Today we're going to be looking at the 69 most commonly used words by real band 7, 8 and 9 students so that you can improve not just your vocabulary but massively boost your IELTS writing score. And in this video I'm going to show you what those words are, how you can use them in your essays and how they will help you massively improve your essays. At the end as a special bonus I'll also give you access to all 100 of those sample essays as a little gift from me. to you. So the first word is viable. This means able to work or succeed.
Synonyms of this word are feasible, workable, or the most common one would be possible. This is an adjective and common collocations are viable option or viable alternative. For example, the project is not a viable option without more funding. Let's look at how our band seven, eight, and nine students use this in their real essays. A viable solution.
is to heavily punish lawbreakers. So in your essays you will often be asked to write about solutions or alternatives. So adding the collocation viable solution, viable option, viable alternative will hopefully boost your score. The next word is schooling.
This means the education you get at school. Synonyms of this word would be education, learning or training. And this is a noun.
Common collocations of this word are primary schooling and secondary schooling. For example, good primary schooling is important for a child's future. And if we look at a sentence from the 100 essays, in Vietnam, the average class size is 20 students, which makes it difficult for educators to provide proper schooling for each student. Education is one of the, if not the most common topic for task two essays. So very, very useful word.
useful synonym to use in there instead of education, training, things like that. The next word is renowned. This means famous or respected. Synonyms of this word are well-known, famous, and celebrated.
This is an adjective and common collocations are renowned expert or renowned for, although you could add in athlete, musician, company, many, many different things that are well-known and respected. They are famous for something. This is very useful for use in examples.
So often in examples, you're going to pick someone very well-known or famous that demonstrates the point that you're making. Here's an example sentence. He is a renowned expert in the field of biology.
And let's look at how our students use this in their essay. For instance, after opening a branch of Apple company in Dubai, many local graduates were thrilled. by the good news of being accepted to work under this renowned company. So instead of saying famous company, they've added renowned.
The next word is prime. And no, it's not a drink made by Logan Paul. This means the best or most important. Synonyms are best, top, main, and this word is an adjective.
The most common collocation is prime example, but you could also swap this out for prime advantage, prime advantage. disadvantage, prime solution, prime reason. Often in your essays, you'll be talking about these things.
So if you want to describe these things as the best or most important, you can add prime before those words. An example sentence is this is a prime example of excellent customer service. And in our essays, one student wrote the prime disadvantage is that these companies use the natural resources of developing nations recklessly, which affects the environment. So very, very good topic sentence there talking about advantages and disadvantages.
But the great thing about this word, like many of the words on this list is it can be used interchangeably throughout your essays. The next word is prone, which means likely to do or experience something. Synonyms are likely, inclined and susceptible. This is an adjective and a common collocation is prone to errors, but it's not just prone to errors.
The collocation will normally be prone to, but you can swap out errors for other things that people are likely to experience. So an example sentence, children are prone to making mistakes when they are learning. And in our essays we have, thus people that have a diet based on plants and seeds are more prone to have a healthier life because they allow their bodies to focus their energy in its normal processes.
And before you start writing, this student made grammatical errors. Yes, these are real essays. These are real human beings that make mistakes. We're giving you real sentences, not polished fake ones. I hope you're enjoying this video on IELTS writing.
If you want to improve your IELTS writing even more, I've developed a free course called IELTS Essay Builder. What IELTS Essay Builder does is it gives you a free course that structures everything from your introduction to your main body paragraphs to your conclusions. It shows you step by step, sentence by sentence, how to write everything that you're learning here.
To sign up for that for free, all you have to do is just click the link in the description. Thanks very much and let's get back to the video. The next word is officials.
And this means people in authority or people in the government normally. Synonyms of this are authorities, leaders, or administrators. And this is a noun. Common collocations are government officials or public officials. These are people working in the government.
In our essay, they wrote, in conclusion, I do not support the argument of newspapers publishing the information of government officials. So task two essays will often talk about the government and government policy. So it's a very useful word to have. The next word is output.
And this means the amount produced of something. Synonyms of this word are production or yield. And this is a noun. Common collocations are industrial output or total output. Sometimes you will be asked to write about companies.
Companies dominate our lives. And similarly to the last one where we're talking about governments. Governments and companies dominate our lives and have a huge impact on our lives. Therefore, you will often be asked to write about those things or write about examples of those things in your task two essays. An example sentence, the factory's output has increased this year.
And from our essays, the main benefits of wearing a uniform are that it brings uniformity to the workplace and helps to increase the output of companies. And you could also change that to a company's output or a factory's output. The next word is intellect, which means the ability to think and understand.
