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Look at this simple example below using a real life example.
Yesterday Fiona drank 4 cups of tea and Sam drank 2 cups of tea. (Band 5: accurate but mechanical)
How else can you paraphrase that information?
Band 5.5: (a simple comparison):
‘Fiona drank more tea than Sam’.
Band 6 (more specific)
‘Fiona drank considerably more tea than Sam.’
Band 7 (more complex)
‘Fiona drank twice as much tea as Sam’.
‘Fiona drank twice as many cups of tea as Sam’.
Look at the Band 7 examples above.
Firstly you need to decide if the noun is UNCOUNTABLE or COUNTABLE:
This is the main grammar decision you have to make.
Here are some other options with ‘twice as much’. What are the differences between them?
Look at the sentence below. Can you rewrite it using ‘double’ or ‘twofold‘?
‘The price of oil went from $2 a gallon in 2020 to $4 a gallon in 2022.’
Answers
1. The price of oil doubled between 2020 and 2022. (‘To double’ is a regular verb)
2. The price of oil in 2020 was double/twice that of 2022. (Use ‘double’ like an adjective)
3. The price of oil in 2020 was twofold/twice that of 2022. (Use ‘twofold’ like an adjective)
4. There was a twofold increase in the price of oil. (Use ‘twofold’ as an adjective before the noun)
You can add any number to the ‘____fold’ structure, so it’s really useful for IELTS Task 1 when you need to go further than ‘triple’ (x3) and ‘quadruple’ (x4) e.g.
It’s possible, but it’s better to use ‘3 times as much/many’.
It’s possible, but it’s better to say ‘The population doubled’.
You can say ‘The population increased threefold/fourfold’.
You can say ‘The population halved’.
When I was doing some research I found this advice.
I would correct the first example to:
As for ‘earn triply/quadruply’, I would NOT use these structures. It’s better to say:
… many IELTS Writing experts such as Pauline Cullen believe that the reason that many people don’t get Band 7 in the IELTS Test is NOT because of Task 2 but because of Task 1?
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Hi madam, thank you .how to use a normal proper sentence for bar graphs, pie charts.A sentence which can use for most of graphs,pie charts and table.Please help.
Hi Nisha
Thanks for your comment. What do you mean by a ‘normal proper sentence’? Any English sentence is a normal proper sentence, so for this you just need to improve your grammar and vocabulary. IELTS is just an English test. My advice on other aspects of completing a Task 1 is here IELTS Writing Task 1. Best wishes, Fiona.
Hi Fiona, you said “Fiona drank twice as much tea as Sam ” for band 7 , what about band 8 or 9 ? I’m ambitious,tnx beforehand.
Hi there and thanks for your message. Unfortunately there’s not an example for each Band, as Band scores depend on the Writing as a whole. So for Band 8 or 9, you’d need to show a variety of high-level language items. Great to see you’re aiming high.
Best wishes
Fiona
It’s quite stunning the way you teach grammar. I stumbled upon your website a couple of minutes ago, and I went through your advanced comparative tools, which are of paramount importance. Thanks for lifting our writing skills free of charge.
Hi Deepika – I’m really happy you found me, and thank you very much for your kind feedback. Let me know if you have any requests,
Best wishes
Fiona