There is something quite surprising: grammar is not tested directly in the IELTS test, but grammar is one of the conditions that determine your IELTS score, because grammar is present in almost all of the tests. Listening - Speaking - Reading - Writing skills of English. Here are seven important English grammar rules that English experts have screened to help you complete the IELTS test better.

1. Simple and Continuous Tenses

Simple tenses are often used to talk about general, routine or repetitive activities. 

Below is the Present Simple used to refer to a general or habitual action:

I often read business magazines online.

Why is this grammar rule useful in IELTS?

In IELTS Speaking Part 1, you will be asked to answer questions about yourself. Here, you will need to make sure that you use the correct verb tense and whether it is simple or continuous, depending on what you want to express. If you want to talk about general things that you do regularly, you will need to use the Present Simple Tense. On the other hand, if you want to emphasize actions that are temporary and happening around the moment of speaking, you will need the Present Continuous Tense.

You may also need this grammar rule in Writing Task 1 to describe trends shown in a graph. You will probably use the Past Simple Tense quite a lot because in this part you often have to describe situations that happened in the past. For example:

Between January and March, the profit rose by 10%

They produced twice the amount of cars in June.

Hungary accounted for 10% of the students involved in the competition.

2. Simple Past and Present Perfect

When using the Past Tense, we will see that these past actions have no connection with the present. They belong to the past, so we use the Simple Past to express them. For example:

I ate my breakfast with Tony and then we saw a movie.

However, if the action happened in the past but has some impact on the present or continues into the present, we need to use the Present Perfect. For example:

I haven’t eaten breakfast yet, I’m starving

Why do we need this grammar rule in the IELTS test?

In the IELTS Speaking test, you may have to talk about past events that are related to yourself or about other issues. Decide whether the actions/events are still relevant to the present or still have an impact on the present.

 

3. Passive Voice

The passive voice can be used whenever you want to sound more formal and personal. You create the passive voice by using the verb “to be” in the tense you want, then adding the past participle (the third form of the verb. For example, for the verb Write, you would use Written). For example:

Almost 50% more courses were chosen in the second semester as compared to the first one. 

(Almost 50% more courses were chosen in the second semester as compared to the first one.) The passive voice is used in this sentence, with the past tense of the verb “to be” and the past participle of the verb “choose”.

How are these tenses used in IELTS?

You can use the passive voice in both Writing Task 1 and Task 2, especially in reports that need a more formal tone. Now try to put the verbs in brackets in the passive form correctly. Here are some examples that you can use in your own real-life reports.

 As can be seen from the figures, the number of first year students decreased dramatically in the last five years.

4. Modal Verbs

Could, might and may are modal verbs and can be used to refer to actions that are possible but not certain to happen in the future, where might is less certain than may.

For example:

We could be late if we stop for drinks now.

I may want to spend my holiday in Europe, but everything depends on my partner.

Could have, might have and may have are used to express possible actions in the present or past - actions that you think have happened or will have finished. For example:

They could have left hours ago.

It’s almost midnight in Spain, the plane might have landed by now.

5. Definite Article

The article (the) is used to talk about people or things that the speaker already knows, that have been mentioned before, that are described in detail and that are special. For example:

The gift they brought was a bit inappropriate. We know what gift the speaker is talking about.

“The” can also be used with superlatives, ordinal numbers, countries whose names include the plural or include the words “republic” or “kingdom”. For example:

Why use the article “the” in IELTS?

In the IELTS Writing test, spend a few minutes at the end to check for grammatical errors. If you are still in doubt about whether you are using “the” correctly, try practicing in writing first and then applying it in speaking, as you will have more time to think about whether you should use it or not. To practice deciding whether to use “the” or not, practice with the following sentences:

6. Comparing Adjectives

You should use adjectives as often as possible to describe people or things because they provide a lot of vocabulary in the Speaking and Writing sections. You may need to compare them using comparative or superlative structures. Some rules to remember in this section are: Most one-syllable adjectives end in -er and -est to form comparative and superlative adjectives. For example:

• My plan is safer than yours.

• This is the safest plan of them all.