And notice I didn't say memorize. Memorise isn't really thinking, so don't think that you can memorise all of these words and magically improve your intellect. More on that at the end of the video.
Synonym of this is intelligence and this is a noun. Common collocations are his intellect or her intellect or maybe a child's intellect. An example sentence is her sharp intellect makes her a great scientist.
And from her essays, educational programmes... television can help a child's intellect. Often you will get questions about education, especially about children and how to improve their education, improve their intelligence, improve their intellect.
The next word is incentives which means things that encourage you to do something. For example if you want a free course go down into the description of this video. and add in your email address and we'll send you a free course. I've just given you an incentive.
Synonyms of this word are motivation, reward, and encouragement. This is a noun. Uncommon collocations are provide incentives or offer incentives. So this will often come up when we're talking about education or how companies are run.
Often we will provide incentives or offer incentives to students, workers, citizens to try and get them to do something. Another way to think about this word is the approach of a carrot and a stick. So if you want a donkey to do something, you can beat it with a stick or you can provide an incentive, a carrot, to make it go forward.
An example sentence are the company offers financial incentives to its best workers. And in our essays, many younger people find voting a waste of time and therefore if they are given incentives, they are more likely to take the time to vote. Our next word is irrespective. This means without considering something. Synonyms are regardless and despite, and this is an adverb.
The most common collocation is irrespective of, and then after of will be the thing that you are ignoring or you're disregarding. For example, irrespective of the outcome. We must try our best.
And in her essays, I believe that adult life brings more joy because of life fulfillment, irrespective of more responsibilities. So this is very useful when you are balancing two views or considering two views. Often you will get questions that ask you to discuss both views.
So this is very useful in your conclusion when you're giving your opinion. So you're saying, I believe this thing, irrespective. of the other side.
The next word is fundamental. No, it's actually fundamental. And this means important.
Synonyms of this word are important, essential, or primary. And this is an adjective. Common collocations are fundamental principle and fundamental change. For example, learning to read is a fundamental skill for children. And from our essays, it is the fundamental right of every human being to have that.
their privacy. So this is a great way in your essays to convey to the examiner that this thing that you're talking about is very, very important. You're ranking this as the most important thing at the very, very top.
So we could talk about the fundamental change that needs to happen, the fundamental reason, the fundamental right, the fundamental... whatever you are talking about. To thank you for making it this far in the video, I want to give you 10% off our VIP course. IELTS VIP course is the most successful IELTS course in the world. That is a fact because we have more than seven, eight, and nine success stories than any other IELTS course in the entire world.
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The next word is disclose, which means to make something known. Synonyms are reveal, show, and tell. This is a verb, and the most common collocation is to disclose information. For example, The company must disclose any risk to its investors. And from our essays, on the other hand, publishing details of private affairs discloses the corruption of politicians and make them accountable.
So again, you'll often be writing about the government. What is the government full of in most countries? Corrupt politicians.
So it's very easy to talk about disclosing them. The next word is detrimental, and it means to cause harm. or damage. Synonyms are harmful, damaging, or just bad.
This is an adjective and the most common collocation is detrimental effect. For example, smoking has a detrimental effect on health. I looked through the essays and the students did use this a lot, but not many of them used it the most common way, which is a detrimental effect on health, for example, or a detrimental effect on health.
on the environment. Health, the environment, or just talking about bad effects on many different things, you'll often write about those in your essays. So think about having that in your essay when you're talking about negative or bad things. The next word is adolescence.
And these are young people normally between the ages of 13 and 19, but it differs from person to person. And a synonym of this word is teenager. This is a noun and you have to be very, very careful with this word.
Most students use this because often you will be asked to write about children. So what they do is they take the word children and just use that as a synonym by inserting adolescence. Now, my two little boys, one is three and the other is nine.
They are children, but they are not adolescents. So you must only use this word if you are writing about. teenagers going through that stage of life which is puberty.
For example, adolescents often experience many changes in their lives and there aren't that many common collocations so I haven't added any. And from our essays although adolescents are free of responsibilities, adults enjoy their life more because they are free to make their own choices. So I think this is a really really good word to think about because you're not just going to memorize these words and insert them randomly into your essays.
But what you're also not going to do is take words that are similar, so they're synonyms, and just replace those words, like children, adolescents. Think about the specific meaning of each of these words and think about can you actually use them accurately and appropriately in your essays. We're not telling you just to memorize these words and vomit them onto the page. The next word is accountable and this means responsible for your actions.
