Vocabulary and grammar for the Speaking test

How to show lexical range and grammatical flexibility in IELTS Speaking - paraphrase, collocation, natural idiomatic language and the structures that lift your score.

Lexical Resource and Grammatical Range and Accuracy make up half of your Speaking score. As in Writing, the route to a higher band is not rare words and tangled sentences. It is flexibility: being able to say what you mean in more than one way, with language that fits the situation, and with few enough errors that the listener never has to work to understand you.

Part 1: Lexical Resource

What examiners notice

1. Range: can you talk about many topics without running out of words?
2. Precision: exhausted rather than very tired; a stroll rather than a walk.
3. Collocation: words in natural combinations.
4. Idiomatic language: everyday natural expressions and phrasal verbs.
5. Paraphrase: getting round a gap.

Paraphrase: the essential skill

Every speaker, at every level, sometimes cannot find a word. Band 6 speakers ‘generally paraphrase successfully’; Band 7 and above do it ‘effectively’. Practise these moves until they are automatic.

Exercise: take ten everyday objects and describe each in English without using its name. Then check the real word.

Upgrading common words

Do not replace every simple word. A natural speaker mixes plain and precise vocabulary.

Collocations and chunks for speaking

• make a decision / an effort / a difference / a mistake / progress
• take a break / a risk / responsibility / part in / advantage of
• have a chat / a look / a go / second thoughts / a lot in common
• keep in touch / fit / an eye on / track of
• get on with / used to / into (a hobby) / rid of / round to
• spend time + -ing; waste time on; run out of time; in my spare time
• heavy traffic, strong coffee, a close friend, a tight budget, a busy schedule, a narrow escape

Natural idiomatic language

Useful, common and safe:

Use one or two where they fit. A string of idioms sounds forced, and an idiom used slightly wrongly (‘it rains dogs and cats’) is worse than none.

Topic vocabulary

Build a small bank for each of the common Part 2 and 3 themes: education, work, technology, environment, health, media, travel, family, cities, culture. Ten to fifteen phrases for each is enough. Record them in sentences about your own life, because personalised vocabulary is easier to recall under pressure.

Part 2: Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Range: structures to bring into your speech

You do not need to force complicated grammar. You need to answer questions in a way that naturally calls for different structures.

1. A mix of tenses

2. Conditionals

• First: If I get the grades, I’ll apply for a master’s.
• Second: If I had more space, I’d get a dog.
• Third: If I hadn’t taken that course, I’d never have met her.
• Mixed: If I’d practised more as a child, I’d be much better now.

Part 3 ‘what if’ questions and Part 1 ‘would you like’ questions invite these.

3. Relative clauses

• The man who lives upstairs was learning the drums.
• It’s a place where you can spend time without buying anything.
• I stopped when I was eleven, which I regret now. (commenting on a whole idea: very natural and useful)

4. Comparatives

• It’s nowhere near as busy as it used to be.
• The more I practised, the easier it got.
• far better, slightly cheaper, twice as long, by far the best

5. Modals

• Possibility: might, may, could, may well
• Deduction: must be, can’t be, must have been
• Advice / criticism: should, ought to, should have + past participle
• Ability: managed to, was able to, couldn’t

6. Passives

• It was built in the 1950s. / I was given it for my birthday. / The area has been completely redeveloped.

7. Reported speech and questions

• He said that if I was old enough to ride it, I was old enough to mend it.
• She asked me whether I’d ever tried it.

8. Emphasis (cleft sentences)

• What I love about it is the atmosphere.
• The thing that surprised me was how quiet it was.
• It was my grandfather who taught me.

These are common in fluent speech and are an easy way to add range.

Accuracy: the errors that matter most

Tense consistency is the most audible problem. If you start a story in the past, stay in the past. Before the test, practise telling a two-minute past story and listen only for verbs.

Accuracy versus fluency

Do not let the fear of mistakes stop you speaking. A fluent answer with a few errors scores better than a perfect sentence followed by silence. The balance to aim for: speak freely, monitor lightly, correct only what matters.

Practice routine

1. Record and transcribe. Record a two-minute answer, write down exactly what you said, and mark every error and every repeated word. Rewrite the transcript, improving vocabulary and grammar, then say the improved version aloud. Do this twice a week.
2. Structure of the day. Choose one structure (for example, the second conditional or used to) and use it at least five times in that day’s practice.
3. Steal from samples. From each sample answer in the practice tests, take three expressions and use them in your own answers within twenty-four hours.
4. Paraphrase game (above), five objects a day.

Key points

• Flexibility, precision and collocation matter more than rare words.
• Paraphrase smoothly when a word will not come.
• Use everyday idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs sparingly and accurately.
• Let your answers bring in a range of tenses, conditionals, relative clauses and modals.
• Fix high-frequency errors: -s endings, past tense, articles, prepositions.
• Speak freely first; correct lightly.

IELTS is a registered trademark of the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and Cambridge University Press & Assessment. PrepFreely is not affiliated with, approved or endorsed by them.