IELTS Academic Language Foundations Flashcards

24 sample cards from the Language Foundations deck

Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.

1. What is the general rule of 'backshift' in reported speech?

   When the reporting verb is past ('said', 'told'), tenses move one step back: present simple → past simple; present perfect and past simple → past perfect; will → would; can → could; may → might. 'I am tired' → 'She said (that) she was tired.'

2. How do time and place expressions change in reported speech?

   now → then; today → that day; yesterday → the day before / the previous day; tomorrow → the next/following day; ago → before; here → there; this → that. 'I saw it yesterday' → 'He said he had seen it the day before.'

3. How are questions converted to reported speech?

   Use statement word order (no inversion, no auxiliary 'do', no question mark). Yes/no questions use 'if/whether': 'Do you agree?' → 'She asked whether I agreed.' Wh-questions keep the wh-word: 'Where do you live?' → 'He asked where I lived.'

4. How are commands and requests reported?

   With 'tell/ask/order/advise + object + (not) to + infinitive': 'Sit down' → 'The teacher told us to sit down'; 'Please don't be late' → 'She asked me not to be late.'

5. What is the Academic Word List (AWL) and how is it organized?

   A list of 570 word families compiled by Averil Coxhead (2000) that occur frequently across academic texts, excluding the 2,000 most common general words. It is divided into 10 sublists by frequency, Sublist 1 being the most frequent (e.g., analyse, approach, area, assess, concept, data).

6. Give the full word family of the AWL item 'analyse' and 'benefit'.

   Analyse (v), analysis (n, plural analyses), analyst (n, person), analytical/analytic (adj), analytically (adv). Benefit (n/v), beneficial (adj), beneficiary (n, person), beneficially (adv); collocation: 'benefit FROM something'.

7. Which common academic verbs from the AWL replace informal verbs like 'get', 'show', and 'help'?

   get → obtain/acquire; show → demonstrate/illustrate/indicate; help → facilitate/assist; make worse → exacerbate; make up → constitute/comprise; look into → investigate/examine. Using such AWL verbs raises the Lexical Resource band.

8. What is a collocation, and why does it matter for the IELTS Lexical Resource score?

   A collocation is a conventional word partnership — words that naturally occur together ('heavy rain', not 'strong rain'; 'make a decision', not 'do a decision'). Band 7+ Lexical Resource requires awareness of collocation and natural, precise word combinations.

9. Which verbs collocate with 'research', 'attention', 'a role', and 'a problem'?

   conduct / carry out / undertake research; pay / attract / draw attention; play a role (in); pose / tackle / address / solve / alleviate a problem. Common errors: 'make research', 'play attention', 'make a role'.

10. Give strong adjective + noun collocations for describing size and change in academic writing.

    a significant/substantial/dramatic increase; a slight/marginal/modest decline; a sharp/steep rise or fall; a growing/pressing concern; far-reaching consequences; a considerable amount; a wide range of options.

11. Name five key environment-topic vocabulary items with meanings.

    Emissions = gases released into the air; renewable energy = power from non-depleting sources (solar, wind); sustainability = meeting needs without harming future generations; deforestation = clearing of forests; carbon footprint = total greenhouse gases caused by a person or activity; biodiversity = variety of species.

12. Name five key education-topic vocabulary items with meanings.

    Curriculum = the subjects/content of a course of study; compulsory education = schooling required by law; tuition fees = money paid for teaching; vocational training = job-skill-focused education; literacy = ability to read and write; distance learning = studying remotely, often online.

13. Name five key health-topic vocabulary items with meanings.

    Sedentary lifestyle = one with little physical activity; obesity = the state of being dangerously overweight; preventive (preventative) care = healthcare aimed at stopping illness before it starts; life expectancy = average years a person is expected to live; chronic disease = a long-lasting condition (e.g., diabetes); epidemic = rapid spread of disease.

