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A content word refers to a thing, quality, state, action or event. Structural words are effective
transitions that establish logical relationships between sentences, between paragraphs, and
between whole sections of text. The writer uses them to recall for the reader that which has
already been said and to help the reader anticipate that which is about to follow. This includes
phrases that contain words like "but," "however," "moreover," "on the other hand,"
"nevertheless."
Words like the, a, it and but are found in almost every text, whereas words like apple,
water and spoon, even though they seem very common, will only be found in some texts.
Structure words are further classified into Determiners, Prepositions, Conjunctions and
Pronouns. They are common, and there are only a couple of hundred of them. Most of them are
short, worn down from constant use. They mostly indicate grammatical relations.
Content words are classified into nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. There are tens of
thousands of them in a language and so they make up most of the words in a dictionary. Proper
nouns (names of people and places) are not usually a problem for understanding, but are also
Content words.
Structure words
1. TIME
5. COMPARE/CONTRAST IDEAS
although = aunque
but = pero, sino
even so = aún así, no obstante
conversely = a la inversa, vice-versa
differently = diferentemente, de manera diferente
however = sin embargo, no obstante
in contrast = en contraste, por el contrario
in spite of = a pesar de
in a way = de cierta manera, hasta cierto punto, en cierto modo
nevertheless = sin embargo, no obstante, con todo, a pesar de eso
on the one hand = por un lado
on the other hand = por otro lado, por otra parte
no doubt = sin duda
of course = por supuesto, claro está que
on the contrary = al contrario
otherwise = de otra manera, de otro modo
6. TO SHOW A RESULT