EFLAW (English as a Foreign Language) score. Designed by Rachel McAlpine to evaluate text for ESL readers and global audiences. Lower is easier.
Built and maintained by Paul Clark, Redmoon Software · Last verified · Sources
Use McAlpine EFLAW when writing for non-native English readers — product copy for global audiences, ESL teaching material, simplified news, plain-language guidelines. It rewards short common words, which is exactly what ESL readers need.
EFLAW is unique in rewarding short common words ("the", "and", "of"). Flesch-Kincaid ignores word familiarity entirely. For ESL audiences, EFLAW is the more honest metric.
McAlpine's EFLAW (English as a Foreign Language) score uses one simple formula: (words + mini-words) / sentences, where mini-words have 3 or fewer letters.
It rewards short common words (the, of, an, to, it) — exactly the words ESL readers find easiest.
Bands: ≤20 very easy, 20-24 easy, 25-28 moderate, 29+ difficult. Aim for ≤25 for global business audiences.
Writers targeting non-native English readers — global product copy, ESL teaching material, simplified news, plain-language guidelines.
Under 25 for global business audiences. Under 20 is very easy and suitable for ESL beginners.
Common short words (the, of, an, to, it) are what ESL readers find easiest. Counting them gives the formula a way to reward genuinely simple writing.
Input
"To get to the shop, walk down the road and turn right at the end."
Output
EFLAW 17.0 — very easy.
Fifteen words plus eight mini-words (≤3 letters) in one sentence: (15 + 8) / 1 = 23. Wait — that's 23 which is "easy" not "very easy". For very easy, aim under 20.
McAlpine EFLAW measures something none of the other formulas here do: how hard a sentence is for someone reading English as a foreign language. It combines total words per sentence with the count of mini-words — words of three letters or fewer.
The mini-word term is the insight. Short function words are the easy part of English for a native reader and the hard part for a learner: prepositions, particles and phrasal verbs carry meaning that is idiomatic rather than derivable, and a sentence dense with them ("get on with it", "put up with", "look into") is difficult in a way that no syllable count detects.
Editing for EFLAW pushes in a direction the other formulas do not. Replacing a phrasal verb with a single longer Latinate word — "look into" becoming "investigate" — makes text *worse* by Flesch and Fog and *better* by EFLAW, and for an international audience EFLAW is right.
That makes it the formula to reach for on documentation, support content and anything with a global readership, and a poor choice for consumer copy aimed at native speakers, where the plain phrasal verb genuinely is the easier form.
The method behind this tool, so you can check it rather than take it on trust.
McAlpine, R. (2006). From Plain English to Global English. CTTS.
The EFLAW index, built to flag text that is hard for readers of English as a foreign language rather than hard in general.
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