Many volunteers ask: Can we use idioms and proverbs in writing or speaking? Will these idioms have a score for us, and will they be effective? First of all, you should know that no score will be deducted for any word in IELTS writing or speaking. Maybe it won’t add to your score and won’t have an impact, but you can rest assured that you won’t get a negative score. But let’s check how effective these idioms are.
Use of idioms
Using different idioms in writing can increase your score and effectively attract the examiner’s opinion. But you need to know what terms to use. For example, using informal idioms in writing is inappropriate, especially in task 2. Try to use idioms that are suitable for your writing and are formal so that you can attract the examiner’s opinion and show your knowledge.
But you should know that the examiner doesn’t grade the complicated words you use and grades your knowledge. So you don’t need to use hard terms. You can get ideas from them and write your opinion about that term.
Use of proverbs
After you have read about idioms, we will now explain to you about proverbs. In this section, unlike the idioms section, we must tell you not to use proverbs if you don’t have to because you may use a proverb to convey your meaning. But this proverb may not be appropriate, and the examiner will interpret your meaning differently.
This makes your writing disjointed and semantically inconsistent. So you may not get a good result from this section. So try to avoid using proverbs in writing, especially in task 2. Instead, you can turn that proverb into a sentence and write its meaning clearly.
Using idioms and proverbs in speaking
Above, you read about the use of proverbs and idioms in the writing section. Let’s explore these together in the Speaking section as well. I must tell you that there is nothing wrong with using proverbs, idioms, and quotations in the speaking section. It can even be quite effective. Because by doing this, you show the examiner that you have a high level of language knowledge and can use different sentences and words.
But you should know not to lose the fluency and coherence of your speech in the meantime. Try not to use these proverbs if you feel like you might forget your main conversation. Another point you should observe is that you should not use proverbs and quotations too much and only use them in the appropriate place.
Conclusion
In this article, you read about the use of proverbs and quotations. Now you know where it is better to use them and where you should not use them. By practicing and reading past years’ writings and speakings, you can see where these quotes are best used so that you don’t have to worry about this on the day of the main exam.