IELTS Writing Task 1 gives you a chart or a diagram. Then, it asks you to write an essay with at least 150 words to describe the given chart. That’s why we need to add more words related to figures and trends to our vocabulary. Do you know that there can be a lot of adverbs describing speed of change in IELTS writing?

In this article, we will give you full information about such words. This will help you know more different words you can use in your writings. That can bring you closer to achieving lexical resource points – which accounts for 25% of total points in the Writing test. At the end of the article, we will share some tips that can help you remember these words. With these tips, you don’t have to worry about forgetting vocabulary due to exam stress.

What makes the eJOY’s list of adverbs describing speed of change different

Instead of giving you a list of words with their meanings, we’ve been working hard to put in other necessary information. We also give you some examples of how you can use these words. Putting these words and phrases in certain context will help you recognize the differences between them. As a result, you will remember them more easily. This table includes:

Pronunciation

If you know how to write words, but don’t know how to pronounce them correctly, you are more likely to forget those words, and won’t be able to use them in formal presentations or even in daily conversations. That would definitely be a waste.

English definition

When we learn new English words, we tend to look up their meanings only in our mother tongue. That habit is bad for the language learning process, as you can only learn English with your first language mindset. That would be a major block to making your lexicon broader as well as knowing how to use words in certain contexts.

It’s important to remember that Vietnamese and English are two different languages coming from different cultures. It can be hard to fully understand the meaning of a word and use it fluently. To be able to do that, you should learn both English definitions and your mother tongue meanings.

Adverbs describing speed of change — Languages go hand in hand with culture
(Source: Unsplash)

- Corresponding adjectives

Here we included a column of adjectives that correspond to the adverbs describing the rate of change. Knowing them, you can change sentence structures more flexible. That will prevent your essay from being boring.

- Examples

The final column of the table includes examples of how to use these words. This part helps you use the words correctly and naturally like native speakers. So don’t miss this important section.

Adverbs describing speed of change

No.	Words	Pronunciation	English definition	Corresponding adjectives	Examples
1	rapidly	UK /ˈræpɪdli/ US /ˈræpɪdli/	very quickly; at a great rate	rapid	a *rapidly* growing economy
2	quickly	UK /ˈkwɪkli/ US /ˈkwɪkli/	at a fast speed	quick	The plane climbed *quickly* to a height of 30 000 feet.
3	swiftly	UK /ˈswɪftli/ US /ˈswɪftli/	quickly; after a very short time	swift	She moved *swiftly* to the rescue.
4	suddenly	UK /ˈsʌdənli/ US /ˈsʌdənli/	quickly and unexpectedly	sudden	I *suddenly* realized what I had to do.
5	steadily	UK /ˈstedəli/ US /ˈstedəli/	gradually and in an even and regular way	steady	The company’s exports have been increasing *steadily*.
6	gradually	UK /ˈɡrædʒ.u.ə.li/ US /ˈɡrædʒ.u.ə.li/	slowly over a period of time or a distance	gradual	*Gradually*, she realized that he wasn’t telling her the truth.
7	slowly	UK /ˈsləʊ.li/ US /ˈsloʊ.li/	at a slow speed	slow	Could you please speak more *slowly*?

References:

How can you remember these adverbs?

To master adverbs describing speed of change, you need to:

Write them down in your notebook
Practice constructing sentences with those adverbs
Repeat the word learning process until you can use them fluently

However, this process might not be simple for some of you. Being too busy with work and having too little time might be the main reasons. Or maybe, you get discouraged by the boring and seemingly never-ending note taking process.

Let me share with you a very useful tip. With technology developments these days, you are just one click away from all of these steps.

My 4 steps of enhancing IELTS vocabulary:

S1 – Download eJOY eXtension for Google Chrome.
S2 – Select any new words, double-click on them or highlight them by click and drag the mouse to look up the words’ meanings in English and in your mother tongue (or your preferred language)
S3 – Click + Add to save the words with the suitable meanings to your online Wordbook.
S4 – Play games with those words regularly.

Looking up words with eJOY eXtension — Looking up any new words using eJOY eXtension

The special thing is, you don’t need to worry about not knowing the right time to come back to revise those saved words. The eJOY eXtension will help us do that thanks to the latest spaced repetition algorithm. After we’ve done studying some words, we’re likely to move on quickly to other new words, and as a result, those previously learned ones will probably be forgotten very soon. The solution to that problem is very simple. Right before you’re about to forget some of the words you learned, eJOY will remind you to practice them.

Reminder to learn words — eJOY reminds you to learn words every day

Not only that, our development team also includes Youtube videos that contain the words you’re learning in eJOY eXtension games. That way, you can practice using such words within the context that the natives usually use.