IELTS General Task 1 Letter Writing Vocabulary

Importance of Vocabulary

When it comes to writing IELTS letters, it helps to have a wide vocabulary. That’s because these letters can cover a lot of different topics. You could be asked to thank someone for something, to complain about something, or to apply for a position. There are many other situations that arise, too. Likewise, you may have to write to a friend, a family member, a colleague, a business owner, or many other types of people.

In terms of vocabulary, then, there is no specific list of words you need to memorise. Instead, you simply need to know lots of words to cover lots of different situations. So, considering that, how should you prepare?

 Formal vs Informal Vocabulary

Well, for one thing it’s good to learn about formal and informal vocabulary. That’s because one of the big challenges of IELTS letters is getting the tone right. In fact, this is one of the most important considerations for General IELTS. Now let’s look at two examples.

As you can see, the sentence on the left is very formal whilst the one on the right is quite informal. They are both correct but they use quite different language to express the same idea. This shows how in terms of vocabulary, there are often multiple ways to say the same thing and it’s not just about being accurate but using the right tone.

It is not always as simple as there being a formal and informal word. For example, you might consider “request” to be a more formal version of “ask” but these are used a bit differently because the former can be a noun and the latter is just a verb. Therefore, we tend to look at “chunks” of words: “I am writing to request…” In the informal example, saying “ask” seemed redundant. For informal polite situations, we often say “I wonder if you could…”

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Formal letters also tend to use longer or more convoluted versions of words, whilst informal ones might use short forms or even slang. Basically, informal language is closer to how people speak. The language that you choose will be appropriate to the situation and so you need to analyse it carefully.

Examples and Differences

Let’s say you tripped and fell in a shopping store and needed to contact the manager. This would require a formal letter. You might write:

I regret to inform you that upon a recent visit to your establishment, I befell an unfortunate accident and suffered a serious injury that required medical attention.

Now compare this to a similar situation but at a friend’s house. To make it believable, we will have to imagine the friend was not home or else there would be no reason for the letter:

I’m just letting you know that I went to visit you the other day and tripped and fell on the steps outside your house. I was hurt quite badly and went to hospital.

Let’s compare the language a little:

The meaning is all pretty much the same but you can see that the tone is different. One is very formal and the other is quite informal. Formal language makes use of uncommon, old-fashioned, straightforward terms. On the other hand, informal language makes use of simpler, more common and modern words. Generally, it’s a bit easier to understand.

Practical Situations and Useful Expressions

When preparing for IELTS, it’s worth thinking of common situations that occur and in the above examples we can see expressions for saying:

These are things you can prepare for in advance by learning useful expressions. Here’s another example:

On August 17^th, I was taking the bus to work when I happened to witness an accident and I am writing to you in order to report it. Three pedestrians were crossing the road when all of a sudden a billboard collapsed and almost struck them.

This is quite formal and it gives details in a specific way. Now imagine you needed to say this sort of thing but to a friend. You might say something like:

You’ll never guess what. A couple of days ago, I was on the bus and saw this huge accident! A couple of people almost got wiped out by this falling sign. I swear it nearly killed them.

The first example was specific and used precise language with no emotion. The second did the opposite. It used much simpler language and also featured an informal tone: “huge,” “got,” “wiped out.” It is exciting and exaggerated even though it conveys the same ideas as the first passage.

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Another difference is the use of shortened forms. For example, in a formal letter we might talk about “photographs” but in an informal one we would more likely refer to “photos.” In formal letters, you may use longer words like “accommodation” but in informal letters it’s more common to speak of a “house,” “home,” “flat,” or “place to live.”

Final Tips for IELTS Vocabulary

These are just some of the examples of important words and phrases to know that are used in IELTS letters and differ according to whether the letters are formal or informal. However, you should ensure that you have a very wide and accurate vocabulary so that you are able to tackle whatever prompt you receive in your IELTS test.