Synonyms are responsible, answerable, and liable. This is an adjective and the most common collocations are accountable to something, so to people or to a government or a body, and accountable for something. If you're accountable for something, it's normally your actions.
For example, managers should be held accountable for their decisions. From our essay, this essay strongly disagrees with this view because politicians build public image through such news and they could be held accountable for any wrongdoings. I think the student meant to write should be held accountable.
Again, you'll often be asked to write about people in authority, people like government officials, politicians, teachers, or just everybody in general. We are all accountable for things that we do and we're normally accountable to people above us or people around us. The next word is addressed and this means to fix an issue.
issue or fix a problem. Synonyms are tackled, deal with, handled, fixed and this is a verb. The most common collocations are address a problem or the problem or address an issue or the issue.
For example the teacher addressed the issue of bullying in the classroom. In that example we didn't fix the issue. It's not the teacher completely resolving the issue of bullying.
This means to bring it up. to address it, to talk about it in the classroom. So just be careful with that slight difference in meaning. In our essay, the student said, however, this can easily be addressed by making people aware and also by making new laws.
So they've used it to say addressed, fixed. So you might use this, for example, in problem solution essays, addressing problems. in your solutions part of your essay, but it can also be used very flexibly and interchangeably with many different ways of writing essays. The next word is affluent, which means having a lot of money.
Synonyms are wealthy, rich, prosperous, and this is an adjective. The most common collocations are an affluent society or an affluent country, but you can also apply this to people. In our essays, our student wrote, in addition, not only does a country become more powerful economically, but also many residents have an opportunity to become affluent.
So it is a common essay topic to write about money and people becoming more successful. You'll have a lot of people furiously typing success and money are not the same thing. It's not politics class or just trying to help you get a higher score so you can become more affluent and more successful. in your new country. That's why you're doing the IELTS test, right?
The next word is allocate, which means to distribute resources or duties. Common synonyms are assign, distribute, and allot. This is a verb, and the most common collocation is to allocate resources.
For example, the manager will allocate resources for the new project. And in our essays, investment banks in Sweden showed a significant increase after they decided to allocate at least 40% of their of their leading positions to women. The next one is a very useful word which is awareness, which means knowledge about something.
Synonyms are knowledge or understanding. This is a noun and common collocations are to raise awareness. But for IELTS essays, we often talk about awareness campaigns, which are campaigns by the government to make people aware of a certain topic.
For example, we need to raise awareness about the dangers of smoking. And in our essays, however, encouraging youth participation in politics and awareness campaigns can be possible solutions to tackle these problems. So these are very, very useful when talking about solutions to problems. Often the best solution will be some kind of awareness campaign.
Think about campaigns within your own country for smoking or drunk driving or wear seatbelts. The next word is bullying. which means repeated aggressive behaviour intended to hurt someone.
Synonyms are harassment, intimidation and abuse. This is a noun but it can also be used as a verb, to bully someone. Common collocations are school bullying and very frequently these days cyber bullying, which means to bully someone online normally through social media. For example, school bullying can seriously affect a child's self-esteem.
And from our essays, the main reason behind this is the increase of cyberbullying and hate crimes. The next word is burden, which means a heavy load or heavy responsibility. Synonyms are load or responsibility and this is a noun. The most common collocations are heavy burden and financial burden.
For example, the financial burden of college can be overwhelming for some students. And from our essays, this is because they cannot cope with the financial burden of buying new clothes from stores, such as Prada or Gucci. Money makes the world go round and a lot of tattoo essays will involve you talking about money, financial burdens, but doesn't have to be about money. You can also talk about the burden of being a father or a mother, for example, or the burden of being a husband or wife.
But burden is often referred to negatively, so don't tell my wife that I said that. The next word is capabilities, which means the ability to do something. Synonyms are abilities, skills or talents.
This is a noun and common collocations are their capabilities or its capabilities. So you're talking about the ability of a person to do something or a thing to do something. For example, the company's technological capabilities are impressive. And from our essays In conclusion, many athletes nowadays use illegal substances to win the competition and exceed their physical capabilities. So common topics are technology and health.
You could easily use capabilities to talk about a company's abilities or software's abilities or AI's abilities. But you could also use the word capabilities to talk about someone's physical health and their capabilities. Or you could use it. for education to talk about the capabilities of students or maybe even teachers. We have abilities too.
Next is a very common word, commonly, which means frequently or usually. Synonyms are often, usually, and regularly. This is an adverb.
