IELTS Writing - building complex sentences

Our Facebook page recently offered some interesting facts about Vietnam, and there was a quiz...

Here are the answers:

1) At 331,210km, Vietnam is almost twice as big as Cambodia
b) it is around half the size of Myanmar (Burma).

2) French and Chinese are spoken in Vietnam,
a) English is becoming a popular second language too.

3) There are about 87 million people who speak Vietnamese today: 84 million of them live in Vietnam
f) the others are located in different places around the world.

4) International music is well-known in Vietnam.
d) Vietnamese pop (known as “V-pop”) is also very popular in the country.

5)The Red River Delta in Vietnam has a smaller geographical area than the Mekong Delta,
e) it has a larger population.

6) Vietnam’s national economy expanded by 5% in 2012.
c) its GDP grew to just under $1600 per person.

There are a few simple but effective rules in IELTS writing. Here is one of them:

If you write more complex sentences, you could increase your score.

However, this comes with a warning:

If you write more complex sentences, you could increase your English mistakes.

The “Grammar” category of the IELTS Writing score sheet requires that a high-level student

• uses a variety of complex structures

and
• produces frequent error-free sentences

In this blog, we’ll slowly learn how to build complex structure sentences. We’ll also begin to look at how to avoid errors, logically organise information and write in different tenses. These are all on the IELTS examiner’s score sheet when (s)he sits down and corrects your exam.

There are many, many ways to build a complex sentence, but there are 2 basic methods:

1. Use a long subject and/or a long object.

Any simple English sentence is made up of 3 parts:

1. subject	2. verb	3. object
I	like	ice-cream.
Barack Obama	watched	“Titanic”.
We	have seen	the movie.
Vietnamese people	speak	Vietnamese.

We can make the subject or the object longer by using a defining relative clause.

A defining relative clause uses the word which, who, where or whose to give information which defines a person, thing or place.

For example, we know Barack Obama is the president of the United States of America. We also know that Titanic stars Leonardo di Caprio. So we could change sentence 2:

1. subject	2. verb	3. object
The man who is president of the United States of America	watched	a movie which stars Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet.

This is a strange sentence in English, but the grammar is quite good – and it shows you how we can make a very long sentence. Here is another example:

1. subject	2. verb	3. object
Males and females who were born in Vietnam	speak	a language which is many hundreds of years old.

You may find it difficult to produce sentences with long subjects and objects. If you practice it, you will succeed! Anyway, in IELTS Reading and Listening, you are tested on your ability to understand long sentences just like these.
Let’s now look at 2 more ways to build long sentences in English...

2. Use linkers to connect 2 simple sentences.

In the Facebook quiz, we made 6 pairs of sentences. The two sentences were related, for example...

1) At 331,210km2, Vietnam is almost twice as big as Cambodia
b) it is around half the size of Myanmar (Burma).

Sentences 1) and b) are related because they both talk about the size of Vietnam.
They also disagree with each other in a way. The first sentence tells you that Vietnam is bigger than Cambodia, but the second sentence tells you that Vietnam is smaller than Myanmar. Here is another example of two sentences which disagree with each other:

The weather during the day is hot.The weather at night is cold.

A long sentence which contains two simple sentences is called a compound sentence.
We can connect these two sentences, making them one compound sentence, with one word:

The weather during the day is hot 

but 

the weather at night is cold.

The word “but” has two purposes: 1) it connects the two sentences, and 2) it tells you that the first sentence disagrees with the second sentence.
It’s essential to remember that “but” is written between the 2 simple sentences. If you’re an IELTS student, you should never write “but” at the start of a sentence.
There are other words which do this, and which go in the middle of two simple sentences:

sentence 1	linker	sentence 2
The weather during the day is hot	but	the weather at night is cold.
International music is well-known in Vietnam	while	V-pop is also very popular in the country.
Vietnam is almost twice as big as Cambodia	whereas	it is around half the size of Myanmar (Burma).

There are words which do the same 2 jobs (they connect 2 sentences, and they tell you that the first sentence disagrees with the second sentence) but these words are written before the two sentences.

linker	sentence 1	sentence 2
Though	the weather is hot during the day,	it [the weather] is cold at night.
Although	international music is well-known in Vietnam,	V-pop is also very popular in the country.
Even though	Vietnam is almost twice as big as Cambodia,	it is around half the size of Myanmar (Burma).

