The score nobody revises for
There is no spelling band in IELTS, so almost nobody studies it. What actually happens is quieter: spelling sits inside Lexical Resource, next to your word choice. So six misspelled words do not read as six typing slips. They read as weaker vocabulary control, on the same page where you were trying to show good vocabulary. The list of guilty words is short and it barely changes from year to year.
10 words and the trick that fixes each one
1accommodation
two c's and two m's
Example: It can accommodate two of everything. Wrong: accomodation.
2environment
there is an n in the middle
Example: Environ plus ment. Wrong: enviroment.
3government
govern plus ment, so the n stays
Example: The people who govern. Wrong: goverment.
4definitely
the word finite is inside it, and there is no a
Example: De-finite-ly. Wrong: definately.
5separate
there is a rat in the middle
Example: Sep-a-rat-e. Wrong: seperate.
6necessary
one collar and two sleeves
Example: One c, two s. Wrong: neccessary.
7beginning
double n before the ing
Example: Begin plus ning. Wrong: begining.
8argument
argue loses its e when it grows up
Example: Argue becomes argument. Wrong: arguement.
9because
Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants
Example: The first letters spell it. Wrong: becouse.
10successful
two c, two s, and only one l at the end
Example: Success plus ful. Wrong: successfull.
8 more to check before you finish
✓receive, believe, achieve. I before e, except after c.
✓foreign breaks that rule, so learn it separately.
✓tomorrow has one m and two r's.
✓until has one l. Till has two, which is why people get confused.
✓writing has one t, but written has two.
✓opportunity has two p's.
✓independent ends in dent, not dant.
✓immediately has two m's and ends in ately.
4 traps that are not really spelling
Alot
✕Alot of students struggle with this.
✓A lot of students struggle with this.
Alot is not a word at all. It is always two words. If you can say a large number, you can also say a lot, and it is safer in a formal essay to say many anyway.
Everyday vs every day
✕I practice writing everyday.
✓I practice writing every day. It has become an everyday habit.
Everyday, as one word, means ordinary. Every day, as two, means each day. Both are real, which is why the wrong one never looks wrong.
Mixing British and American
✕The colour of the city center has changed.
✓The colour of the city centre has changed. Or: the color of the city center.
Both varieties are accepted. Mixing them inside one essay is not. Pick the one you were taught and keep it for the whole page.
Missing capital letters
✕Many students in europe study english on monday.
✓Many students in Europe study English on Monday.
Countries, languages, nationalities, months and days always take a capital in English. This is not a small point, because these words appear constantly in IELTS topics.
How to actually learn these
Do not copy a word twenty times. It works for an hour and then leaves. Use the trick instead, because a strange picture stays in your memory far longer than a correct line. A rat in separate. Two of everything in accommodation. Then, at the end of your next essay, spend twenty seconds looking only for these words. You are not re-reading for meaning, you are hunting for eight specific spellings, and that is a much faster job.
Read next
More words worth getting right: affect or effect, and 9 other pairs and words that travel in pairs.
Find your own eight words
Everybody has a personal list, and it is usually shorter than you fear. Write your next essay in VoyaLang and read the corrections. Misspellings are marked in the sentence you wrote them in, so after two or three essays you will see the same handful of words appearing again, and that small list is the only one you actually need to learn. Create a free account and check your next essay in about a minute.