Common collocations are commonly used. For example, this word is commonly used in academic writing and from our essays. For instance, it can be commonly seen in many schools.
The teachers introduce TVs in their lectures to help students understand complicated and difficult subjects. So if you're talking about time and how often something happens, use that word. Next is consumption, the act of using something. Synonyms are use and usage. And this is a noun.
Common collocations are energy consumption, human consumption, when we eat things or when we use things, and consumption of. For example, reducing energy consumption can help protect the environment. The environment and global warming and new technologies for producing energy, you will often use this word and these collocations.
And from our essays, one student wrote, this is because animals are reproduced, kept in small and uncomfortable places, and then killed and sold to supermarkets and butchers for human consumption. So if anyone... or anything is using something within your essays, you could look through it and think, how could I use the word consumption?
The next word is competence. And this is the ability to do something well, not the ability just to do something, but to do something well. Synonyms are ability, skill and proficiency.
This is a noun and common collocations are professional competence and competence in something. For example, her professional competence was evident in her excellent work. And one student wrote, by allocating a certain percent of high-level positions to women, companies would reach a higher competence level.
So often you'll be writing about maybe disadvantaged groups of people. For example, in this one, women, and you're writing about their competence in things. Next is a word many of you already know, I'm sure, which is corruption. This means dishonest or illegal behavior.
by those in power. So think about a politician maybe from your local area or your country that dishonestly uses money. Synonyms of this word are dishonesty, fraud, and bribery.
This is a noun and the most common collocation is political corruption. For example, the investigation revealed widespread political corruption and our student wrote, for example, when details of the lavish spending of... the mayor of London while on a vacation were revealed in the sun. It promoted questions from many sections of the society, eventually exposing his corruption with the public money. Yes, I know that student made a few small grammatical errors.
Don't go crazy. It's not the student's fault. Maybe that student had a little bit of corruption in their school when they were growing up and they didn't get the attention that you got from your very honest. teachers and politicians.
The next one is a two for one. These are both high level words that mean the same thing. Downsides and drawbacks. These both mean the negative aspects of something.
Synonyms are disadvantages, negatives. These are both nouns and it won't be a surprise that students use these as synonyms when they are talking about advantages, disadvantages, essays. The most common collocation for downsides are potential.
downsides. So you're talking about something that might be a downside. And the most common collocation for drawbacks are major drawbacks.
For example, the potential downsides of the new policy include increased costs. And from our essays, one of the major drawbacks of this method is its high cost. Another little trick there, if you get an advantages or disadvantages essay, very often an easy disadvantage is to talk about high cost. Not always. but does help to have that in your toolkit.
And the next word is similar but different and that is deficiency. Now this isn't really a disadvantage, this is a lack of something. So there is a little bit of it already but there is a lack of it. Synonyms are a lack, a shortage, or an insufficiency. This is a noun and a common collocation is a vitamin deficiency or deficiency in so you might not have a vitamin deficiency, but you might have a deficiency in something else.
So you have a deficiency in whatever you have a deficiency of, for example, a vitamin deficiency can cause health problems. And from our essays, the main disadvantage of the vegetarian diet is that without meat, people may have a protein deficiency. Obviously, this can be used for many different topics, but health is one of the main ones. The next one is embrace, which means to accept something with enthusiasm.
Synonyms are accept, welcome, and adopt. This is a verb, and the most common collocation for our purposes is to embrace change. Life is basically the story of change. When you're writing, you're going to be writing about life, so it's very easy to use this collocation.
For example, we need to embrace change. to stay competitive. And from our essays there are two main benefits of traveling such as people can gain knowledge and embrace other cultures.
So not just embracing change but embracing new things, which is another way of saying change. The next one will definitely enhance your writing score, which is enhance. This means to improve something. Synonyms are improve, boost, increase.
This is a verb and common collocations are to enhance. enhance performance, but you can substitute out performance for something else. Or enhanced with a D on the end, by, enhanced by.
For example, the new software will enhance our performance. And one of our students wrote, for instance, many psychologists suggest to students who are struggling with social anxiety to take drama lessons as it helps to enhance confidence. So enhance performance, enhance confidence. Next is a very, very popular one, emissions, which means gases or substances sent out into the air. Most commonly for our purposes, carbon dioxide emissions.
Synonym of this is output and this is a noun. Common collocations are carbon emissions or carbon dioxide emissions and reduce emissions. For example, reducing carbon emissions is vital to combat climate change.
And from our essays, the main advantage of having a vegetarian diet is that carbon emissions can be reduced. For bonus points, take that sentence. How would you improve the vocabulary of that sentence using the words we've already talked about in this video?
