Grammar Mistakes in IELTS tests ( IELTS Simons tips )

Chia sẻ: ielts-simon.com Một trong 4 tiêu chí để chấm điểm bài IELTS Writing hay Speaking là Grammar, nhưng các bạn lại thường mắc lại những lỗi nhỏ nhặt khiến bạn mất điểm không đáng c

IELTS GRAMMAR

AVOID GRAMMATICAL MISTAKES

Chia sẻ: ielts-simon.com

Một trong 4 tiêu chí để chấm điểm bài IELTS Writing hay Speaking là Grammar, nhưng các

bạn lại thường mắc lại những lỗi nhỏ nhặt khiến bạn mất điểm không đáng có

Bản pdf này là sưu tầm các tips và chú ý quan trọng về ngữ pháp của thầy Simon

(ielts-simon.com) Bản pdf sẽ rất có giá trị để các bạn check lại những điểm ngữ pháp nhỏ và dễ mắc

lỗi sai như trong việc sử dụng từ, dấu câu…

Các bạn hãy đọc thật cẩn thận từng điểm ngữ pháp và rút kinh nghiệm trong bài viết hay bài nói

của mình để tang điểm về tiêu chí ngữ pháp nhé

Chúc các bạn học tập thật tốt và tiếp tục cập nhật các tài liệu tự học tiếp theo trên trang

Ielts Share

Nguy n Kim Oanh

Contents

IELTS Grammar: for band 7 5

IELTS Grammar: wide range or error-free? 5

IELTS Grammar: uncountable nouns 5

IELTS Grammar: are phrasal verbs ok? 6

IELTS Grammar: capital letters 6

IELTS Grammar: fall or reduce? 6

IELTS Grammar: using 'by' 7

IELTS Grammar: using 'the' 7

IELTS Grammar: 'highest' or 'the highest'? 9

IELTS Grammar: number, amount, proportion, figure 9

IELTS Grammar: using 'see' in writing task 1 10

IELTS Vocabulary: word family for 'compare' 10

IELTS Grammar: 'by/in contrast' and 'on the contrary' 11

IELTS Grammar: 'future perfect' tense 11

IELTS Grammar: 'to' with 'ing' 12

IELTS Grammar: nouns and verbs 12

IELTS Grammar: some conditionals 13

IELTS Vocabulary: notice, look up, use 13

IELTS Grammar: Googling for grammar patterns 14

IELTS Grammar: be careful with the 's' 14

IELTS Grammar: verbs and nouns 15

IELTS Grammar: two important points 15

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IELTS Grammar: 'most' or 'most of'? 15

IELTS Grammar: collocations 16

IELTS Grammar: 'lead to' 16

IELTS Grammar: passives, conditionals, subjunctives? 17

IELTS Grammar: 'for example' and 'such as' 17

IELTS Grammar: rules and exceptions 18

IELTS Grammar: opinion + conditional 18

IELTS Grammar: 'finally' or 'at last'? 18

IELTS Grammar: affect or effect? 19

Students' grammar questions 19

IELTS Grammar: cause and effect 20

IELTS Grammar: punctuation 21

IELTS Grammar: verb + noun collocations 21

IELTS Grammar: subject + verb 22

IELTS Grammar: while, whilst, whereas, as 22

IELTS Grammar: 'however' and 'whereas' 23

IELTS Grammar: 'because of' 23

IELTS Grammar: linking with "this" 24

IELTS Grammar: before or ago? 24

IELTS Grammar: lead, contribute, result 25

IELTS Grammar: for band 7

I don't think that using 'difficult' grammar is the best way to get a band 7

If you want a band 7, the most important thing is to be able to write error-free sentences If all of

your sentences contain small mistakes, it's unlikely that you'll get a 7 It might be better to take

fewer risks with complex structures, and aim for more error-free sentences

IELTS Grammar: wide range or error-free?

A student, Kishanth, asked me about two of the points in the grammar criterion for band 8

writing (both task 1 and 2):

 uses a wide range of structures

 the majority of sentences are error-free

Here's the problem with these two points:

When you try to use a wide range of grammatical structures, you risk making more mistakes

(errors) But to reduce the number of mistakes, you might have to simplify your sentences

So what should you do?

