Collocations in IELTS Archives - Preparation for the IELTS Exam

Developing your vocabulary in IELTS writing.

October 13, 2023March 21, 2021 by Ray IELTS Focus

Improving your vocabulary for IELTS writing.

Updated: October 2023

I often mark IELTS essays and I tend to find the same words keep coming up in the writing, such as ‘a lot of’ / ‘humans’ / ‘nowadays’ / ‘like’. Actually, these are not wrong, and using these in your sentences would not be considered grammatically incorrect.

However, the IELTS examiner is checking to see if you can use a wide range of vocabulary especially collocations. If possible, try to avoid overusing these words to help get a better vocabulary score… See the post below for more details.

Learning IELTS vocabulary

June 6, 2024March 7, 2018 by Ray IELTS Focus

Tips and points to consider when learning new IELTS vocabulary.

Updated: June 2024

I often get asked about the best way to learn new words that can be used in IELTS essays or the speaking section. I have not given any word lists on my website because I believe that vocabulary building is your responsibility. It is something that you will have to work on over a period of time.

Some people want lists of words that they can memorise and then randomly put those words into their essays. This is not a good strategy when learning new words.

Using collocations in IELTS

December 4, 2023August 2, 2017 by Ray IELTS Focus

Accurate use of collocations will help you get a high score.

Updated: December 2023

Some of the most important vocabulary needed for IELTS writing are collocations. These are needed for a higher score. Collocations are 2 or 3 words that commonly go together and sound just right to a native speaker. For some tips on building your vocabulary take a look at this blog post here. If you do not know how to use collocations, they will sound or look ‘wrong’ to a native speaker.

For example, ‘use money‘ sounds strange if you go shopping. The correct word is to ‘spend money‘, or if someone speaks in a loud way I can’t say he has a ‘big voice‘ I need to say he has a ‘loud voice’. Or maybe he has a ‘big mouth‘ to describe him as arrogant, not a ‘large mouth‘. When I want to relax in the evening I wouldn’t ‘look at a movie‘ I would ‘watch a movie‘…. and so on…