Put it in the comments. The next one is establishments. And this is a business or an organization.
Synonyms are institutions, organizations, and firms. This is a noun. And the most common collocation, especially for our purposes writing TASU essays, educational establishments.
So it should come as no surprise that when you are asked about education, you are going to be writing about schools, you're going to be writing about universities. So you can use educational establishments instead of school as a synonym. For example, universities are important educational establishments. I looked at our students'essays and they're using them either incorrectly or using it in a completely different context and I don't want to confuse anyone so I'm not going to show you those. The next word is expenditure which means money spent on something.
Synonyms are spending, costs or outlay. This is a noun and is often associated for task 2 writing with government expenditure or public expenditure. Public expenditure is just another way of saying government expenditure because governments use our public money. For example, government expenditure on healthcare is increasing.
But you don't have to just use it for government or public expenditure. You could talk about company expenditure, but I wouldn't use it for individuals spending money on things. It's a little bit inappropriate in that context. So what our student did was they said, however, the increase in expenditure of organizations and monotony among employees are the main drawbacks of compulsory uniforms.
So they're talking about corporations, companies spending money on uniforms. You'll certainly exceed your required band score with this next one. Exceed. This means to go beyond a limit or a standard or a number. Synonyms are surpass, go beyond or outdo.
It is a verb and the common collocations are exceed expectations or exceed a number. For example, the team managed to exceed expectations this quarter. And in our essays, in conclusion, many athletes nowadays use illegal substances. to win the competition and exceed their physical capabilities. The next one I'll just go quickly through it because it's very similar to another word that we used harassment which is a synonym of a word we already mentioned which is bullying.
This means aggressive pressure or intimidation. Synonyms are bullying, intimidation or abuse. It is a noun and common collocations are workplace harassment and sexual harassment. So bullying is normally associated with with school whereas harassment is normally more associated with the workplace and society in general.
Although bullying can occur anywhere. For example the company has policies to prevent workplace harassment and in our essays for instance in 2016 many supporters of Donald Trump lost their trust in him after newspapers uncovered the story of the sexual harassment allegations against him. Just be very careful with this word because Often I hear IELTS students talking about harassment in terms of things that are difficult. So I have real emails from students talking about the IELTS test harassing them or us harassing them because we've given them low scores because they're not very good at writing.
That's not harassment, that's just... your life is difficult because you're not very good at something normally because you're lazy. And the next one is more a linking word which doesn't come under your vocabulary score, it comes under your cohesion and coherence score.
But I'll mention it because it is a useful word to know and it could help you improve your coherence and cohesion score. And that word is hence and it basically means for this reason or therefore. Synonyms are therefore, thus, and so we would use so more in informal speaking than academic writing. This is an adverb and a common collocation is hence the need or hence the need for. For example, the project is behind schedule, hence the need for extra workers.
And you can also use it at the beginning of a sentence instead of therefore, just like our student did. Hence, the more sports facilities will be available to the public, the more people could do sports and thus. Stay healthy. So they've used two different synonyms of therefore, hence, and thus within the same sentence.
But remember, the most important thing for linking words is not that you show a wide variety of them. It's that they are accurate and appropriate. So if you're unsure about linking words, don't memorize 50 of them and just shove them into your essay and hope for the best.
It's better to repeat a simple word that is correct than change it to something that is wrong. And the next word is informative and this means to provide useful information. Synonyms are educational, enlightening and instructive.
This is an adjective and is normally used within educational contexts to describe programs or courses or TV shows or documentaries, things like that. So an example sentence would be the lecture was very informative and helped me understand the topic better. From our essays, kids who watch informative and educational shows learn to solve problems and develop strong mental math skills. The next word is infrastructure. This means the basic systems and structures needed for a society or organization.
A synonym of this word is a system and this is a noun. Common collocations are transport infrastructure and infrastructure projects. An example sentence is good transport infrastructure is essential for economic growth.
And from our essays, in conclusion, the advantages of the prioritizing economic growth above all other concerns are improved quality of life of people and good infrastructure. The next word is insight. This means the understanding or knowledge about something. Synonyms are understandings, perceptions, and intuition. This is a noun, and common collocations are valuable insights and provide insights into.
For example, the survey provided valuable insights into customer preferences. And from our essays, lessons at school can provide children with valuable insights into being good members of society. The next word is insufficient, which means not enough, often related to money or resources.
Synonyms are inadequate, lacking and deficient. This is an adjective and the most common collocation is insufficient funds or insufficient resources. For example, the project was cancelled due to insufficient funds.
