A printable list of GCSE command words and what they want
Exam papers are written in a small, precise vocabulary, and boards publish a glossary for it. Describe wants what happens; explain wants why, with causal links; evaluate wants both sides and then a judgement. Most lost marks in written subjects come from answering a different command word than the one printed. Put this on the wall and check your answers against it.
Last updated 20 August 2026 · Written and checked by the GCSEwiz team
What is on the sheet
- Twenty command words with what they want and what goes wrong
- The ones that get mixed up sitting next to each other, so the difference is visible
- A self-check you can run over your own marked work
3 sheets · A4 portrait · black and white
Your printer dialog also offers Save as PDF if you want a copy on your phone.
Command words: the short answers
Page 1 of 3What the word at the start of the question is asking for. Boards word their glossaries slightly differently, so check yours for the exact phrasing.
The short-answer words
| Command word | What it wants | Where marks get lost |
|---|---|---|
| State, Give, Name | A short factual answer. No reason needed. | Writing a paragraph for one mark and running out of time later. |
| Identify | Name or select the right thing from what you are given. | Describing it instead of naming it. |
| Define | The meaning of a term, in the subject’s own words. | A vague everyday definition instead of the technical one. |
| Calculate | A numerical answer. Show your working and give the units. | Right number, no units, or no working when the method carried marks. |
| Determine | Use the data or graph you are given to get an answer. | Answering from memory instead of from the source provided. |
| Show that | Prove the answer already printed in the question. | Starting from the printed answer instead of arriving at it. |
| Measure | Read a value off the apparatus, diagram or graph. | Estimating rather than reading carefully. |
| Complete | Fill in the table, diagram or sentence. | Leaving a cell blank because it seemed obvious. |
Command words: where the marks are
Page 2 of 3Describe, explain and compare come first on purpose. They are the ones that get swapped for each other, and seeing them together is the quickest way to stop doing it.
| Command word | What it wants | Where marks get lost |
|---|---|---|
| Describe | What happens, or what something is like. No reasons required. | Explaining when only description was asked for, which earns nothing extra. |
| Explain | Why or how. Needs causal links: because, therefore, which means that. | A list of facts with no link between them. This is the single commonest loss. |
| Compare | Similarities and differences, referring to both things in the same sentence. | Two separate paragraphs that never actually compare. |
| Suggest | Apply what you know to a situation you have not met. More than one answer may be credited. | Leaving it blank because it is not in your notes. It is not meant to be. |
| Analyse | Break it into parts and show how they relate. | Summarising the source instead of examining it. |
| Discuss | Set out more than one view, with support for each. | Arguing one side only. |
Command words: reaching a judgement
Page 3 of 3The words that will not accept a balanced non-answer. Worth pinning above a desk.
| Command word | What it wants | Where marks get lost |
|---|---|---|
| Evaluate | Weigh evidence for and against, then reach a supported judgement. | Listing advantages and disadvantages and stopping before the judgement. |
| Assess | Weigh the importance of something and say how much it mattered. | Description with no weighing. |
| Justify | Give evidence to support a choice or conclusion. | Repeating the choice more loudly rather than supporting it. |
| To what extent | A judgement with a degree in it: largely, partly, only in one respect. | A yes or no answer, when the question is asking how much. |
| Outline | The main points, briefly, without detail. | Writing everything you know and losing time. |
| Sketch | A drawing that shows the shape and key features. It does not need to be to scale. | Spending five minutes on an accurate plot when a shape was wanted. |
Check your own answer against the word
- Did I do the verb that was printed, or the one I felt like doing?
- If it said explain, does my answer contain a because or a therefore?
- If it said evaluate, is there a judgement in the last sentence?
- If it said compare, does a single sentence mention both things?
- Does the number of marks match the amount I wrote?
Your board publishes its own glossary free on its website. If yours words one of these differently, the board wins.
Describe and explain are the pair worth getting right
Between them they account for a startling share of the marks in the sciences and the humanities, and students lose marks in both directions. Explaining when the question said describe wastes time you needed elsewhere. Describing when it said explain scores close to nothing, because the marks were for the causal link and you never wrote one.
The quick test is whether your answer contains a word like because, therefore, so or which means that. If it does not, and the question said explain, you have almost certainly written a description.
Evaluate questions end with a judgement
A great many evaluate answers are structurally perfect and score in the middle band, because they set out both sides carefully and then simply stop. The mark scheme is waiting for you to come down somewhere.
The judgement does not have to be brave. "On balance the second factor mattered more, because it affected the outcome in every case, whereas the first only did so when conditions allowed" is a judgement, and it is worth the marks that a neatly balanced non-answer is not.
Where to find your board’s own glossary
Search for your board's name with your subject and "command words" and the board's own page is usually the first result. The glossaries sit inside the specification too, generally near the back with the assessment information.
They are short documents, most of them a single page, and reading yours once is one of the cheapest marks available anywhere in a revision plan.