Cách dùng từ trong IELTS writing rất dễhiểu

here drunk was used after a verb He were drunk yesterday.. also drunk was used after a verb In formal writing, Drunk shouldn't be used in front of a noun.. For example: A drunk driver wa

Cách dùng từ trong IELTS Writing

1 Is advice countable ?

Advice is uncountable Therefore, it's incorrect to use advices However, you can still use some along with advice

For example:

+ Can you give me a piece of advice?

+ Can you give me some advice?

+ Can you give me your advice?

WRONG:

+ Thanks for your advices?

2 Past tense of hang out ?

For example, how to say this sentence in the past "Peter and I always hang out for football over the weekend"

You should say HUNG OUT Hence, it should be: "Peter and I always hung

out for football over the weekend"

HANGED OUT is used in the sense of "to put someone to death by

hanging"

3 Drunk vs Drunken

NOUN:

+ Drunk = A drunkard:

He is a drunk: he always drinks alcohol to the point of impairment of

physical and mental faculties Drinking has become his habit and he can't

quit

+ Drunken can't be used as a noun

ADJECTIVE:

+ Drunk:

He got drunk yesterday and his parents had to drive him back home (here

drunk was used after a verb)

He were drunk yesterday (also drunk was used after a verb) In formal

writing, Drunk shouldn't be used in front of a noun However there are some exceptions such as drunk driver and drunk driving since they have been put into use for a very long time

For example:

A drunk driver was fined heavily because of the serious damages caused by him yesterday

Drunk driving is unacceptable in all the countries

Bear in mind that a drunken driver is also a correct phrase The difference

is that the phrase "a drunken driver" only refers to a driver who got drunk and "a drunk driver" refers to a driver whose alcohol level exceeds the

legal limit

+ Drunken:

A drunken student ruined the whole graduation ceremony

As you can see Drunken can also be used as an adjective as Drunk The

difference is that Drunken should be used in front of a noun whereas

Drunk should be used after a verb

VERB:

+ Drunk: Past participle of drink

They have drunk only vodka since they came to the party

+ Drunken: can't be as a verb

4 At any time and Anytime

According to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, at any time and

anytime all mean the same

Correct

Call me anytime

We should arrive anytime between 5 and 6 p.m

Call me at any time

Can I call you at any time of the day?

People don't use at anytime Example: Call me at anytime

5 Assume and Presume

• Assume: To take for granted or without proof

• Presume: To take for granted as being true in the absence of proof to the

contrary

As can be seen from the definitions above, there is almost no difference

between Assume and Presume Actually, the difference lies in the degree of certainty Assume is used when your guesses are absolutely not based on

any evidence Presume is used when you have got more information about

the associated events and you are quite sure with your guesses

Examples:

Teacher: I assume you all have prepared for the upcoming exam at the end

of this week (He doesn't know if they have prepared or not)

Friend: I saw you came back from the party very late last night I

presume you haven't prepared for today's lectures (Because I knew my

friend didn't come back early yesterday to prepare for the lectures tomorrow, I'm quite sure he knows nothing about the lectures' content)

6 Bare with me Bear with me

Bear with me is a standard expression used as a request for forbearance

or patience

Ex: Please bear with me a moment so I can find the homework exercise for you!

Bare with me would be an invitation to undress

7 As Late As

Let's consider the following example:

As late as yesterday night, John was still working on his research paper

which would be due today morning

From the above example, you can see that the phrase As Late As implies the

meaning of "surprising Late." Even though today morning is the deadline for John to submit his research paper, he couldn't finish it early and was working

on it yesterday night

8 As Early As

The early history of the automobile can be divided into a number of eras,

based on the prevalent means of propulsion Later periods were defined by trends in exterior styling, size, and utility preferences

In 1769 the first steam powered auto-mobile capable of human transportation was built by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot.[1]:14

From the above example, you can see that the phrase As Early As implies

the meaning of "surprising early" Without this, we might have thought the invention of automobiles or cars had not been that long ago Roughly, we

could have imagined it started in the 19th century, not the 18th century

However, the fact is that it started much longer than that

9 Equipment vs Equipments

According to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, EQUIPMENT is

uncountable Hence, it's incorrect to use EQUIPMENTS Rather, you

should use "Pieces of Equipment"

