IELTS Energy 1499: Vocabulary That is Gonna Boost Your IELTS Score
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This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1499, vocabulary that is going to boost your IELTS scores. Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English, downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner-trained IELTS whiz Aubrey Carter and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.

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In today's episode, get one strategic way that you can instantly increase your IELTS speaking score. Plus, find out if you can use this same strategy on IELTS writing or not. Listen in today.

If you're a natural introvert, speaking out in a conversation in English can be stressful. Maybe at work, you're unsure if people will understand you or you're worried they'll ask you to repeat. So you stay quiet. Let's finally get over this challenge in 2025.

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Hello, Aubrey. How are you today? I'm great, Lindsay. How are you? Good. Aubrey, I have a question for you. You ready? All right. Yes. So do you say the word "gonna" a lot? Yes, I do. "Gonna," "wanna," "sorta," all of these were combining two words. I've especially noticed it as you guys probably know we are also over on Allers English and in the transcripts, I'll see "gonna" and "wanna" a lot.

And it's more noticeable when you see it written because as we're speaking, we hardly notice. Of course, I'm the same way, Aubrey. I use it all the time. This is just a natural way of speaking, right? Yeah, we got a great question about this that I'm excited to dive into because you need to know if you can use words like this on speaking and writing.

Yes, but first we want to give our listeners a super important update, especially if they missed episode 1498. So guys, an important announcement, especially if you missed that episode on Friday, Jessica has moved on to other opportunities. So check out episode 1498 if you missed it to get more details.

Yes, Lindsay will be taking over as co-host on the show and you'll even hear Michelle's voice sometimes. Yes, as well as guest episodes. It's going to be great. So guys, I was the co-host of IELTS Energy originally up until episode 780. So I'm not new to IELTS and I'm definitely not new to podcasting if you listen to All Ears English or Business English.

We've been doing this for 12 years. So I'm super excited to be here on IELTS Energy and bring up the energy level on the show and focus here on IELTS and learn. All right, let's do it. Love it. We've got a great question here. I'll go ahead and read it.

Hey, I want to ask on IELTS speaking test, can we use words that you use when speaking? For instance, gonna instead of going to. I live in a country that doesn't teach those words, but I learned them on YouTube. So I started wondering. I hope you guys can help. Thank you so much.

Fantastic question. Yeah, interesting that Phuong said that in her in his or her country, they don't teach those words, right? They don't teach the words like that. They teach going to, right? Exactly. And textbooks don't teach them, right? This is how native English speakers actually talk all the time. All of us. This is very common. When we're speaking, we're saving time. We're saying the sounds that it's more easy for our mouths to make. So this is super common in speech. And yes, you

absolutely can say gonna on the speaking exam and maybe even should because this is going to help get you that variety of vocabulary. It's slang, which is great, especially for speaking part one. But only on the speaking exam, right, Aubrey? So we need to keep that in mind. Is that right? Only on the speaking exam? Yes, listen to the end because we're going to share why this is a common student mistake. You should never write these in your IELTS writing essays. Okay.

All right. So we have some examples, some sample question answers here, Aubrey. Exactly right. We're going to do a part one, a part two and part three. We'll share a question you might get on test day with an answer that might use gonna, wanna, because all of these you can use gonna, wanna, oughta, sorta, lotta, gotta, kinda. There's so many words, two or three words squished together and we say them as one word.

All right, Aubrey, I'll ask you the first speaking part one question. Are you ready? Yes. Perfect. Okay. So do you prefer to spend time with one close friend or many friends?

I'm going to be honest here. I really don't like crowds. So without a doubt, I would absolutely rather hang out with one friend. I'll go to a party or a get together with bigger groups every now and then, but I'm always more comfortable chatting over a coffee with one person I know well.

That was a fantastic answer. The energy and the way you punched absolutely with the intonation for your pronunciation score. And I heard I'm gonna be honest here. So, right? Yes, right. High vocabulary scores as well as pronunciation. So you absolutely can say gonna. It's a great filler phrase, actually, to be like, I'm gonna be honest or I'm gonna be honest.