Many students ask about the word “however”. This does have the same meaning as “but”. It’s different because it can’t be used in a compound sentence like this. It should appear at the start of sentence 2.

sentence 1	sentence 2
The weather during the day is hot.	However, the weather at night is cold.

Some students also ask about “despite” or “in spite of”. This has the same meaning as “but”, and it appears with a noun before a simple sentence:

sentence 1

Despite the rain, London is a wonderful city. In spite of the late taxi, we arrived at the airport on time.

2b. Connect sentences which agree with each other

Let’s look at two more answers to our Vietnam-themed Facebook quiz:

2) French and Chinese are spoken in Vietnam,
a) English is becoming a popular second language too.

3) There are about 87 million people who speak Vietnamese today: 84 million of them live in Vietnam
f) the others are located in different places around the world.

Sentences 2) and a) are related because they both talk about the size of Vietnam. They also agree with each other. The second sentence “helps” the first sentence by giving extra information and by not contradicting it. The same relationship exists between Sentences 3) and f), and these two sentences:

IELTS is a difficult exam. 

IELTS causes stress.

If we used “but” to connect 2 sentences which disagree with each other, what word could we use to connect 2 sentences which agree with each other?

The answer shouldn’t be difficult: and.

IELTS is a difficult exam

and 

IELTS causes stress.

Like “but”, you should never use “and” at the start of a sentence. 

sentence 1	linker	sentence 2
IELTS is a difficult exam	and	it causes stress.

Other words have the same meaning as “and”. These words are great in an IELTS writing exam, but they must go at the start of a second simple sentence (like “however”)

sentence 1	sentence 2
IELTS is a difficult exam.	Moreover, it causes stress.
84 million Vietnamese speakers live in Vietnam.	Also, others are located in different places around the world.
French and Chinese are spoken in Vietnam.	Additionally, English is becoming a popular second language.

“Too” is a popular synonym for “and”, having the same meaning. It can be used at the end of a second simple sentence. (e.g. “French is spoken in Vietnam. English is becoming popular too.”)
If you use “too” a lot in an IELTS exam, the examiner will probably think that you are an intermediate-level student; he or she is more likely to give you a score between 4.5 and 6.

And finally...

The English language is very complicated. There are many ways to make a compound sentence: these are three popular and effective ways. You should study real-English texts (the news, for example, or literature) and analyse each sentence to see how it is made up.

Now that you know three ways to make a complex sentence, here are some activities to try:

ACTIVITY 1

Match the nouns to their definitions:

NOUN		DEFINITION
1)	The USA	a)	The president of Russia
2)	Vladamir Putin	b)	The language which is spoken all over the world
3)	The iPhone 5s	c)	The country which is south of Canada
4)	English	d)	Apple’s most recent product

Next, re-write these complex sentences using defining relative clauses.

SIMPLE SENTENCE	COMPLEX SENTENCE
0) Vietnamese people speak Vietnamese	Males and females who were born in Vietnam speak a language which is many hundreds of years old.
1) The USA sent soldiers to Afghanistan.
2) Vladamir Putin enjoys reading Russian literature.
3) The iPhone 5s is popular in Asia.
4) English allows you to communicate worldwide.

ACTIVITY 2

Write 6 simple sentences which describe good things about your country. (e.g. “The food in Italy is great.”) Connect them using linkers.

Write 6 simple sentences which describe negative things about your country. (e.g. “Many Irish people drink too much.”) Connect them with any sentence from the first group using linkers.

ACTIVITY 3 NEW!

You can use this exercise to:

a) practice using complex sentences, and

b) practice interpreting information (like in IELTS Writing Task 1)

Yang Liu, who is a talented artist, was born in China but grew up in Germany. Using images, she contrasts the differences between the two cultures. Here is one of her beautiful infographs, showing German culture (in blue) and Chinese culture (in red):

The message of this picture is:

German people are independent,
but
Chinese people tend to depend on each other.

We can try to express this in a more complex way with a word like “whereas”, “however”, etc. (see section 2. above):

Whereas German people are independent,
Chinese people tend to depend on each other.

OR

German people are independent.
However, Chinese people tend to depend on each other.