Bear in mind that you will find a great number of online articles using

EQUIPMENTS Mostly, these articles are related to engineering subjects

For academic writing, especially for IELTS exams, it's best to use

EQUIPMENT as an uncountable noun

10 Elder VS Elderly

Elder is used for someone who is superior to another or others

Example:

My elder brother has got married (talking about my brother who is older than I am but not necessarily an old man)

The elder lecturers in my university were really experienced (talking

about the lecturers who had got long years of work experience It's not

necessary that they had to be old people They were just people who had worked there for a really long period of time compared to the others)

Elderly is used for AGED people

Example:

His elderly brother has passed away (talking about his brother who might

be either older or younger than he is and DEFINITELY an old man)

The phrase "The elderly" is used to refer to a group of old citizens

11 UPSTAIRS vs UPSTAIR

According to TheFreeDictionary.com, UPSTAIR can only be used as an adjective For example: The upstair rooms in my house are very big

Whereas UPSTAIRS can be used as a noun, an adjective and an adverb

( Dictionary.com )

For example:

The upstairs of this house is entirely rented (NOUN)

Please go upstairs for our meeting! (ADVERB)

You can get discounts for the upstairs apartment (ADJECTIVE)

However, UPSTAIRS is the word that people use more frequently In my opinion, UPSTAIR sounds a bit poetic

12 LEFT OFF meaning

Example:

LECTURER: Let us start off our lecture by finishing what we left off

yesterday

=> Yesterday the lecturer couldn't finish the lecture because of time

constraints Hence, the lecturer wanted to finish what he hadn't taught

before going into the new lecture

DICTIONARY: thefreedictionary.com

• leave off (doing something): to stop doing something Ex: Mr Summers finally left off talking and returned to his seat

• leave off something: to forget or omit something Ex: All the names

beginning with "R" were left off the list

13 On weekdays or at weekdays

Since this is a very popular question for which people also ask for the

prepositions to use along with "weekend", we will show you the examples

on how to use both weekdays and weekend

Correct:

On weekdays

During the week

At the weekend

On the weekend

Over the weekend

Incorrect:

In weekdays

In the weekend

Examples:

On weekdays, he never goes to class and on the weekend, he always goes

to bars Hence, he always gets bad marks in exams

She has to work from the early morning to the late evening so she always

feels tired during the week and over the weekend she always stays at home

to recover

14 On the other hand or in the other hand

On the other hand is the correct idiom to use in English It means

"conversely" or "alternatively"

Example:

On the one hand, you said you didn't have enough time to prepare for the

exam On the other hand, you went to the party for the whole day

If you study hard, you can pass the exam On the other hand, if you keep

playing video games every day, you will definitely fail

In the other hand is not an idiom in English It simply means you are

holding something in the "other" hand

15 Reward or Award

Reward is used when someone has done something well

Example:

+ Susan has been rewarded with a her dream job after months of hard work looking for jobs

+ Mother: Have you done your homework today?

Son: Yes, mom I finished the assignment this morning

Mother: wowww! (so surprised) I will buy you the bicycle you wanted

=> The son was rewarded with the bicycle he wanted because of his hard

work

Award is also used when someone has done something well The difference

is that this is more formal and an award tends to be something like a

certificate or a medal

Example:

+ Susan was awarded as the best student in the Mathematics class this

semester

+ Tom received an award for getting outstanding results in his class

+ Mr Sarfraz Munir successfully defended his Doctoral thesis and was

awarded with a PhD degree

16 Prices are correct as of

Some have asked this question: what does it mean by Prices are correct

as of May 2012 ?

In many articles, people often use this phrase to indicate how much a

product/service costs However, prices are often subject to change, they can't guarantee the prices will be the same

Hence, it basically means the prices are the same as mentioned in May

2012 After that period, the prices can change

They have very similar meanings because they both come from Latin and have the same origin However, in today's society, the ways they are used have changed slightly

17 Devoted and Dedicated

Devoted is more likely to be used to talk about family or loved ones (WITH

EMOTIONS) whereas Dedicated is used to talk about work or other

interests (MORE ABOUT COMMITMENT)

For example:

+ He is devoted to teaching

+ Their parents are devoted to their education

+ She is devoted to her baby

+ Peter spent his whole life to write a book which was dedicated to

"Teaching Methodologies"

+ He sang the song which was dedicated to his girlfriend

+ Her dedication to medicine was so great that she had time for little else

18 Following and Below

Following is used to refer to something which will be mentioned right

after what you are talking about (LOGICAL POSITION)

