hi guys it's asiya some people say that in order to achieve band 7 8 or
9 you must use fancy words to impress the examiner by fancy words i mean rare words
that only some people know and few actually use this is not the case let's discuss
what kind of vocabulary you really need in ielts speaking and how you can achieve a high score i
also have a pdf with recent topics for you to download okay let's get started
it is true that you need to show that you have a wide vocabulary and no words to discuss any
topic and express your thoughts clearly and precisely but it doesn't mean that your answers
should contain some extra complex words don't try to speak in an artificially complex way
my advice to you is to choose the best word for each situation and concentrate
on answering the questions for example in part 3 if you don't understand a question or a word you
can ask the examiner to explain it to you is it a good idea to say could you elucidate this point
no there are situations where this word would sound natural but in this case most
native speakers would just say sorry i'm afraid i didn't understand the question
or could you please explain what you mean by taking a gap year
if you say what an average native speaker would say in each situation you get benign
for your speaking you don't need to show off and if you're wondering what a gap year means
that's when school leavers take a year to work or travel before starting university
now let's talk about different groups of words that you should use in your speaking test
the first one is topic specific vocabulary you can demonstrate that you have a wide vocabulary
by using words specific to each topic the question may be do you have any brothers or sisters i could
say i have a half-sister my parents divorced many years ago and my father remarried
of course everyone knows the word sister but not everyone can describe this situation and in this
answer i used some topic specific vocabulary you can do it naturally by giving a bit more detail
compare these two answers there are a lot of trees near our house or there is a little wood
near our house with mainly oak and maple trees the first answer is more general the second one
is more topic specific the next one is synonyms these are words that are similar in meaning you
should try not to repeat the same words over and over again again compare these two answers here
is the first one there are a lot of trees near our house mainly oak and maple trees grow there
i love seeing all these trees from my window the answer is too repetitive and makes an impression
that you are lacking vocabulary so let's try to replace the word trees there is a little wood
near our house mainly with oak and maple trees i love seeing all the greenery from my window
remember it's okay to repeat some words from the question or within your answer
don't think that you must replace every single word otherwise your answer may sound awkward like
this one and the question is what is your favorite wild animal so let's try to avoid repeating any
word from the question the untamed living creature that appeals to me the most is a tiger it's quite
funny but it's not very good for your exam so just say i love tigers then you can continue
they are fascinating creatures so beautiful and graceful but also so deadly so my answer
was simple and straightforward but then i added some high-level vocabulary in the detail
now let's talk about phrasal verbs ayat speaking is an imitation of a normal conversation between
two people and in spoken english people prefer phrasal verbs to their one word alternatives
the sentence i established my company in my 20s sounds quite formal i would probably say
i set up my company in my early 20s or i postponed the meeting
is more formal and i put off the meeting is more natural for a conversation
it's not a mistake to use one word verbs in ielts speaking they just tend to be more formal
so we normally prefer phrasal verbs in ielts speaking and one word verbs in ielts writing
next collocations collocations are words that are often used together
there may be several words with similar meanings and some of them are used together while others
aren't so we can say light rain but not small rain heavy rain but not hefty rain
violent rain but not cruel rain or we can say to think hard or think long and hard i thought
long and hard before making this decision but we can't say to think heavily or tough
when you learn new words check what words it's used with in the longman dictionary
you can find collocations and expressions for each word learn them it will be much easier for you to
use a new word if you learn some phrases it's typically used in also when you read in english
or watch tv in english you gradually memorize the expressions people use so watch more tv in english
the next group of words is idioms ielts speaking is a great place to use idioms
or groups of words whose meaning is different from the meaning of the individual words for example
to let a cat out of the bag that means to tell a secret by mistake no real cats involved
one of the ielts speaking band 7 requirements is to use idiomatic language so in this video we're
discussing some of the ielts speaking requirements and in my online courses you can learn all the
requirements how to fulfill them and how to give band 7 plus answers in ielts writing and speaking
and if you're interested you can check them out i will link them in the description box below
speaking about idioms some of them are quite striking and really stand out
to cost an arm on the leg that means to be very expensive or to beat around the bush
to talk about something for a long time without coming to the main point or
once in a blue moon very rarely these are probably the three idioms that most ielts takers would name
if you ask them about idioms you can use them in your ielts speaking exam but you need to use
them naturally to get the full benefit if it's too obvious that you learned a particular idiom
and are now trying to use it no matter what the question is that's not impressive idiomatic
language on the other hand can fit into your answer smoothly these are phrases like
time flies it means time passes so quickly that we don't notice or last but not least
one step at a time i know the ielts exam is hard but take your preparation one step at a time
another one is a drop in the ocean these are examples of idiomatic language that's used
frequently and is easy to integrate into your speech i actually have a couple of videos with
idioms for common ielts situations and i'll link them in the description next contractions
when we speak we typically use contractions such as i've instead of i have
i've been going to the gym for a few years or i'd instead of i would
i'd go on holiday abroad if i could contractions gonna and warner also happen naturally when you
speak fast i'm gonna visit my family this summer saying that i don't want you to think that you
have to use a contraction every time one exists for instance i would say oh yes i would say
that's the full form i could say i'd or my name is asia that's the full form and it's easier to
pronounce than my name's asia if i wanted a short form i would say i masia you can mix contractions
and four forms but whenever you want to use a contraction feel free to do that slang
you should be careful about using slang in your ielts speaking exam yes it's an informal exam
which means you don't need to give a formal speech but it's still an exam and you must be respectful
what a slang my mate lend me some dao no just say my friend lent me some money
if you're not sure if a certain core expression is acceptable just avoid it and use standard english
you don't need to use some original words in your exam to achieve a high score you just need to use
the best words for each situation and if we talk about ielts preparation a good thing to do is
to find out what topics are currently used and practice answering them we've collected topics
from hundreds of recent exams and prepared a pdf guide where you can find them in one convenient
place you can download this guide on our telegram channel called fast track ielts once you open it
the guide will be pinned at the very top and the videos about idioms which i mentioned earlier are
right here thank you so much for watching me today good luck with your preparation a new exam bye