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Useful vocabulary to use
in IELTS Task 1 essays
Posted on May 21, 2013 by Pearl 11 Comments
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Part of your score is based on vocabulary. Here are useful words and
phrases to use that describe movement in a graph or chart:
Similar words meaning to become greater in number; to go up:
to rise (v)
Prices rose from $10 to $15 within 3 months. Prices rose
by 50%.
Note: Dont confuse the verbs rise (to become more)
with raise (to make something rise). Ex. School fees are
set to rise. Our school has raised their fees by 5%.
As a noun: There was a rise of %5 in school fees.
to increase (v)
Birth rates in New Zealand stood at 20,000 at the start of this
period and increased to a peak of 66,000 in 1961.
You can use increase from (a number) to (a number);
increase by ( number/percentage), increase in value/price.
Note: Dont use increase to refer to the level or standard of
something.
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something.
As a noun: There was an increase in house prices for the first
5 years.
to grow (v)
The population of internet users grew the fastest in Canada
during this period.
As a noun: Canada experienced the fastest growth in Internet
usage.
to soar (v) to fly upward, like a bird; rise to great heights
While sales of Product B remained steady, sales of Product
A soared during the fourth quarter.
to rocket/to skyrocket (v) similar to soar to fly upward to great
heights
By 2030 the elderly Japanese population is predicted to
skyrocket 150% within one or two years. OR By 2030 the
proportion of elderly Japanese is predicted to skyrocket
to 25%of the population within one or two years.
to spike (v) to increase quickly then fall down again
On the other hand, house prices spiked in the first two months
after the recession.
As a noun: There was a spike in house prices in the first two
months after the recession.
to jump (v)
New gym memberships jumped 10% immediately after the
Christmas holiday period.
As a noun: There was a 10% jump in new gym memberships
immediately after the Christmas holiday period.
to hit/reach a peak (v) a peak is the highest point/level
From there, the audience level continues to rise
sharply, reaching a peak of 45% of the population between 6
and 10 pm, also aptly known as prime time.
to reach a high (v) similar to reach a peak
Conversely, audience levels for radio reaches a high in the
morning by 9 am.
an upward trend (n)
The graph shows an upward trend in household access to
modern technology in the UK from 1996 to 2003.
to double (v) increase 2 times
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to triple (v) increase 3 times
House prices nearly doubled in that time period.

Similar words meaning to lessen, diminish, go down:

to decrease (v)
From that point, marriages decreased steadily until 1970
hitting a low of about 250,000.
As a noun: From that point, there was a steady decease
in marriages until 1970 when it hit a low of about 250,000.
to decline (v)
Although Australian exports increased slightly in the first year to
its peak in 1986, it gradually declined to about 11 million
tonnes in 1990, remaining the smallest of the three exporters.
As a noun: Although there was an increase in Australian
exports in the first year with a peak in 1986, there was a
gradual decline by 1990 and remained the smallest of the
three exporters.
to drop (v)
From 10 pm, audience levels drop dramatically to nearly 1%
by 2 am.
As a noun: From 10 pm there is a dramatic drop in audience
levels to nearly 1% by 2 am.
to dip/ to take a dip (v) to decrease but goes up again
Between the 2nd and 3rd quarter, sales of Product D took a
dip of 10%, but later regained growth by the 4th quarter.
As a noun: There was a 10% dip in Product D sales between
the 2nd and 3rd quarter followed by growth by the 4th quarter.
to fall (v)
From 10pm, audience levels fall sharply to nearly 1% by 2
am.
As a noun: From 10 pm there is a sharp fall in audience
levels to nearly 1% by 2 am.
to plunge (v); to plummet (v) to fall quickly
to hit bottom (v); to reach a low (an all-time low) (v)
a downward trend (n)
Overall, we can see a downward trend in marriages between
1951 and 2003.
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Similar words/expressions that mean to stay the same:

to stabilize (v) - to hold at a steady level
After a 10-year period of fluctuations, the total
value stabilized at roughly 30% until 2005.
to remain/hold steady (v) ; to remain stable (v); to remain/stay
constant (v) ; to remain/stay the same (v)
By contrast, the figures for Japan remained steady just under
5% until the early 2000s.
Remarriages, on the other hand enjoyed a slight increase from
1971, but overall remained stable throughout the century,
reaching around 100,000 by 2003.
to remain flat (v) - show no growth or little change
to level off (v) after a period of change or shift, there is little
movement and stays level
to plateau/to reach a plateau (v) to reach a stable level
to bottom out (v) to descend to the lowest point possible, after
which only a rise can occur
Exports continued to grow until it plateaued in 2002 for 5
years, after which it fell and then bottomed out by 2009.

