IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 Vocabulary – words and phrases for IELTS graphs: Line graphs, Bar charts, Tables, Pie charts.
Words and phrases for IELTS graphs for band 7.0-9.0.
Suitable for:
Line graphs
Bar charts
Tables
Pie charts
You don’t need to memorize every single word. Choose the ones that you want to use in your answers and those that you can remember naturally. This is all IELTS Academic Writing Vocabulary.
Super cool words for band 8.0-9.0 are given in bold
Verbs
 | DropShow a downward trendPlummetPlungeHalve Dip |
 | IncreaseSurgeGrowShow an upward trendDouble Triple RocketShoot upSoar (=surge)Recover |
 Fluctuate |  Reach a peak, Peak at …% |
Verb + adverb
Now we add adverbs to the verbs, ie “how?”
- Significantly
- Remarkably
- Dramatically
- Sharply
- Gradually
- Steadily
- Marginally (=slightly)
- Negligibly (=very slightly)
Decrease Considerably
Decline Slightly
Fall Gradually
Drop Steadily
Rise Sharply
Increase Dramatically
Adjective + noun
a dramatic increase
a sharp fall – There was a sharp rise in the percentage of …
a gradual decline
How to describe trends?
SUBJECT + VERB + ADVERB (HOW?)
Prices rose considerably
The percentage decreased sharply
There is + a + adjective + noun + in the …
There was a negligible rise in the sales …
There will be a considerable fall in the number of people
Useful phrases for a high score
hit the highest point
hit the lowest point
hit a trough (= a low point/antonym of a peak)
show some fluctuation
remained stable
reached a plateau
the figure levelled off in the last two years
flattened out
despite the initial rise, the figures …
regarding the percentage of …, it fell to …
despite falling to just under 40%, the figure then rose to…
as opposed to …
… respectively (Cookies and cakes were the second most popular products with nearly 120 and 100 of these snacks sold respectively)
the percentage of …
the proportion of …
the figures for…were fairly similar at …%
the number of…
the amount of…
Prepositions
By 1978,
Over a twelve-year period
In the last year
Over the next three years,
In the following year,
Over the period in question
At the beginning/end of the period
Throughout the period in question
In the first half of the decade …
An Increase of 30%.
Decreased by 15%.
Rose sharply over a period of 10 years.
Figures
Advanced vocabulary for paraphrasing figures
2% = a very small proportion of
2-10% = a mere 3 percent OR a mere 5 percent of
16% = a small minority
20% = a fifth
24% = almost a quarter
25% = a quarter
26% = roughly one quarter
32% = nearly one-third
35% = more than a third
49% = just under a half
50% = a half
51% = just over a half
55% = more than half
70% = a large proportion of
72% = a significant majority of
73% = nearly three quarters
76% = just over three-quarters
Add these words to the figures
Approximately
Nearly
Roughly
Almost
Just over
Just under
Just around
Just about
Just below
A little more than
A little less than
For example:
Just under 60 percent of people in Canada went to fast food outlets in 2009. (we see “58%” in the graph, we can round this fidure off by writing “just under 60%”).
Comparisons
IELTS grammar + vocabulary
… by far the most popular item / product / language …
… the least popular product was …
… much more popular
more languages …
fewer students …
the highest percentage of/the lowest proportion of
… as popular as …
… not as popular as …
… not quite/nearly as expensive as …
… did not sell as many computers as …
… is three times higher than …
… twice as many _____ as …
For example:
The number of intermediate students is three times higher than the number of students in elementary classes, at 80 and 77 students respectively.
There were twice as many students in the …as students in the …