PTE Listening Fill in the Blanks: Vocabulary and Collocations

In PTE Listening Fill in the Blanks (Type In), you see a transcription with missing words while a recording plays. You type the missing words into the gaps. The recording plays once.

Pearson's current task page says the response is judged on listening for missing words and typing them into the transcript. Each correct word must be spelled correctly to earn a point. An incorrect or misspelled word earns zero for that blank; Pearson's current Score Guide does not apply negative marking to this question type. Pearson's task page says it affects Listening and Writing, while the linked July 2025 Score Guide table lists Listening only.

That scoring makes the lexical decision exact: a near-synonym that preserves the general idea is still not the word spoken. Vocabulary knowledge helps you anticipate what kind of word could fit, follow the audio, and verify spelling. It does not authorize you to replace the recording with the word you prefer.

Use the PTE Academic vocabulary hub and Exam English hub for broader practice.

The four-stage listening loop

For each blank:

1. Anticipate the slot: identify likely part of speech and grammatical form before the audio reaches it.
2. Listen for the phrase: attend to the missing word with its neighboring words, not as an isolated sound.
3. Type the exact word: capture inflection and spelling.
4. Verify twice: check both the audio trace and the complete sentence.

Anticipation should stay broad. If the text reads a ___ increase, predict “adjective describing degree,” not one exact answer. Locking onto substantial too early may cause you to miss considerable if that is what the speaker says.

A worked example

Transcript:

The second survey helped ______ the original finding, although the researchers noted that both samples came from similar communities.

Before listening, you can predict:

• the gap follows helped, so a base-form verb is likely;
• the object is the original finding;
• the contrast clause preserves support but adds a limitation.

If the audio says corroborate, type exactly that. Confirm might be grammatically and semantically plausible, but it earns no credit if it was not spoken.

Corroborate means add evidence or support to an existing account, claim, or finding. It does not necessarily mean prove conclusively. The limitation after although is therefore coherent.

1. Use grammar to predict the form, not the word

Transcript:

The practice is increasingly ______ among smaller institutions.

The gap follows increasingly and precedes among, so an adjective is likely. A useful collocation is prevalent among + group.

If the recording says prevalent, preserve the internal spelling: p-r-e-v-a-l-e-n-t. Do not type prevalance or prevalant.

The family helps you check form:

• prevalent — adjective: increasingly prevalent;
• prevalence — noun: the prevalence of the practice;
• prevail — verb with different patterns.

Grammar narrows the family. The audio decides the member.

2. Hear adjective versus adverb endings

Compare two transcript frames:

The programme produced a ______ increase in applications. Applications increased ______ after the programme began.

The first blank takes the adjective substantial. The second takes the adverb substantially.

Final syllables may be less prominent in connected speech, but they carry the grammatical distinction. Use the visible sentence to recover what the audio supports.

Substantial means large or important in amount, degree, or extent. It does not mean definite or permanent. Common phrases include substantial evidence, substantial support, a substantial difference, and a substantial reduction.

When checking spelling, do not add or remove -ly merely because the longer form looks familiar. Read the full sentence aloud in your head.

3. Listen for complete evidence collocations

Corroborate is a transitive verb:

Additional records corroborated the witness's account.

Common subjects include records, data, evidence, testimony, and findings. Common objects include claim, account, explanation, result, and observation.

The past and passive forms require care:

• present: the data corroborate the finding;
• past: the data corroborated the finding;
• passive: the finding was corroborated by later evidence.

Predict the form from auxiliaries and time markers. If the transcript says was ___ by, expect a past participle. If it says may ___ the claim, expect the base form.

Do not replace the spoken word with substantiate. The verbs overlap, but the task scores the exact recording. As a learning distinction, corroborating evidence often adds support to something already partly established, while substantiating evidence gives a claim its factual basis. Context helps recognition; it does not override the sound.

4. Separate evidence type from evidence quality

Empirical means based on observation, measurement, experience, or experiment rather than theory alone.

The proposal is supported by empirical evidence from field observations.

Listen for the beginning em- and the ending -ical. Do not confuse it with imperial, which has a different first vowel and meaning.

The word does not itself say the evidence is strong, important, representative, or conclusive. A sentence can therefore say:

The study produced empirical data, but the sample was too small to support a broad conclusion.

If the audio says empirical, a visible noun such as evidence, research, data, or findings supports your hearing. If the noun is increase, the collocation is less likely, and you should recheck the sound rather than forcing a familiar academic adjective.

