IE 1629: Boost Your IELTS Grammar Score With These Conditionals

This is an IELTS Energy Podcast episode 1629. Boost your IELTS grammar score with these conditionals. 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.

If you are stuck with a low score, our insider method will help you get the score you need to unlock your dreams. Get your estimated band score now with our two-minute quiz at allearsenglish.com slash myscore.

What can you do on Speaking Part 2 if you're running out of ideas and haven't filled the entire two minutes? Today, you'll learn two grammar constructions that you can add to any answer to fill the time and boost scores.

Has this ever happened to you? Our free two-minute fluency quiz helps you identify what interrupts your flow and your connections and how to fix it. You'll get your English level, B1, B2, or C1, and you'll figure out where to go from here.

Start now at allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. That's allearsenglish.com slash f-l-u-e-n-c-y-s-c-o-r-e. Hello, Lindsay. How are you doing? Hey, good.

Aubrey, how are you? How's it going? I have a really fun question here for you. Okay. If you had to replace your hands with kitchen utensils, which ones would you pick?

This is so appropriate. I was just looking for a pair of tongs last night in the kitchen and I was so annoyed because I couldn't find them. So it would be that. It would be like salad tongs to pick things up.

The dexterity would be off the charts. That's true. Tongs would not be terrible. That's a good choice. Yeah. Definitely not a whisk. Imagine if your hand were a whisk, very little you could do.

I agree. I would choose a tong, maybe a tong on one side and like a pizza cutter on the other side. Nice. Unlimited pizza for days. I love it. This is interesting, especially on speaking part two.

you might run out of things to say and have trouble filling that two minutes. And one of the best ways to extend your answers is to share a hypothetical. But Lindsay, what do listeners need in order to share a hypothetical? Yes.

Well, we need to go ahead and hit follow on the show, right? But you also need... You also need conditionals. Okay, okay. You need conditionals, Aubrey.

You need to know how to construct that conditional in a way that's grammatically correct. Exactly, right? And the conditional is tricky in English because there are several different ways we construct it, right? So we're going to share two of them today with sample answers and

But Lindsay's right. Be sure to hit follow so that you never miss any of our episodes. We share strategies and vocabulary, everything you need to know in order to get the score you need on test day. Yeah.

And I love when we share these best kept secrets, these really smart, smart ways to kind of boost up your score if you're sort of maybe you're panicking. Maybe you haven't said as much as you need to say in part two. You need those full two minutes like we said before. So this is a great tip.

This is such a good pro tip to share what would have been different if you could go back, right? Whatever you're talking about, imagine a hypothetical scenario and use today's constructions to say, you know, if things were different, blank, or if I could go back, blank, you could fill a whole nother minute, another minute with a hypothetical. Exactly. So let's go through how to construct the first conditional first, Aubrey, and how do we do it?

So this is if, of course, and then a present simple verb, will plus the base verb. So for example, if governments invest more in public transportation, traffic congestion will decrease, right? So we have if whatever would be different, and then just will with your base verb. Yeah.

So for example, a question could be someone asked how to stay healthy. And here, Aubrey, are we assuming we've already given maybe a personal story, for example? This is just a chunk that might be part of another answer, right? You could be asked on part two, describe a good way to stay healthy.

Describe someone you know who is healthy. Of course, you can also use this construction for part one answers and part three. But where it's going to come in handy the most is part two, where you have to fill two minutes. So imagine, Lindsay, that you have already answered about a person or about your own exercise habits and you're running out of things to say.

What might you say to extend that answer? Yeah, you might add on this piece. If people exercise regularly and eat nutritious food, they'll reduce the risk of developing health problems. They will have more energy throughout the day as well.

Yes, exactly. Right. So imagine you've already shared a story, you've shared personal details and the examiner hasn't stopped you yet. Don't summarize.

You're in trouble. Throw in this hypothetical, right? And it can be like this general about people. If people did this, if people do this or about yourself, if I would make this change, what will happen?

This is an important skill because it's kind of weird if you summarize a story, isn't it? Like we don't really summarize stories. Yes. Don't summarize because you might feel like, okay, maybe the time's almost up.

I'm going to summarize. And then the examiner still doesn't stop you. It's really easy to underestimate how long two minutes. And then if you, you know, summarize, you're kind of stuck.

It's hard to add anything after that. Let's give another example. So Aubrey, what if I ask you, I'm the examiner and I ask you, do you think cities will become more environmentally friendly?

All right. And maybe as part of my answer, I would say, without a doubt, if city governments invest more in public transportation and renewable energy, pollution levels will decrease significantly. As a result, residents will enjoy a higher quality of life. So this is interesting.