And from our essays, the main downsides are higher costs of living for most and insufficient support for the poorest. The next word is innate. This means existing from birth or is natural.
For example, the ability to breathe is innate. Synonyms are inborn, inherent, and natural. This is an adjective and the most common collocation is innate ability. For example, she has an innate ability to learn languages quickly. From her essays, a person can only reach the highest level in the profession if they combine their innate ability with hard work.
Often you will get questions that will ask things like, does hard work lead to success? Or is it only people who are born with certain talents that are successful? So you can use this word innate.
The next word is inappropriate. No, it is actually inappropriate. And this means not suitable or proper. It's just a very, very formal way of saying something is bad or not right.
Synonyms are unsuitable, improper. and unfit. This is an adjective and the most common collocation is inappropriate behaviour.
This is often used to describe someone doing something, their behaviour is bad, inappropriate. For example, his inappropriate behaviour at the meeting was not acceptable. And from our essays, on the other hand, employees who always wear uniforms might end up wearing inappropriate clothes for their work. The next high level word is merit.
and this means the quality of being good or worthy. Synonyms include worth, value, and excellence. This is a noun, and common collocations are academic merit or on merit.
A good way to remember this word is not what the word means, it's what it doesn't mean, the opposite of that word. I'm sure you know someone who got a job or a position in a company because they are the idiot nephew or the daughter of the owner of the company. That is not based on merit, that is based on who they are. An example sentence is scholarships are often given based on academic merit. So you deserve to get a scholarship because of how smart you are.
And in our essays, this essay completely disagrees with the statement because selecting employees should be based on merit, their worth, their value. good they are at the job. So it can be used in the academic context, but it can also be used in a more formal professional context as well.
The next word is one of my favorite words in the whole world. It is mediocre. And this means not very good, pretty average. Synonyms include average, ordinary, and so-so if you want to talk about it informally. This is an adjective.
And there aren't many common collocations for this but a good way to remember it is it's one of the most horrible things that you could ever say to anyone. I'm a very popular person on YouTube so I get horrible things said to me every day in the comments. If somebody says that I'm terrible or useless or the worst teacher that has ever existed on the internet I don't really worry if somebody says that but if somebody calls me mediocre that's horrible to say that to someone. you're the same as everyone else.
An example sentence is his performance was mediocre, not meeting expectations. And from our essays, for example, the world is filled with many star athletes who started off as mediocre in the beginning, but they challenge and push themselves to their limit, which ultimately helped them to attain the greatest version of themselves. So if you want to really, really annoy me and upset me, just write this video is mediocre in the comments.
The next one is The opposite of mediocre it is notable and this means worthy of attention or important. Synonyms are remarkable, significant or noteworthy. This is a adjective and common collocations are a notable achievement. If you're talking about some achievement that somebody has made or some kind of scientific discovery or technological advancement, a notable exception.
So if you're talking about, I believe this, this, this, this, and then you want to talk about a counter argument or another side to the point that you're making, you could say a notable exception is and a notable example. So you're going to be giving at least two examples in your essays so you could write a notable example. Here's an example sentence.
Her notable achievements in science earned her several awards. And in her essay, in conclusion, although well-known individuals earn big amounts of money from sponsors, notable people's lives will be in danger because evil-minded people will harm them. The next one is a very useful word, numerous, which means many in number.
Synonyms include many, several, various, and this is an adjective. Common collocations are numerous times. For example, she has traveled to Paris numerous times. And in our essay, the majority of the chief positions in business organizations are occupied by males, despite the fact that more than half of the workforce in numerous developed nations is made up of women.
So when you are using this, you might use it in your explanations or your examples. When you're explaining something, you can say that this has happened numerous times or there are numerous examples of this happening. You don't have to do that for every essay, just have it in your toolkit. The next word is peers. Peers are people of the same age.
So for example, my son's peers are nine-year-olds or people that normally do the same job and are at the same level. They have the same status. Synonyms include equals, colleagues, and contemporaries.
This is a noun and common collocations are peer pressure and their peers. So we will often use this word when we are comparing people within the same group together. For example, adolescents often face peer pressure from their peers to conform to group norms. And in her essay, for instance, several studies have shown that kids are more likely to outperform their peers on tests when they watch. educational shows.
Very, very useful for comparing, for explaining, for giving examples. The next word is extremely useful because it can be used to describe pretty much anything and can be used as a synonym for so many different things. And it is one of the most mispronounced words in the English language. Let's see how I do with it.