Below has almost the same meaning The only difference is that Belowis

used when you are focusing more on the position (in print) of the subject you are going to mention (PHYSICAL POSITION)

Example:

1) Following is the list of subjects which are available in this semester

> Physics

> Maths

2) Below is the list of available subjects in this semester

> Physics

> Maths

3) The following list of subjects will be known by students at the end of

this month

> Physics

> Maths

4) The finalised list of available subjects for this semester is

shownbelow

> Physics

> Maths

5) To get a higher score in the IELTS exam, please follow the

stepsbelow:

> Practice

> Review

> Take sample tests

WRONG: To get a higher score in the IELTS exam, please follow the

below steps.

CORRECT: To get a higher score in the IELTS exam, please follow

thefollowing steps

19 Is there and Are there

They are actually interchangeable It only depends on the context and

what you are thinking about the subjects

Following are 2 correct examples:

Is there any difference between "Due To" and "Because Of"?

Are there any differences between "Due To" and "Because Of"?

"There is" is used for singular nouns and "There are" is used for plural

nouns For example:

There is a very big snake in my room

There are many IELTS books about how to improve reading skills

20 A Variety Of

In general, the phrase A Variety Of is used the same as a number of is

used

For example:

There are a number of reasons to globalisation

There are a wide variety of vegetables available in this supermarket

There are a variety of IELTS books for you to choose

However, when you use certain modifiers along with A Variety Of, you

will have to use singular verbs For example:

Such a wide variety of IELTS books is making confusions to many

students

The same thing is applied for a number of: There is such a large number

of candidates because of the advertised salary for the job

21 Because Of; Due To

For example:

+ Because of the rain, we couldn't play tennis yesterday

+ He failed the exam because of his carelessness

+ Because of the late arrival of the train, I missed my exam

Due To is an adjective Due To is often followed by a noun/noun phrase

For example:

+ His absence in class was due to the rain

+ His success was all due to his hard work during the semester

In informal speech, we might encounter such improper usage as:

+ His absence was because of the late arrival of the train.

+ He came late due to the heavy rain.

22 Relate to and Pertain to

+ They almost have the same meaning and can be used interchangeably For example:

> These research papers relate to Global Warming which I have been

given as one of my key assignments

> These research papers pertain to Global Warming which I have been

given as one of my key assignments

> I don't think that anything discussed in this meeting pertained to me

+ However, there are cases in which you should use relate to instead

ofpertain to and vice versa

Example:

> how does air pollution relate to chemistry? ( it's more about the

relationship between air pollution and chemistry )

> The documents in this briefcase pertain to my court case ( this is not

about the relationship between the documents and my court case but this is more about the content of the documents which can be used for my court case )

23 Inform of vs Inform about

This explanation is just our habit of using these words

+ Inform of: we use this when the whole idea is used as a phrase

Ex:

> Can you please inform me of Peter's problem?

> Can you inform our teacher of my absence for today's class?

As you can see, we have known something and we want to know more

about it

+ Inform about: when the detailed information is left out

Ex:

> Can you inform me about Peter? ( we didn't tell what happened to Peter )

> Can you inform our teacher about me? (we didn't say the person was

absent)

> Can you inform me about what happened to Peter? (we don't know what happened)

From the examples, you can see that we haven't known what happened so

we ask those question

+ Inform someone that is usually used to confirm

Ex: Please be informed that you have been selected as one of our potential candidates for the job (very formal and quite often used in business emails)

24 Everyone vs Every one

+ Everyone

> means everybody

> is used when you want to refer to all the people in a group

For example: Peter was angry with everyone after he knew the truth

+ Every one is used when you are referring to the individuals of a group For example: Every one of us must be responsible for the project

25 Occur and Incur

Occur: to happen, to take place unexpectedly

> The lunar eclipse occurred while I was traveling to Australia

> The corruption of the bank occurred during the 1980s

Incur: To acquire or come into (something usually undesirable)

> Peter incurred many additional expenses while he was studying abroad

> Any extra cost will be incurred by the client (the client will have to pay

26 Speak to vs Speak with

English is one of the most common language which has been widely used

in many different nations Hence, there are variations on how to use

English and for our question today, it has been quite a controversial topic The explanation below is just our personal recommendation

Speak to: when the other party tends to only listen