My advice is this: Forget about the 'wide range of structures' point If all of your focus is on

using complex grammar, you'll probably do something worse than just make mistakes; you'll

probably forget to answer the question properly The people who worry most about grammar

usually neglect task response, coherenceand vocabulary

For me, grammar is the least important criterion to worry about I tell students to focus on the

other 75% of the scoring system: task response, coherence and vocabulary However, if you

want my tip for improving your grammar score, I'd say that it's better to focus on reducing

errors I think examiners notice errors more than they notice grammatical range, and if you write

a mix of short and long sentences, you'll probably fulfil the 'wide range of structures'

requirement without realising it

IELTS Grammar: uncountable nouns

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Students often make mistakes with uncountable nouns These are nouns that you can't count

Most importantly, they don't have a plural form

For example, you can't say "an information, two informations, many informations"

You can say "some information, more information, a lot of information, a piece of information"

Below are some common uncountable nouns Do you know any others?

 give advice, some advice, a piece of advice (an advice, advices)

 do research, carry out research (a research, researches)

 gain knowledge, share knowledge, increase knowledge (knowledges)

IELTS Grammar: are phrasal verbs ok?

People often ask me whether it's ok to use phrasal verbs in the IELTS writing and speaking tests

My answer is yes; phrasal verbs are generally fine In Friday's speaking lesson I used the phrasal

verb to grow up, and the 'multi-word verbs' to take place andto make sure In this essay, I used

the phrasal verb to result in

It isn't true that all phrasal verbs are informal Read this article for a full explanation

IELTS Grammar: capital letters

A few people have asked me about using capital letters in different parts of the IELTS test

Here's my advice:

 In the reading and listening tests, they don't care about capital letters So you can write

everything in lowercase or in capitals, and it won't affect your score

 In the writing test, try to follow the normal rules for capital letters Grammar books and

websites explain these rules in detail Click hereto see a website that summarises the

rules quite well

IELTS Grammar: fall or reduce?

These two words are the opposites of 'rise' and 'raise' (see last week's grammar lesson):

 something falls (e.g the price fell)

 somebody reduces something (e.g the company reduced the price)

You will probably use 'fall' to describe numbers on a graph or chart for IELTS Writing Task 1:

 In 2008, the number of customers fell (verb, past)

 There was a sharp fall in Internet usage (noun)

'Reduce' and 'reduction' are probably more useful for Writing Task 2:

 We need to reduce the amount of pollution from exhaust fumes (verb)

 Recycling leads to a reduction in waste (noun)

IELTS Grammar: using 'by'

A student asked me about the two uses of the word "by" in these sentences:

Korea was the only country that managed to reduce its waste output by the year 2000 Korea cut

its waste output by 12 million tonnes between 1990 and 2000

Questions:

1 Can you explain how "by" is used in the two cases above?

2 What is the difference between "by the year 2000" and "in the year 2000"?

FROM SIMON:

Most people commenting above have the right idea:

1 In the first sentence, "by" is used to refer to the years BEFORE AND UP TO the year 2000

In the second sentence, "by" is used to refer to a difference in numbers (e.g decreased from 31

million to 19 million = decreased BY 12 million)

2 Use "by" when looking at the years BEFORE and UP TO By contrast, "in 2000" would mean

"only in the year 2000" (during that year only)

Note: when using "by" with years, we usually (but not always) use the past perfect e.g By the

year 2000, Korea had reduced its waste output

IELTS Grammar: using 'the'

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People often ask me for help with articles (the, a, an) You really need to consult a specialist

grammar book if you want to know everything about articles, but here's a useful question about

my use of "the" in a recent lesson:

Look at the following sentences

1) I would need time, commitment and the passion to keep working

2) I would need the time, commitment and passion to keep working

3) I would need time, commitment and passion to keep working

Are all three sentences correct? Is one better than the others? Does the position or absence of

"the" change the meaning?

3) the passion to keep working

In other words, the words 'time' and 'commitment' are not really connected to the idea of 'to keep

working' I'm talking about time and commitment in general, but a particular type of passion - to

keep working

In sentence 2, I'm saying that I need all three things in order to keep working:

1) the time to keep working

2) the commitment to keep working

3) the passion to keep working

Using the word "the" makes these three words more specific - it's a specific type of time,

commitment and passion e.g passion to keep working, but not any other kind of passion

Sentence 3 is similar to sentence 2, but the three things (time, commitment and passion) are

more general without the word "the" e.g 'passion' in the general sense, not just specifically

related to working

I hope this makes sense These small differences in meaning / style are hard to explain!

IELTS Grammar: 'highest' or 'the highest'?