Phenomenon. This means something that happens or exists, especially something unusual or interesting. Synonyms include event, occurrence, and happening.
This is a noun and common collocations are natural phenomenon. You could use natural phenomenon to describe global warming, for example, or a social phenomenon. So something that people have started to do, or you go to a new country and you're like, oh, that's an interesting social phenomenon, a thing that is happening that I've never noticed before. For example, I recently traveled to a country where Every restaurant you go to, parents would give their children iPads and phones and allow them to play music and games at full blast. It's like, that's an interesting phenomenon.
It also allows you to be diplomatic and polite. So an example sentence, the northern lights are a natural phenomenon that attracts many visitors. It is a thing in the sky that is natural, a natural phenomenon. In our essays, this phenomenon may result.
in younger people being apathetic towards politics and election results that do not reflect public opinion. So you could use this in your introduction, you could use this in topic sentences, you could use this in explanations, and you could use this in your conclusion. If you're really stuck for a synonym, maybe you've repeated the word a few times and you're like, how do I change this?
You could say this phenomenon, but make sure it is a phenomenon. The next word is proportion, which means a. part of a whole or a percentage.
So if you're talking about a percentage of something you could use proportion. Synonyms are part, portion or fraction and this is a noun and common collocations are large proportion or small proportion. For example a large proportion of the population supports the new law and from our essays some believe that a certain proportion of these vacancies should be allocated to females. This is also very useful for task one academic if you're doing the academic.
module. The next word is revenue. And this means income from business or government activities in the form of tax. That's how governments make money.
Synonyms are income, earnings and profits. Although be very careful because revenue and profits are two very, very different things. If you've ever run a business, you should know that.
Word type is a noun and common collocations are annual revenue, revenue from, so revenue from taxes, revenue from IELTS VIP courses, if we're lucky, and tax revenue. Example sentence, the company's annual revenue has grown steadily. And from our essay, this is because with economic progress, states generate lots of revenue, which can be used to provide high quality services, such as free education.
So often you will get questions asking about government services. Education is often a government service, depending on which country you live in. Health is sometimes a government service, not if you live in America.
But A lot of questions can be boiled down to should the government provide this service or is the government providing a good enough service and you can talk about revenue coming in from different things and how revenue is being spent. The next word is resent and this means to feel angry or bitter about something. Synonyms are begrudge, disliked or be annoyed by. This is a verb and common collocations are resent the implication or resent. the fact.
For example, he began to resent the implication that he was not working hard enough. And from our essay, parents should encourage their children to stay at home more rather than force them so that their children will not resent them. So it's a very easy way to talk about things that people dislike.
For example, I really resent the fact that I picked so many of these words and I didn't think it was going to take this long to make this video. The next word is sector, which means parts. or divisions of a larger group or area.
Synonyms are divisions, segments, or areas. This is a noun and common collocations are the public sector. The public sector means you work in the government. The private sector, those people who actually do all the work, means that you work not for the government, for real businesses. And then we have the voluntary sector.
People who volunteer their time, they don't work for the government, they don't work for real businesses, they work for charities. For example, the public sector employs many people in healthcare and education. And from her essays, others think that they have to only study something useful for their future, for example those related to science and technology sectors. The next word is workforce. And this means all the people who work in a company or country.
Synonyms are staff, employees and labour force. This is a noun and a common collocation is a skilled workforce. For example, a skilled workforce is key to a company's success.
And from our essay, one benefit of multinational companies is that they employ a large workforce. The next word is gifted, and this means having a special talent or ability. Synonyms are talented, skilled, and exceptional.
This is an adjective, and the common collocation is a gifted child or gifted children. You will often use this when talking about education. Not every... essay about education but if you are talking about exceptional gifted children you can use this word.
For example, the school has programs for gifted children in the arts and sciences. And from our essay, children who are gifted with a particular inborn talent often achieve their goal early in their lives. You could also use one of the other high level words we mentioned in this video, innate, to talk about people who are born with a particular gift.
The next word is nutritional. which means relating to the nutrients in food. Synonyms are dietary, nutritious, and nourishing.
This is an adjective and common collocations are nutritional value and nutritional deficiencies. For example, it is important to consider the nutritional value of your diet. And from our essays, one disadvantage is that vegetarian diets may cause nutritional deficiencies. One of the most common task two topics is health. And it is very easy to connect health with our nutrition, our eating habits.
So very important word to know. The next word is thrive, which means to grow or develop well. Synonyms include flourish, prosper and succeed.
