While you listen: Recognizing synonyms and rephrasing

When preparing for the IELTS Listening test, many students focus heavily on listening for keywords from the questions. While that’s a good start, there’s a critical skill that can make or break your score — recognising synonyms and rephrasing.

Why Rephrasing Matters in IELTS Listening

The IELTS Listening test is not just about hearing exact words from the question. In fact, you’ll often find that the audio uses different words or sentence structures to express the same idea.

This is a deliberate part of the test design. The examiners want to check whether you truly understand the meaning — not just match words.

Rephrasing in IELTS Listening typically happens in two ways:

  • Synonyms are used for individual words.
  • Whole sentences are restructured with different grammar and vocabulary.

Let’s break this down with some clear examples.

Example 1: Paola – Synonyms and Pronouns

In the Question Booklet:

Paola is currently studying to be … a clinical psychologist.

In the Listening Passage:

“This year, I’m studying to be a clinical psychologist.”

What changed?

  • “Currently” (question) → “This year” (audio): a clear example of synonyms.
  • Third person “Paola is” → First person “I’m”: a grammatical shift in pronoun use.
  • Word order is different, but the meaning remains the same.

📝 Tip: Don’t expect to hear the question exactly as it is written. Focus on meaning, not matching words.

Example 2: News Item – Passive vs. Active Voice

In the Question Booklet:

Two youths were interviewed after … a stolen car … collided with a taxi.

In the Listening Passage:

“Police are interviewing two youths over a crash in which a stolen car carrying nine teenagers collided with a taxi.”

What changed?

  • “Were interviewed” (passive voice) → “Are interviewing” (active voice).
  • The question hides the agent (police), while the listening passage makes it clear.
  • Verb tense also differs slightly, but the event is the same.

📝 Tip: Recognising voice changes (active ↔ passive) is key in sentence completion tasks.

Understanding Active vs. Passive Voice

Here’s a quick grammar refresher:

Active Voice:

The student wrote an essay.

Passive Voice:

An essay was written by the student.

  • In the active voice, the subject (the student) does the action.
  • In the passive voice, the subject (the essay) receives the action.

In IELTS Listening, switching between these structures is a common rephrasing technique.

Example 3: Sea Vegetables – Passive Voice in Present Perfect

In the Question Booklet:

In many cultures and … for many centuries … people have cultivated sea vegetables.

In the Listening Passage:

“Sea vegetables have been cultivated and used for many centuries by many people in many cultures.”

What changed?

  • Active: “people have cultivated sea vegetables”
    → Passive: “sea vegetables have been cultivated”
  • The subject becomes the object, and vice versa.
  • The meaning remains exactly the same, just rephrased with different grammar.

📝 Tip: Always look out for shifts in verb structure — especially in tenses like present perfect.

Final Takeaways for IELTS Listening

To succeed in the Listening test, you must train your brain to:

✅ Recognise synonyms: e.g., “currently” = “this year”, “crash” = “collision”
✅ Identify grammatical changes: especially pronoun shifts and sentence structure.
✅ Understand active and passive voice, especially in complex tenses like present perfect.
✅ Focus on the meaning, not just the words.