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Using Synonyms

How to use synonyms in IELTS

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9 views

Using Synonyms

How to use synonyms in IELTS

Uploaded by

luzhan100
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Using Synonyms

The reasons for increasing levels of pollution are the development of industry and air
travel.

The sentence above can be paraphrased as:

The causes of rising levels of pollution are the growth and expansion of industry as well
as the number of people travelling by air.

Here is a list of how the sentence was altered using synonyms.

• causes = reasons
◦ increasing = rising
◦ the development of = the growth and expansion of
◦ and = as well as
◦ air travel = travelling by air

Notice: you can see that the words "levels of pollution" and "industry" have not be
changed. This is fine. Not all words need to be changed. In fact, the word "pollution" is
best not changed.

Not all words need changing hai , over paraphrasing drops band. Specially if you
make mistakes. Kill all mistakes la . And range of vocabulary badaune.

Avoiding Mistakes

The more mistakes you make with vocabulary in IELTS writing and speaking, the lower
your score will be. Paraphrasing is a skill. Synonyms do not have exactly the same
meaning and cannot always be used at the same time.

Changing the Word Form

Another way to paraphrase sentences is to change the form of the word. This means we
use the same words as IELTS but change their form. This type of paraphrasing is really
focused at your writing skills because it means you don't need to look for a synonym for
a word, instead you can alter the word form.

Here is an example:
Many people are unhealthy because they fail to eat well and exercise.
This can be paraphrased by changing the word form of "unhealthy", "fail" and
"exercise".

Many people have poor health as they are failing to eat well and are not exercising
enough.
Let’s look at the word changes for this paraphrase:

1. Word forms
◦ unhealthy = poor health
⁃ fail = are failing
◦ exercise = are exercising

2. Linking word
• because = as

This is not low-level paraphrasing, in IELTS this is considered skillful paraphrasing and
it is actually a skill that you want to demonstrate. You need to show the examiner that
you can alter word forms as a sign of flexibility with language.

Changing Sentence Structure

Another way to paraphrase successfully is to change the order to words in a sentence.


This means changing the structure of the sentence. Taking the example from above
again:

Many people are unhealthy because they fail to eat well and exercise.

You can see above there are two clauses:


◦ Many people are unhealthy
◦ because they fail to eat well and exercise

We can change the order of the clauses:

Many people fail to eat well and exercise and for that reason they are unhealthy.

The clauses are now in a different order:


⁃ people fail to eat well and exercise
⁃ they are unhealthy

Let's change this even more:

Failing to eat well and not exercising are the reasons that many people have poor
health.

This is the best way to tackle paraphrasing in IELTS essays. The examiner will look for
sentences that start with a gerund - a verb converted to a noun using +ing which makes
the noun always singular.

If we use this approach and also add synonyms - it will look like this:
Failing to have a balanced diet and not getting enough physical exercise are the
reasons behind the large number of people facing a range of health problems in society
today.

Now we are approaching band 9 paraphrasing skills for IELTS writing task 2. Even a
band 9 can keep some words the same -
exercise = exercise.

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