14. What are the four main paraphrasing techniques for IELTS?

    1) Synonyms ('important' → 'crucial'); 2) changing word form ('decide' → 'make a decision'; 'globally' → 'across the globe'); 3) changing voice (active ↔ passive: 'People consume more' → 'More is consumed'); 4) restructuring the sentence (changing clause order or using a different grammatical pattern). Meaning must stay identical.

15. Give formal academic synonyms for: important, big, show, many, and 'people'.

    important → crucial, vital, significant, essential; big → considerable, substantial, significant; show → demonstrate, indicate, reveal, illustrate; many → numerous, a great number of, a multitude of; people → individuals, citizens, residents, the population.

16. Why is paraphrasing essential in IELTS Writing, and where must it be used?

    Copying the question prompt verbatim earns no credit and lowers Task Response/Lexical Resource; the Task 2 introduction must restate the question in your own words, and Task 1 must paraphrase the graph description. Paraphrasing also demonstrates lexical range across the whole essay.

17. State the doubling (CVC) rule for adding -ing/-ed and the 'y' rule for adding suffixes.

    Double the final consonant of a stressed syllable ending consonant-vowel-consonant: stop → stopped, begin → beginning (but visit → visited, unstressed). Change final 'y' to 'i' before suffixes when 'y' follows a consonant: study → studied, happy → happiness — but keep 'y' before -ing: studying.

18. What are the rules for dropping silent 'e' and for 'i before e'?

    Drop silent final 'e' before a vowel suffix (make → making, use → usable) but keep it before a consonant suffix (hope → hopeful); exceptions keep 'e' after soft c/g (noticeable, manageable). 'I before e except after c' when the sound is /iː/: believe, achieve, but receive, ceiling; exceptions: seize, weird.

19. How do nouns form plurals when ending in -y, -f/-fe, -o, and sibilants (-s, -x, -ch, -sh)?

    Consonant + y → -ies (city → cities); vowel + y → -s (days). Many -f/-fe → -ves (leaf → leaves, life → lives; exceptions: roofs, beliefs). Sibilant endings add -es (boxes, watches). Many -o words add -es (tomatoes, potatoes; but photos, pianos).

20. List the five main British vs American spelling pattern differences with examples.

    1) -our vs -or: colour/color, behaviour/behavior; 2) -re vs -er: centre/center, metre/meter; 3) -ise vs -ize: organise/organize, analyse/analyze; 4) doubled 'l' in BrE: travelled/traveled, cancelled/canceled; 5) -ogue vs -og and -ence/-ense: catalogue/catalog, defence/defense, licence (n., BrE)/license.

21. Does IELTS accept both British and American spelling?

    Yes — both are accepted, but you must be CONSISTENT within one piece of writing: do not mix 'colour' with 'organize' style choices randomly. Mixing systems or misspelling in either system counts against Lexical Resource accuracy.

22. What is a comma splice and how do you fix it?

    A comma splice joins two independent clauses with only a comma: 'The city grew, pollution increased.' Fix it by (a) using a full stop, (b) a semicolon, (c) a coordinating conjunction ('...grew, and pollution...'), or (d) a subordinator ('As the city grew, pollution increased'). It is a frequent Grammatical Range and Accuracy penalty.

23. What are the rules for using a semicolon and a colon in academic writing?

    Semicolon: joins two closely related independent clauses without a conjunction ('Demand rose; prices followed') and separates complex list items. Colon: introduces a list, explanation, or elaboration after a complete clause ('Three factors matter: cost, time, and quality'). A colon must follow a full independent clause.

24. What are the two apostrophe functions, and how do its/it's differ?

    Apostrophes mark possession (the student's book; plural: the students' books; irregular plural: children's) and contraction (don't, it's = it is/has). 'Its' (no apostrophe) is the possessive of 'it': 'The city expanded its borders.' Contractions should generally be avoided in formal IELTS writing.

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