Monthly Archives: September 2011

It’s always interesting to read the results of studies relating to language. The Telegraph, an English newspaper, recently reported on a study of the most commonly misspelt words in English. The top twenty misspelt words creates an interesting list – many of the words are words that an IELTS student might use in their writing. […]

Only comes before the word it qualifies. If you change the position of only, you change the meaning of the sentence. Read this post about the position of adverbs in English. It’s very useful for the IELTS exam. Make sure that you understand what the different adverb types are in English and what their position […]

When something plummets, it falls dramatically over a very short period of time. When a price plummets, it might approach zero. The value of his shares in the company plummeted during the financial crisis.

The verb is to fluctuate. The noun is fluctuation. This is when the data on a graph goes both up and down. The rises and falls may not be regular but they are constant. The President’s popularity has fluctuated during his term in office. There has been a constant fluctuation in the President’s popularity over […]

If there is an downward trend in a graph, there is a fall. A fall can be slight (not vey big) or dramatic (very quick and noticeable.) A fall can also be rapid (happens over a short period of time.) A fall that happens over a long period can be a slow fall. If a […]

If there is an upward trend in a graph, there is a rise. A rise can be slight (not vey big) or dramatic (very quick and noticeable.) A rise can also be rapid (happens over a short period of time.) A rise that happens over a long period can be a slow rise. If a […]