Learn Grammar for IELTS: Common Mistakes, Correct Usage and How to Avoid Them
Grammar is a crucial aspect of your IELTS performance, directly affecting your scores in both the Writing and Speaking modules. This guide highlights common grammar mistakes and provides tips on how to avoid them, ensuring your language use is accurate, clear, and effective.
1. Subject-Verb Agreement
Ensure that the subject and verb in a sentence agree in number (singular or plural).
- Incorrect: “The team are winning.”
- Correct: “The team is winning.”
Tip: Pay attention to collective nouns like “team,” which are singular even though they refer to a group.
2. Tense Consistency
Maintain consistency in verb tenses within a sentence or paragraph to ensure clarity.
- Incorrect: “She is studying yesterday.”
- Correct: “She studied yesterday.”
Tip: When discussing past events, ensure all verbs are in the past tense unless you’re using a time marker that indicates a shift.
3. Articles (A, An, The)
Use articles correctly to specify nouns.
- Incorrect: “I saw a movie yesterday.”
- Correct: “I saw a movie yesterday.”
Tip: “A” is used before consonant sounds, “an” before vowel sounds, and “the” is used for specific nouns.
4. Prepositions
Use prepositions accurately to express relationships of location, direction, and time.
- Incorrect: “She is good in playing the piano.”
- Correct: “She is good at playing the piano.”
Tip: Prepositions are often idiomatic, so it’s important to learn common phrases as they are.
5. Word Order
Follow the standard word order for English sentences, especially in questions and statements.
- Incorrect: “He yesterday went to the store.”
- Correct: “Yesterday, he went to the store.”
Tip: In English, time expressions typically come at the beginning or end of a sentence, not in the middle.
6. Plural/Singular Nouns
Ensure that singular nouns match with singular verbs, and plural nouns with plural verbs.
- Incorrect: “The news are interesting.”
- Correct: “The news is interesting.”
Tip: Some nouns, like “news,” are uncountable and always take a singular verb.
7. Modal Verbs
Use modal verbs like “can,” “could,” “will,” “would,” “shall,” “should,” “must,” “may,” and “might” correctly.
- Incorrect: “I can to swim.”
- Correct: “I can swim.”
Tip: Modal verbs are followed by the base form of the verb without “to.”
8. Passive Voice
Understand when and how to use the passive voice, particularly in formal writing.
- Incorrect: “They built the house by him.”
- Correct: “The house was built by him.”
Tip: Use the passive voice to emphasize the action or the receiver of the action, rather than the doer.
9. Gerunds vs. Infinitives
Differentiate between gerunds (verb + -ing) and infinitives (to + verb).
- Incorrect: “I like to swim more than to run.”
- Correct: “I like swimming more than running.”
Tip: Some verbs are followed by gerunds, others by infinitives—learn which is appropriate for each verb.
10. Conditional Sentences
Use the correct form of conditional sentences (zero, first, second, third) based on the situation.
- Incorrect: “If I will go, I will call you.”
- Correct: “If I go, I will call you.”
Tip: In the first conditional, use the present simple after “if” and “will” in the main clause.
By learning these grammar rules, you can significantly enhance your IELTS Writing and Speaking scores. Practice regularly and review your work to ensure that your grammar is flawless.
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