Other useful vocabulary:

to fluctuate (v) to change continually shifting up and down
Student enrollment fluctuated wildly, but the trend was clearly
upward.
As a noun: There were wild fluctuations in student
enrollment, but the trend was clearly upward.
to surpass (v) to pass another and go beyond in amount, level or
degree
Although mobile phones started with the lowest accessibility in
1996, it surpassed the usage of home computers at the
beginning of 1999.
to exceed (v) to go beyond in quantity, amount or degree
In terms of following their budgets, Project X came in under
their budget by 5K, whereas Project Y exceeded their
budget by 25K.
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About Pearl
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Posted in IELTS Writing, Vocabulary, Writing Task 1 Tagged with: IELTS Writing,
Vocabulary, Writing Task 1
11 comments on Useful vocabulary to use in IELTS Task 1
essays
evelyne phang says:
May 21, 2013 at 1:56 pm
thank you so much for sending me this ! Is really useful !
Reply
Pearl says:
May 21, 2013 at 4:18 pm
Im glad its helpful. If you have specific questions, let me know
and I may write a post about it!
Cheers,
Pearl
Reply
maria says:
April 2, 2014 at 12:28 am
oh the vocabularies are great to know..how can an essay format
be? how many paragraphs shall it be?
Reply
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9/6/2014 Useful vocabulary to use in IELTS Task 1 essays | Your IELTS Tutor
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Pearl says:
April 21, 2014 at 4:39 pm
Hi Maria,
Hopefully you have read through some of my other posts. For
format and paragraphs for Task 1 read here:
http://yourieltstutor.com/essay-organization-for-the-ielts-task-1-
essay/
Hope that helps. Good luck with your studies!
Pearl
Reply
monikha says:
June 22, 2014 at 11:50 pm
Hi Pearl
Thank you so much for your posts. They are very helpful. Im having
problems in reading. I manage to get a 7.5 , which Im not satisfied
with. I make mistakes usually in the task assigning headings or what
the paragraph is about ( with options). I end up giving the wrong
labels due to subtle difference in the meanings. How do I work on
this and get an 8 ? Otherwise I get an 8.5 in listening and I believe
my speaking is good. I practice at home.
Reply
Pearl says:
June 23, 2014 at 11:59 pm
Hi Monikha,
Thanks for your comment. Im glad you find them helpful. As for
your question, I think youre on your way to working this out. At
least youve identified where you are making your mistakes in
the specific type of question. I would then go through all your
practice tests and find out where youve made that mistake and
more importantly why. How are the meanings of the two
choices you are faced with different? What exactly is the subtle
difference between those answer choices? Did you choose just
a detail for a paragraph, rather than a main idea of the
paragraph? If you can find a pattern in your mistakes, that can
lead you to correcting it.
A more general strategy is to just read more English materials
blogs, newspapers, magazine articles. You broaden your
recognition and understanding of vocabulary and how it is used
in different contexts. You also become more familiar with more
topics as explained in English, which can help you in the
reading tests as you can sometimes connect your background
knowledge to the reading passage in the exam.
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knowledge to the reading passage in the exam.
Its hard for me to pinpoint what it is exactly, but I hope that
helps somewhat.Good luck in your studies!
Cheers, Pearl
Reply
monikha says:
June 24, 2014 at 1:40 pm
Hi Pearl
Thank you for your tips. Yes, as you said in the previous
post, I tend to look at some detail and not the main idea.
So, when the same detail is giving in two paragraphs, I
make the labeling based on the detail and miss out on a
main idea they are talking about.
Reply
Leonte Dan says:
July 2, 2014 at 3:53 am
Is it correct to say : They remained stable at 15 percent ? I mean,
the preposition
,,at ,,is used correctly or there should be another preposition
instead?
Reply
Pearl says:
July 2, 2014 at 9:31 am
Hi Leonte,
Yes, its correct. at 15%.
Reply
sunny says:
July 18, 2014 at 5:26 am
writing task 1 bar chart, pie chart , line graph ,table ,diagram
vocabalary
Reply
Leonte Dan says:
July 15, 2014 at 7:55 am
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Thankyou very much, Mr. Pearl.
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