I'm going to say I'm surprised about that question, right? There are so many fillers where you might use one of these, gonna, wanna. Yeah, fillers that will increase your vocabulary score and to open it up so it gives you time to think about your answer. This is what I love about that strategy.

Right, Aubrey? Absolutely, right? Let's have you do the same thing for a part two. Use a fun filler here. Describe a book you read recently. Don't give us a full two-minute answer, but how could you start that answer? Okay. This is going to surprise you, but I haven't finished a book in ages. I start them and I read a few pages and then something comes up and I never finish them. However, I did pick up a book recently that I'm super excited about.

called A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. There you go. And you had a book even. Nice. So yeah, this is a great way to start a question like this. And this could happen to you. You're asked a question. Maybe you haven't read a book in a while. You're studying for IELTS. Maybe you're not reading a novel. You should be to get that vocabulary right. But this could happen. And you might need a few seconds to think

of a title of a book that you've read recently. Luckily, you have a minute to prep your part two answer, but this is still a great way to start it. A very native, natural way to say, I'm going to be honest here. I haven't read a book in ages. Yeah, I love that. This is going to surprise you. This is going to surprise you. And I love that. It's putting personality into your answer. It's buying you time to think. It's doing a lot of things that's increasing parts of your score. And again, totally fine to use gonna.

Okay. Absolutely. What about part three? I mean, part three, Aubrey, is more about the societal issues. So do we think we can't use gonna hear? I don't know. What do we think? This is a common misconception, thinking that part three answers have to be all formal vocabulary. There will be more formal vocabulary because they are, like you said, issues that are affecting society at large. So there will be topic-specific vocabulary that is more formal. But you

are still going to end up using this more informal vocabulary that we use when we speak. So I'll answer a part three question here and use gonna, wanna, something like that. All right. Here's your speaking part three question. Is private health care better than public health care where you live?

I'm not going to lie. Without a doubt, those who can afford it in my country receive better care by far. As an illustration, when I gave birth to my daughter in New York City, I had the option to pay for a private room. Unfortunately, because I definitely couldn't afford it, I shared a room with another mother and both of our babies would cry intermittently throughout the night and wake everyone in the room up. Oh.

Oh, my goodness. This really happened. I remember it was a couple thousand dollars to have a private room and I couldn't afford that. Yeah, for sure. Great story. And you're bringing in the societal big questions of society. You're answering the question, but with a personal story. Interesting. Absolutely. That's what's interesting about part three. Yes, you have to answer the question. You're going to be thinking about society at large, but

often you'll the details and the examples you share will be from your personal experience. And good pronunciation when you said unfortunately because I definitely couldn't afford it. You're being very clear there. Very emphatic. Yes, you want to avoid a monotone, right? Emphasize those adjectives, adverbs, interesting details so that you get the variety of intonation you need for your pronunciation score.

So good. And again, you started by saying, I'm not gonna lie. Yeah, even on part three, right? We're still going to use these more informal speech markers. Yeah, so part three is a really interesting mix of you are naturally gonna use, like you said, Aubrey, that higher level vocab because it's gonna come up in your answer, but you're keeping it

somewhat casual and at the same time, it's a weird blend of the two, isn't it? Because we're still speaking, right? So it's still pretty informal speech, but notice the vocabulary difference. I said intermittently, would cry intermittently because I am trying, that's a band nine word instead of cry all the time or cry off and on. Yes. So we will, and then

also my linking phrase here to say as an illustration when I gave birth to my daughter, right? And in part one, part two, you might say for instance or for example and use a more informal linking phrase. Oh, super interesting. Good information to have here. Yeah.

Can you afford to take IELTS multiple times? Even if you can, you don't have to. On this podcast, we want you to get the scores you need on test day and be on to your future dreams. That's why we created our free IELTS band score quiz at allearsenglish.com slash myscore.

Find out for free what you'd likely get on the IELTS exam and get our free resources to increase your score. allearsenglish.com slash myscore. Okay, Aubrey, we are back from break. So what about writing? We've just learned that it is okay to say gonna, wanna, coulda, shoulda in speaking, but what about writing?

