的词辨别不清，不知道他们各自的具体用法，而在托福写作中出现失误。比如，有的词虽然意思相同，但他们表达同一个意思的程度是不同的;有的英语单词的汉语意思相同，但他们所限定修饰的词、使用的范围或者连接的成分是不同的;有的单词的文体风格不同，有正式和非正式之分。

要注意自己写文章的总体风格，在正式文体中避免使用非正式的语言。鉴于选词的难度，考生应在平时注意多查词典，注意其中所举得例句，在看英语材料时留心写作词汇的具体使用环境，并摘录一些自己能看明白但说不出的表达。

1、Original: Bill Gates gives a definite answer that college education doescount.

Revised: Bill Gates gave a definitive answer: college education doescount.

Definite意思是“明确的”、“一定的”，指意思明确，不会误解;definitive也是“明确”的意思，但往往指“权威性、最后决定的”。此话出自比尔·盖茨之口，体现权威性，故将definite改为definitive。

2、Original: …people may attend a university or college for variousreasons...

Revised: …people attend university or college for a multitude ofreasons...

此处将various改为短语a multitude of更为正式，体现人们读大学的原因很多。

3、Original: The kinds of education that we got on school are formal andintense ones...

Revised: The kinds of education that we receive at school is formal and oftentimes very intense.

不必用kinds of education，直接用education(教育)即可;“受教育”不同get，改为receive;“在学校”不必用atschool;把one去掉，用oftentimes very intense指出学校教育常常是非常严格的。

4、Original: They can foster their interests in some fields to make lifemore colorful and meaningful.

Revised: They can even pick up hobbies to make life more colorful andenjoyable.

Foster their interests是“培养兴趣”，此处用pick uphobbies(开始各种各样的兴趣)更为合适;不同的兴趣是我们生活的调味剂，使我们的生活多姿多彩，乐趣无穷，把meaningful换成enjoyable，与colorful搭配更合适。

5、Original: Needless to say, more employment means more income and lessidle life, so that people can enjoy a better life and make investment in theirfuture.

Revised: Needless to say, more employment means income and less idle time,so that people can enjoy a better life and invest in their own futures.

把idle life改为idle time更为合适，表示“闲散时间”;makeinvestment可改为动词invest，与and前的动词enjoy词性一致;人们各自有自己的未来，故将in their future改为in theirown futures。

6、Original: Another important factor that contributes to the extension oflife expectancy is the development of medical science.

Revised: Another imortant factor that contributes to the rise in lifeexpectancy is the development of medical science.

“人的寿命的延长”可以表示为life extension，但是如果用life expectancy，则要用the increast of 或therise in life expectancy。

7、Original: the growth of life span.

Revised: the rise in/increase of life span.

Life span意思是“寿命”，growth指“生长，增长”，“寿命的延长”用growth不合适，life span“寿命的延长”可以用risein/increase of/extension of.

8、Original: energy saving

Revised: energy efficiency托福与雅思的区别

Energy saving一般作定语，此处名词短语“节能”最好用energy efficiency。

9、Original: with the increasing complicatedness of the job profile

Revised: with the increasing complexity of the modern jor profile

Complicatedness意思是“错综复杂”，但是这种错综复杂是有逻辑的;complexity也是“复杂”的意思，但这种复杂是杂乱无辜的，现代的工作情况用complexity较为合适。

10、Original: Such experience will difinitely be helpful in children's laterlife.

Revised: Such experience will benefit them later in life.

Helpful是“提供帮助”的意思，而benefit是“使…受益”。这里作者想说的是孩子将来的人生会受益于这样的经历，用benefit合适，因为这样的经历不一定能对孩子将来的人生提供什么具体的帮助。

11、Original: In my submission, people should sometimes do things that theydo not enjoy doing.

Revised: Because of these circumstances, I believe it is inevitable thatpeople must do what they don't enjoy doing.

In one'ssubmission虽然也可以表示某人所持的观点，但是这是一种非常formal(正式)的表述，用在这里和整体文章的风格不太相符。

12、Original: For no one can promise what will happen in the future, if youdon't save some money, an emergency will probably make you a cat on a hotbrick.

Revised: Because no one can predict the future, if you don't save money anunforeseen emergency can be financially crippling.

Promise的意思是“承诺、允诺”，用在这里不合适，作者要说的是没有人能与之未来发生的事，应该用predit。还有，作者在这里用了一个惯用语acat on a hot brick，这又有一个错误。第一，这个表述本身有错误，正确的应该是like a cat on hotbricks。第二，这个惯用语的意思是“忐忑不安，如热锅上的蚂蚁“，用在这里意思也不太合适。