There are many aspects of the English language that you need to master in order to get a good IELTS score, but by far the most important is grammar. People tend to fixate upon the easy stuff, like vocabulary and accent, but the truth is that without a solid knowledge of grammar you could never score more than band 6. If you want to score a band 7 or higher, there are many grammar rules that you need to know.
In this article, I am going to tell you some of the most important grammar rules. Of course, the important thing is to have a wide knowledge, but these are common areas of difficulty, and so focusing on them may be very helpful.
Present Perfect
By far the most misunderstood of English tenses is the present perfect. It is extraordinarily common in English, yet IELTS candidates almost never use it. Instead, they tend to use the present simple and past simple incorrectly.
The present perfect is used for things that began in the past and continue (or could continue) in the present. If the time period described is on-going, then we will use the present perfect tense. For example:
- There have been many attempts at solving the energy crisis.
The phrase “have been” here is the present perfect. We use “have” or “has” with the past participle form of the verb in order to show this tense. It indicates that this thing (attempts) started in the past but continues until the present.
One of the big problems in IELTS is that people don’t understand that certain time phrases just require this tense. For example, phrases like “recently” or “in recent years” almost always require the present perfect tense. The same is true for words like “since.”
- Recently, governments have tried to introduce laws that require recycling.
- Since the turn of the century, the internet has grown in popularity and now it can be said to be the primarily means of communications.
Without a thorough knowledge of how and when to use the present perfect tense, it is unlikely that you would get a good IELTS score for Grammatical Range and Accuracy.
The Passive Voice
It is really important for formal writing that you are able to use the passive voice. Whilst this is not really common in everyday spoken English, we do use it for some situations and we frequently use it in essays.
The passive voice is formed with the verb “to be” and then the verb. It can be used to hide the person or thing that did an action or when we simply do not know. It can change the focus of a sentence to show that the agent of change was not particularly important.
In IELTS, the passive voice is most commonly used in writing task 1, where you may have to describe a map or process diagram. This is because it is great for showing things that happened when you do not know or cannot say who did the changing:
- An apartment building was built on the eastern edge of the property.
- The water is pumped into the next chamber, where it is heated to a higher temperature.
Whilst it is very important to know how to use the passive voice, it is also important to know when not to use it. One huge problem in IELTS is that candidates from places like India and Pakistan tend to grossly overuse it, inserting it into sentences for no reason. This is just as big of a problem as not using it when it is needed.
If you want a good IELTS score, use the passive form appropriately – that means, don’t over- or -under-use it.
Article Use
Many people find that articles are the hardest part of English grammar and even English teachers find them difficult to explain. The fact is that there are many rules to consider and often there are exceptions to these rules that seem unintuitive.
Basically, we use the word “a” when referring to one of several things and “an” when the noun begins with a vowel sound:
- There was a car crash on the motorway this afternoon.
- We say an interesting house when walking home from school.
The word “the” is used for specific and unmistakable things. We can use it when referring to something that has only one possibility:
- The majority of people agree that stealing is wrong.
- The man confessed to the crime.
However, this word is confusing because oftentimes it refers to something that is known to the reader and writer (or listener and speaker) but is not just a single thing. For example, two friends might talk about “the shop” or “the gym” because they both know what is meant. The whole world talks about “the moon” and “the sun” even though there are millions or billions in the universe.
Beyond that, we often say “the” for things like “cinema” or “bus” or “train,” even though we are not referring to a single thing. It can be confusing, but mastering it is essential for a good IELTS band score.
Prepositions
Prepositions are also a big problem for IELTS learners because unfortunately these do not always adhere to formal rules. In fact, you pretty much just need to memorise these in most cases.
Prepositions are words that join nouns to other words and they can easily be confused. Sometimes even several prepositions could fill one possible space! This makes them extra difficult to learn.
It is important to learn language in groups of words rather than memorising lists. Part of the reason is that you can pick up language through collocations, and these often include prepositions. Whilst no one really knows why we say “on the train” but “in the car,” we can certainly remember these with ease.
There are, however, many cases that you can learn some rules. When it comes to time, for example, there are various rules about prepositions. We say “on” with dates “in” with seasons:
- They got married on March 2nd.
- They got married in”
It is ok to make the occasional mistake, but you should certainly try to remember the most common ones and read often so that you pick up and remember more in future.
Commas
Some people will tell you that punctuation is not hugely important, but that is wrong. Whilst it is only important for IELTS writing (and maybe reading), you should definitely try to learn as much punctuation as possible.
One thing to consider is that punctuation is notoriously difficult and even native speakers don’t really know most of the rules, but that you will definitely be required to know the common rules that crop up frequently in essays.
At the most fundamental, you should know how to use a full stop (or period). This is the punctuation mark that ends a sentence. Using this incorrectly would tell the examiner that your maximum IELTS score should be band 6. It is a pretty serious problem to use this incorrectly.
Commas are more difficult, but knowing the basics is essential. Whilst there are various ways you could get it wrong, you should at least know how to split two independent clauses with a comma and coordinating conjunction:
- The government wanted to repeal the law, but the people were adamant that it should remain in place.
- There was a huge protest, so the ministers agreed to listen to the complaints.
Also, it is pretty important to know how to list things. When you list two things, you don’t need a comma, but for more than two you certainly do:
- London, Paris, and Madrid are important European capitals.
- They tried to increase the price of computer chips, rare metals, and fossil fuels.
If you know the basics of punctuation, you will be fine, and even making a few mistakes would not prevent you from getting a very high score. However, learn the most common mistakes and avoid them if you want to miss out on some big pitfalls.
Conclusion
People often try to learn long lists of vocabulary in order to increase their IELTS score, but this is not a good approach. Instead, they should work on boosting their grammar skills through methodical studies. Any essay or spoken answer that features lots of uncommon words but no grammatical coherence would surely get a terrible score. Thus, we can conclude that learning the above areas of grammar is incredibly important for all IELTS candidates.