Most grammar books will tell you that you need "the" before a superlative like "highest" or

"lowest", but this is not always true

 We use "the" when there is a noun after the adjective e.g the highest number, the

highest proportion

 When we put the noun before, we don't need "the" e.g the number was highest, the

proportion was highest

So, compare these 2 sentences:

- The UK had the highest rate of unemployment

- The unemployment rate was highest in the UK

IELTS Grammar: number, amount, proportion, figure

Somebody asked me about the difference between these 4 words (for IELTS writing task 1) I'll

try to explain some basic ways to use them

number

- Use "the number of + plural noun" e.g the number of visitors

- Don't use it to describe percentages or uncountable nouns e.g money

amount

- Use "the amount of + uncountable noun" e.g the amount of money

- Don't use it with countable nouns e.g the amount of person/people

proportion

- Only use this to describe percentages (not numbers)

- Use "the proportion of + plural noun" e.g the proportion of people

figure

- Use "the figure for + plural noun" e.g the figure for visitors to the UK

- Use it with uncountable nouns e.g the figure for unemployment

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- Use it with countries e.g the figure for Canada

- Use it with percentages e.g the figure (for ) rose to 10%

Note:

If you've read any of my task 1 essays, you'll see that I like "the figure for" because it can be

used in almost any situation

IELTS Grammar: using 'see' in writing task 1

A few people have asked me about using 'see' to describe numbers on a graph or chart Look at

the following sentence:

 In Britain, CD sales increased dramatically in the 1980s

We can write the same sentence in various ways using 'see':

 Britain saw a dramatic increase in CD sales in the 1980s

 The 1980s saw a dramatic increase in CD sales in Britain

 British shops saw CD sales increase dramatically in the 1980s

IELTS Vocabulary: word family for 'compare'

Let's look at the word family for 'compare' Remember that we are looking at usage, not

meaning (I'm sure you know the meaning of these words)

 The graph compares the number of males and females

 10% of males were unemployed, compared to only 8% of females

 The unemployment rate was high in 2008 compared with previous years

 The unemployment rate was high in 2008 in comparison with

 By/in comparison, the unemployment rate in 2008 increased to

 Figures for the USA were comparable with/to those for the UK

 The figure for females was comparatively low, at only 8%

You've probably noticed that this word family is really useful for writing task 1

PS Thanks to Martin for sharing this online dictionary The 'usage notes' at the bottom of the

page are especially helpful

IELTS Grammar: 'by/in contrast' and 'on the contrary'

A few people have asked me about these phrases Do they have the same meaning? When is

each one used?

By contrast / In contrast

I often use these two phrases in both writing task 1 and 2 They are exactly the same, and are

used in a similar way to "however" or "on the other hand" to introduce a contrast / comparison

Put "By / In contrast" at the beginning of a sentence, with a comma after "contrast"

Example

Unemployment rose in the UK By contrast, the number of unemployed people in Canada fell

On the contrary

I don't think you'll need this phrase for any part of the IELTS test It doesn't mean the same thing

as "by / in contrast" We use "on the contrary" to deny that something is true, and to explain that

the opposite is true

Example

- Person 1: "You had some problems with your hotel, didn't you?"

- Person 2: "On the contrary, the hotel was great, but the airline lost my suitcase."

IELTS Grammar: 'future perfect' tense

Did you notice that I used the 'future perfect' tense in the answer that I wrote for

Thursday's writing task 1 lesson? Here's the sentence:

- By 2024, a third building will have been constructed

In fact, this is a 'future perfect passive' sentence Another option was to write:

- In 2024, a third building will be constructed (simple future, passive)

There's a small difference in meaning between these two sentences The future perfect sentence

suggests that construction of the building will already be finished in 2024, whereas the simple

future sentence suggests that the construction work will happen in the year 2024

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IELTS Grammar: 'to' with 'ing'

Many students have learnt that 'to' can't be followed by a word ending in 'ing' But did you

notice the following phrase in the question in Wednesday's lesson?

"strict punishments for driving offences are the key to reducing traffic accidents"

This phrase is completely correct, so it must mean that the "rule" was wrong! You can put 'to'

with 'ing' in many situations Here are some examples:

 The key to being more productive is

 I look forward to seeing you

 He admitted to taking the money

 Scientists are closer to being able to

 Seven steps to reaching your goals!

Can you find any more examples?

Tip: try searching on Google for "to being", "to having", "to doing" etc

IELTS Grammar: nouns and verbs

Sometimes the noun form and the verb form of a word are the same For example, the word

“increase” can be a noun or a verb The problem is that nouns and verbs are used differently

Here are some examples:

Increase

There was an increase in the unemployment rate (noun)

The unemployment rate increased (verb)

Lack

There is a lack of investment in hospitals (noun)

Many hospitals lack the investment they need (verb)

Pay

Companies should give men and women equal pay (noun)

Companies should pay men and women equally (verb)