To practice the language from section 2. , have fun playing around with these infographs!

IELTS Writing - Task One - charts & graphs

On our Facebook page yesterday, we featured a grammar-and-vocabulary quiz based on a map. If you haven’t taken the quiz, start today’s blog by clicking on the post here:

In this blog, we’ll use these 7 sentences to study an important part of IELTS Writing Task 1: describing graphs and charts. We’ll try to understand the correct and incorrect answers to this quiz, and then learn how we can use sentences like these to achieve a high mark in IELTS.

Firstly, however, let’s quickly look at the answers:

1) The map shows how many countries in the world have McDonald’s.

2) In central Africa there are no McDonald’s restaurants.

3) Norway is the country with the most expensive McDonald’s.

4) There are more McDonald’s outlets in Germany than there are in the UK.

5) McDonald’s is far less  popular in China than it is in Canada,

6) The price of McDonald’s fluctuates among the countries in Europe...

7) ...but the price rises when you look at European countries which are outside the Eurozone.

Graphs And Charts In IELTS
Roughly 80% of exams in IELTS Writing Task 1 display a graph or chart, and a brief explanation of the chart. This means that studying this kind of exam is well worth it – you are very likely to have to discuss a graph or chart when you do your IELTS exam.
As we’ve said before, a great IELTS score requires great vocabulary and severalother aspects. There are also some methods and key words which will help you get the best possible mark in IELTS Writing Task 1.
We will use the examples from the McDonald’s map to illustrate these methods. Let’s take a look.

Grammar and IELTS

1) The map shows how many countries in the world have McDonald’s.

GRAMMAR ADVICE: Technically, it would be ok to use the word “most” – although it’s true and grammatically correct to use the word “most”, it’s far too informal for a high IELTS score.
It’s untrue to use the word “all”. Although the grammar is ok, it’s simply not correct – many African countries and other countries around the world are coloured blue, meaning that no McDonald’s restaurants exist there.
So, the correct sentence is: “The map shows how many countries in the world have McDonald’s.”

IELTS ADVICE: The first sentence of your Task One essay should paraphrase the description which is given in the exam. If you look at these samples of Task One graphs (SAMPLE 1, SAMPLE 2 ) you’ll see that each contains some text, usually in a box, which describes the graph.
“To paraphrase” means “to repeat a message with different words”. Here are two sample paraphrases:

“The chart below shows the number of men and women in further education in Britain in three periods and whether they were studying full-time or part-time.”

PARAPHRASED:  “The chart displays information on how many males and females studied in third-level education in the UK during three periods of time. It also shows the difference between full-time and part-time courses which they took.”

“The bar chart below gives information about the percentage of the population living in urban areas in the world and in different continents.”

PARAPHRASED: “The chart illustrates the percentage of people who live in cities worldwide, according to various continents.”

2) In central Africa there are no McDonald’s restaurants.

3) Norway is the country with the most expensive McDonald’s.

GRAMMAR ADVICE: In sentence 2), we must choose the correct grammar. It’s absolutely incorrect to say “In Central Africa, can see no McDonald’s”: no English speaker will understand this. (You could say, “we can see no McDonald’s”. This is not very good English, but it can be understood)
We say “there is / there are” to describe what exists. In this sentence, “there are” is correct because of the plural noun “restaurants”. Many English speakers use “there is” in this sentence. It’s technically not correct English, however.

In sentence 3), we must also use the correct grammar. Here, we use the word “most” to show that Norway’s McDonald’s restaurants are more expensive than any other country in the world. “All expensive McDonald’s” is completely incorrect English.

IELTS ADVICE: You may see in the sample tests that all graph-related tasks ask you to

“Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features."

You don’t need to describe some parts of the graph, and you shouldn’t waste your time by describing them. The colour of different bars; the minimum and maximum numbers or the gaps in between them – these are examples of unnecessary information. The information which you should describe is what the chart tells you. This can usually be expressed in a simple sentence:

SAMPLE 1
Urban population in 1950 is coloured orange.

In 2007, 49% of the world’s population lived in urban areas.

SAMPLE 2
A dotted line separates men and women in further education.
Around 900,000 men were in part-time further education in 1990/91.

MCDONALD'S MAP
In central Africa there are no McDonald’s restaurants.
Norway is the country with the most expensive McDonald’s.