This is a verb and a common collocation for this word is to thrive in. For example, children thrive in a loving and supporting environment. And from our essays.
For this reason, I believe that some inborn qualities play a crucial part for people to thrive in some areas like music or sports. So if you think about the area or the context that that person or that thing is thriving in, is succeeding in, is prospering in, then you can use thrive in that area. And it's not just people.
Companies can thrive. Animals can thrive. Lots of different things can thrive. And the next word you might not think. is a high-level word and it is unsafe.
You might think that this is a low-level word because you know it, you know how to use it, and it is quite a short common word. But if you go to cambridgedictionary.org online, pop in unsafe, you'll see that this is a C1 word. That's a very, very useful point to make because many of you think that high-level words are these big, unknowable, unusable words that you've never heard before. That's often not the case.
Often you know way more C1 and C2 words than you realize. This word means not safe or dangerous. Synonyms include dangerous, risky, or hazardous. This is an adjective and a very common collocation are unsafe conditions.
For example, the building was evacuated due to unsafe conditions. And from our essay, the second reason behind the negativity of being a star is that it creates an unsafe environment that may endanger the star's mental health. So unsafe conditions, unsafe environment. When you're talking about dangerous things, often that will come up in task two.
And a very, very appropriate word for our last word, unwind. Because I'm definitely going to have to unwind after reading out so many of these words. And this means to relax after work or some kind of tension. Synonyms include relax, rest, or de-stress.
This is a verb on common collocations. are unwind after. For example, it is important to unwind after a long day at work, like reading lots and lots and lots and lots of words and definitions. From our essays, this essay believes that television can do both as it helps people to unwind, but it also presents complicated information in an easily digestible form. So now that you know what those words are, I want you now to think about why are you watching this video.
You're not watching this video to boost your vocabulary. You're watching this video to get the IELTS score that you need. And let me tell you the worst thing that you could do right now. If you want to improve your IELTS writing score, the worst thing you can do is take those words and try and insert as many of those words as possible into your essay. And I want to prove that to you using data and a really cool software tool that you can use to analyze your own essays.
And I'm going to take the essays from here, IELTS 18, and I'm going to show you just how many band 789 C1 C2 words they actually use in their essays that have been produced by Cambridge examiners. So if we have a look here, what I've done is I've used this amazing tool called Text Inspector. Text Inspector does a lot of different things, but one of the things that it does is you can add in a bunch of text.
So I've taken the 100 essays from our band seven, eight and nine students. And what it will do is it will analyze all of the words and categorize the words into A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2. And this was the tool I also used to actually get the words. So, for example.
here's a list of all the C1 words, here's a list of all the C2 words. But the really, really interesting thing about this data is that out of all the words used, only 3.2% of the words are C2 and only 6.04% of the words are C1. What does that tell you?
More than 90% of the words used in those band 7, 8 and 9 essays. are A1, A2, B1, B2. Now many of you might be thinking, Chris, you're famous for telling people to simplify their language and not include too many high-level words.
Maybe your students, this is what their essays look like, but real band 7, 8, and 9 essays don't actually look like that. So what I've done is I've taken three essays from this book, Cambridge 18. These are essays that have been produced. by very high level examiners and put into their book. So let's see what their essays look like.
1.31% of their words were C2. 3.67% of their words were C1. Around 95% of their words are A1, A2, B1, B2. And the majority of their words are A1 and A2, more than half.
And this isn't just IELTS essays. You can take any great writing. I've taken George Orwell essays, who is probably the greatest writer of the 20th century. And the graph looks like this.
I've taken academic journal articles from my university days. I've taken the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, probably the best writing of any newspapers. It looks like this.
So when you go on to your social media accounts, you go on to Instagram, you go on to TikTok, and some guy is giving you a list of C1 and C2 words and telling you that your essays are not good enough if your essays aren't packed full of these words, just ask yourself a question. Who do you think knows more? The person that runs the most successful online IELTS course in the world?
Cambridge examiners? George Orwell? No. the people who write articles for the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, or some clown on TikTok or Instagram.
So you're probably thinking now, well, what do I do now? You've given me this list of high level words. How am I actually going to use them in my essay to improve my score? Am I saying not to use C1 and C2 words?
No. What I'm saying is you should be using all levels of words accurately and appropriately. If you want to know more about how to use C1 and C2 words, more about how to do this.
This video will go into more detail on how to use not just higher level vocabulary but lower level vocabulary correctly in your essays. And if you want those 100 band 7, 8 and 9 sample essays just go to Google and type in IELTS Advantage 100 sample essays and Google will show you where they are.