5. Use fixed prepositions as anchors

Conducive to means tending to promote or provide suitable conditions for a result.

The revised layout is more conducive to collaborative work.

The complement after to is a noun or gerund:

conducive to concentration conducive to sharing ideas

Suppose the blank is:

The environment was not ______ to careful observation.

The visible to and the meaning make conducive plausible. Listen for all three syllables and type the adjective. Do not add -ly, and do not type the sound-alike conductive, which normally concerns the transmission of heat or electricity.

Again, the phrase does not guarantee the result. Conditions can be conducive to careful work even when an individual makes an error.

Collocation is a prediction tool, not an answer key

Before audio:

The researchers collected ______ evidence from several field sites.

Plausible adjectives include empirical, substantial, additional, observational, and limited. Your vocabulary tells you all are possible. The recording selects one.

After audio, use collocation to test your perception. If you hear something like empiric, check whether the adjective needs empirical. If you hear substantially but the blank directly modifies evidence, the visible grammar should make you replay the sound mentally and consider substantial.

Avoid “repairing” a surprising but grammatical word into the collocation you studied. The recording remains primary.

Sound and spelling checks

Endings

Listen for forms such as:

• -s: corroborates;
• -ed: corroborated;
• -ly: substantially;
• -ence: prevalence;
• -al: empirical.

Use agreement and auxiliaries to confirm them.

Internal vowels

Academic words often produce spelling errors even when recognized:

• prevalent, not prevalant;
• empirical, not emperical;
• substantial, not substancial;
• corroborate, not corroberate;
• conducive, not conducivee.

Build spelling from verified word families, not from the sound alone.

Connected speech

Function words and unstressed syllables can be reduced. Follow the printed transcript with your gaze and keep pace with the speaker. Do not stop mentally after one uncertain blank; another blank may arrive while you are still deciding.

Recovery after uncertainty

If you miss a word:

1. type a brief phonetic approximation or the strongest candidate if doing so does not make you lose your place;
2. immediately return attention to the audio;
3. after the recording, inspect grammar and collocation;
4. correct spelling only when the visible context and your memory of the sound support the change.

Do not spend the remaining audio reconstructing one gap. Partial credit means correctly completed blanks still matter even if another remains wrong.

Full practice transcript

Read the gapped transcript before the imagined audio:

Remote laboratories have become increasingly [1] in courses that cannot provide every student with physical equipment. Initial surveys produced [2] evidence that the tools widened access, but the samples were small. A later study helped [3] the original finding and reported a [4] increase in participation. The authors noted, however, that access alone does not create conditions [5] effective learning.

Predictions:

1. adjective after increasingly, followed by in;
2. adjective modifying evidence;
3. base verb after helped with finding as object;
4. adjective modifying increase;
5. fixed adjective pattern before to.

If the recording supplies the target set, the exact answers are:

1. prevalent;
2. empirical;
3. corroborate;
4. substantial;
5. conducive to is the full phrase, with conducive in the gap.

Notice the argument's strength. The later study adds support, but the final sentence prevents a simple “access causes learning” conclusion.

Controlled micro-drills

Form prediction

Frame: The results were ______ by a later survey.

Expected class: past participle. If spoken, corroborated fits.

Word-family choice

Frame: The practice has increased in ______.

Expected class: noun. Prevalence fits; prevalent does not.

Adjective/adverb

Frame: The second result was ______ different.

Expected class: adverb. Substantially fits.

Complement

Frame: conditions conducive to ______ carefully

Expected class after to: gerund. working fits, not work in this frame.

Claim boundary

Sentence: The observations provide empirical evidence.

Safe interpretation: the evidence is observation-based. Do not infer that it is conclusive unless the recording says so.

A focused study routine

Use a one-minute recording with a transcript:

1. remove five content words from the transcript;
2. label each slot by word class and likely phrase;
3. listen once and type;
4. compare exact forms and spelling;
5. record every error as sound, form, collocation, or attention;
6. write one new sentence using the corrected pattern.

This turns a missed word into reusable vocabulary knowledge.

Sources

• Pearson PTE Academic Listening format and task guidance
• Pearson PTE Academic Score Guide

Related

• PTE vocabulary by question type
• PTE Reading and Writing Fill in the Blanks
• PTE drag-and-drop blanks
• PTE Summarize Spoken Text vocabulary

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