You can see how you can definitely use it on part three as well. Because often you're being asked about society in general. You're And the best way to do that is to sometimes imagine this hypothetical result if certain things changed.

Yeah, it makes sense. You can lead into it very smoothly. But again, two minutes is hard to fill. So we want to have these tricks in our back pocket, guys.

You want to be stopped by the examiner. That's the key. Quick break and then we'll be right back. Karen wanted to apply for permanent residency in Canada.

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All right, Aubrey, second conditional. How could we do this? All right. So this is a different structure. It's if followed by the past simple. And now we're using would with the verb.

So very similar. But instead of that will and the verb, you're using would. So let's look at how this might look. Some examples. If I had more free time, I would learn another language, right?

So this is a more unreal thing. situation in the beginning, right? I don't have more free time. If I did, I would do something different. Or if cities created more green spaces, residents would spend more time outdoors and air quality might improve.

Exactly. And the main difference here is that first clause, right? Instead of present tense, we have past simple here. If cities created green spaces, what would change, right?

So this is important, the grammar here. And your grammar score, we talk a lot about how this shouldn't be your main focus. You should not be studying grammar all day, every day for IELTS. But there are some simple and quick things you can do to boost that grammar score.

You want to make sure that you're using compound and complex sentences, sentence structures, instead of just simple. And this, using the conditional, is one of the easiest and best ways to have that variety of sentence structures. You can't choose which verb tense usually, but you can choose if you throw in a hypothetical or not and use the conditional. Yep, exactly.

It's all about being flexible, having these skills that you can pivot to if needed, think on your feet. So let's set up an example. Let's say an examiner asked you, what would you change about your hometown? And maybe you tell a story first, you go into some detail, but they're still not telling you to stop.

So what would you say? So, or if it was a part two question, right? That was like, describe your hometown or describe your childhood, describe a friend from childhood, right? All of these part two questions or this one that you could be asked on part one or part three, right?

What should be changed about a certain city anywhere, right? So I might say, yeah, after I've shared some details, I might say, Though I had an idyllic childhood, there are definitely a few things I would improve. If I were the mayor, I would invest more money in public transportation because traffic can be quite heavy during rush hour.

I would also create more green spaces so residents could spend more time outdoors. So you can see how you could really add vocabulary here and this interesting grammar just by adding, you know, what would you do if you had more power? If you were the mayor, what would you change? Yeah, I love it.

Or you might get a question like, if you could learn any skill, what would it be? What would you say to that, Lindsay? Yeah. So something, a little piece you could add on to the end of your question.

If I had more free time, I would learn to play the guitar. I've always admired talented musicians, and I think it would be a relaxing hobby. If I could practice regularly, I would definitely take lessons.

Yes, amazing. So we're so excited for this pro tip, practice. Practice answering speaking part two questions. Those are anything that start with describe.

You could be asked to describe anything. Pull some from the internet or you can have AI, chat GPT, create a few part two questions. Practice answering using these hypotheticals, right? And I think a really good strategy here is to practice like the first minute

Give those details. Tell a story. Always great to tell a story. And then practice imagining you've run out of things to say. Practice using the conditional and share a hypothetical.

I think practice is the key thing you said here, Aubrey. We're not going to walk into this exam having this be the first part two or part one or part three we've ever done. We should have gone through this many, many, many times. That's the key.

That's how we actually succeed on IELTS, Aubrey. This would be really difficult to do without practicing in advance, or you might mess up the grammar and then you've really set yourself up for your grammar score to go down. So go back, listen to these structures again, right? For that first conditional, if you're going to have will at the end of the sentence,

It needs to be in present simple right after if. And then for that second conditional, past simple after the if. And then that's where you use would, right? So practice these two structures.

You might be able to use them both on your speaking exam. Yes, I love it. I love that idea. Well, guys, as we finish up today, be sure to go over to IELTS Energy 1627, how television can boost your IELTS listening score.

We had a really fun time talking about our favorite TV shows. Is that what that episode was? Yes, we shared some recommendations for TV shows that you can stream online. You want to make sure that you're into a show so that your listening comprehension practice is fun.

You look forward to it and you won't skip it. Good stuff. Final takeaway. I mean, practice, be flexible, be able to pivot. This is one of the tools, one of many tools you will need in order to pivot if needed on the IELTS exam.

And go check out our course, Three Keys IELTS, to get a full and complete study plan and a score increase guarantee. Go over to allearsenglish.com slash K-E-Y-S. All right. Yes. Awesome.

Thanks, Lindsay. Okay. Aubrey, see you soon. See you. Bye. 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.