Yeah, the answer is no. You should never write this on any of your essays. And this is a very common student mistake on general task one, informal letters, because students know that they need to be more informal. So sometimes they will write exactly how they would speak, but the grammar and spelling still has to be correct. So these words, if you write them, will be considered mistakes. Hmm.

- Hmm, that is a stark difference from speaking. And we have to know this. This is why it's so important to learn about the test, learn about test strategies, learn about what the examiner's looking for. - Right, exactly. Because if this were a phone conversation with a friend, you'd say, "Wanna, gonna." But writing a letter, it has to be correct grammar, vocabulary, so you would have to write out, "Want to," "Have to," right? You do need that informal tone. So you need informal vocabulary, slang,

and less commonly or less formal linking phrases, for example, but you have to still spell everything correctly and write out these words. Yes. Okay. Where to, Aubrey, from here? What should we do at this point? We're going to go over an example task one letter. So we'll read for you the prompt and then we'll give you the paragraph that you could have for your first bullet point.

So I'll go ahead and read the prompt. Yes. It is your English speaking friend has asked for your help with a college project that he or she, um, I couldn't quite see it. He or she is doing about celebrating new year's Eve in different countries. Write a letter to your friend in your letter. Say how important new year's Eve is to people in your country. Describe how new year's Eve is celebrated in your country. Explain what you like about new year's Eve celebrations in your country. Hmm.

So you have these three bullet points for your task one essay. You have to fully respond to each one, at least two details per bullet point. We recommend organizing this with a separate paragraph per bullet point. Now, Lindsay, give us, instead of writing wanna and gonna, how could you get that informal tone for that first bullet point? Okay, so for the first, I'll just read what we have here.

you wouldn't believe how Americans get into New Year's Eve right so that is explaining there are tons of get-togethers okay so that's that part is explaining the first bullet point right Aubrey yes this whole paragraph this would be your first paragraph for your task one let me keep going then yeah we usually want to barbecue during the day at a lake or in a pal's backyard

without fail, we always want to meet up with friends at night to hang out and watch fireworks. Nice. I love how it's like when we were saying it, it feels so awkward to say we always want to meet up because we wouldn't say it, we'd say wanna. But you'd have to write it out. You'd have to write want to meet up. Yes. Okay. But how have we struck this informal tone here? This would be a

band nine paragraph for this task one essay. You've got your first bullet point. Say how important New Year's Eve. You need at least two details. We start with you wouldn't believe. That's a great way to write to a friend, right? It's a very informal. You would not start a letter to a CEO or a complaint letter like that. It's informal. Yes. No, I love it. It's emphatic. It's informal. You wouldn't believe how Americans get into New Year's Eve. Yes. Love it. Yeah. And

And into, to be into something, get into, this is very informal. The more formal option would be like celebrate. And instead we're choosing this, a more informal phrasal verb. Yeah. And I can see some other informal things happening here. We said there are tons of get togethers, right? Tons is informal. Right.

Exactly. Instead of saying there is an extremely high number, there is an inordinate number of parties. No, right? We're choosing the informal option. There are tons of get togethers. Yep. And then we mentioned a pal's backyard, also informal. Right. Even a little more informal than friend, right? To say in a pal's backyard, just slightly more informal. And then writing out want to, we want to meet up with friends and

And then finally, to hang out and watch fireworks. Slightly more informal, those phrasal verbs. Nice. I love it. A great example. And again, it's so important to know it's okay to use this in speaking. Gonna, wanna, coulda, shoulda, but not in writing. So important. Exactly. Very important. Yes, guys, if you missed it,

Go back and listen to Friday's episode, part three, listening practice and an important update, 1498, to hear from Jessica about her new adventures. And also there's some amazing part three listening practice in that episode. Yes, we are super grateful for Jessica's 10 years of podcasting here at All Ears English. And I'm excited to be on IELTS Energy moving forward, Aubrey. Good stuff.

fun. And like you said, Lindsay, don't forget guys, this is a very common mistake we want you to avoid. So if you are doing the general IELTS test and you get an informal essay, be sure to write out words like that. You can't write it exactly how you would say it. Great advice, Aubrey. We'll see you next time back on the show. Awesome. See you next time. All right. Take care. Bye.

Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy. Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com slash myscore.