These sentences are fine for an IELTS score of 6.0-7.0. However, to achieve a higher score (7.5 and above), we should use compound sentences. These are complex sentences which contain more than one piece of information.

In central Africa, between South Africa and the border of Egypt to the north, there are no McDonald’s restaurants.

Norway, where a Big Mac costs €7.18, is the country with the most expensive McDonald’s.

4) There are more McDonald’s outlets in Germany than there are in the UK.

5) McDonald’s is far less  popular in China than it is in Canada,

GRAMMAR ADVICE: Both of these sentences use comparatives; the correct sentences are both true and have the correct grammar.
In sentence 4), we need to describe the difference in the number of restaurants in Germany (1,276) compared to the number of restaurants in the UK (1,250). To do this we use the word “more”.
But the choice between “fewer” and “less” is very difficult. Both words are the opposite of “more”. So what’s the difference? Well, it’s small but important: “fewer” is used to compare countable nouns...

In this classroom are fewer men than women.

 Ireland has fewer football clubs than the UK has.

...and “less” is used to compare uncountable nouns or adjectives...

There is less space in your hotel room than there is in mine.

It is less cold in Saudi Arabia than it is in Ireland.

This helps us to choose the correct answer in sentence 5): “far less”. So why do we use the word “far” here? Well, it’s the exact same as “much” or “a lot”. It means there’s a big difference between McDonald’s popularity in China (only 660 restaurants) and its popularity in Canada (1,400 restaurants).
Of course, we can’t use the word “far” (or “much” or “a lot”) in sentence 4), because there’s a small difference between the restaurants in the UK and Germany.

IELTS ADVICE: All graph-related Task One exams require you to “compare and contrast the information where possible”. So there are two important skills which will help you get a high mark in this task: a) finding the information to compare/contrast, and b) using correct and, where possible, advanced language to describe the differences.

6) The price of McDonald’s fluctuates among the countries in Europe...

7) ...but the price rises when you look at European countries which are outside the Eurozone.

GRAMMAR ADVICE: In sentences 6) and 7), which contain advanced English, we have to choose between the same three words. Each word has a completely different meaning:

“To fluctuate” means to go up and down unpredictably. We only use this to describe graphs and abstract nouns. (we can’t use it to describe a boat in a storm, for example)

“To be constant” means to stay the same. Again, we only use it to describe abstract things. It’s often used, for example, to describe the weather.

“To rise” is an a synonym for “to go up”. We can use it to describe physical things (the sun) or abstract nouns (population).

IELTS ADVICE: Using words like “fluctuate”, “constant” and “rise” show that you can combine both of the requirements of Task One: describing and comparing. You’re using advanced language to describe how things change on the graph – and you will get higher marks if you use them correctly.
How do you use them correctly? This requires three skills:

a) Vocabulary: there are many more words besides these three. Other examples are “decrease”/“increase”, “fall”/“skyrocket”, “erratic” / “stable”. Learn the words!

b) Word formation: Each of the words above (except for “erratic” / “stable”) are verbs. Most of them can be transformed into nouns, adjectives and sometimes adverbs. Word formation – transforming verbs into nouns, nouns into adjectives, etc. – is a huge part of IELTS.

c) Use of English: When you learn a new verb, noun, adjective or adverb, it’s essential to use it correctly in a sentence. Many IELTS students lose marks because they can’t use them properly in a sentence. Examples are:

“PC sales are fall.” (It should be “PC sales are falling”)

“Population in Africa was increase after 1950.” (It should be “There was an increase in the population in Africa after 1950.” Or “The population in Africa increased after 1950.”)

“Males in part-time education fluctuated between 1970 and 1991.” (It should be “The number of males in part-time education fluctuated between 1970 and 1991.”

Practicing Your New Skills
Graphs and charts are everywhere, especially if you are studying or working in business. Even if you’re not a business-person, the media (especially the news) in any language is a great source of these diagrams.

ACTIVITY IDEA 1: 

Visit any media site, preferably in English, and find a graph or chart in the news or business section. Write 6-10 sentences to describe the graph/chart, as if you were explaining the information to someone who couldn’t see it.

ACTIVITY IDEA 2:

Test your new skills by answering a sample IELTS task with a full, 150-word essay.