Nine Band 9 Verbs For IELTS Writing

In this tutorial, you will learn NINE Band 9 verbs you can use in your IELTS essay today.

First we look at the list, then I explain why I KNOW they are Band 9 verbs (this is very interesting, and no other IELTS tutor is doing this!).

Here is a clue:

english proficiency score

Then we finish with examples of these verbs in IELTS essays, answering recent IELTS task 2 questions.

hinder – limit the ability of something.
weaken – cause something to be LESS strong
translate – change something into a new form
intensify – to become stronger
debate – to discuss in a formal way
conceive – imagine (could you conceive I’d give you a bonus verb!)
break – make known – the media broke the story of abandoning public transport last year
delegate – assign a task to
lobby – persuade – (especially in government)

In the new online course, we have a list of these Band 9 verbs, prepositions, and sentence structures, it makes it much easier to improve and score higher with a list and examples.

Why are they Band 9?

Because, as you probably know IELTS is part owned by IDP / British Council / Cambridge English Language Assessment.

Cambridge English Language Assessment are the experts deciding over the criteria for Band score for examiners.

These IELTS band scores can be matched to the common European Framework for Reference – which is the EU version of assessment criteria, because in Europe there are A LOT OF LANGUAGES.

And they do not use Band scores, they use a scale from A1 to C2.

As you can see from the picture, a C2 level is the same as Band 9.

english level

Now let’s jump back to our list of Band 9 verbs, if we click look these up in the Cambridge Dictionary we can see that EACH ONE is labelled as a C2 level!

hinder defintiion

Now, let’s use these verbs in real IELTS essays and sentences.

How do we use them?

Some people think parents are responsible for transporting their children to school. Others think it is the government’s responsibility. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

parents are responsible for transporting their children to school	government’s responsibility (to transport children to school)
Gives the parents more flexibility to plan day (not dependant on school bus timetable) Child could do extracurricular activities More likely to drive safer?? Zero chance for bullying on the bus Less likely to play truant	Environmentally better Less congestion at the school (safer for the kids) Could utilise the time on the bus to squeeze in more education??? More time with their friends and classmates

Some people think that one should plan detailed activities for their leisure time, others disagree with that. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Plan detailed activities for their leisure time	Don’t plan detailed activities for their leisure time
Better use of free time (fully optimised) Could permit to do more – foresee which activities can be completed when… More people could participate – if they know the schedule	Possibly defeats the idea of relaxing It’s free flowing not regimental, constricted, restrained More flexible to take advantage of opportunities that arise

HINDER – limit the ability of something.

Abandoning dated school buses would most likely hinder any efforts to improve road safety around schools, the main reason is that if each parent brings their own child, the traffic around schools would be horrendous.

Disregarding a detailed list of activities for a free day would most likely hinder any efforts to obtain the full potential of the said free day.

WEAKEN – cause something to be LESS strong

Abandoning dated school buses would most likely weaken any efforts to improve road safety around schools, the main reason is that if each parent brings their own child, the traffic around schools would be horrendous.

Disregarding a detailed list of activities for a free day would most likely weaken any efforts to obtain the full potential of the said free day.

Grammatically perfect but SOUNDS FORCED, and unnatural.

TRANSLATE – change something into a new form

Abandoning dated school buses would most likely translate into congested and dangerous roads around the school, furthermore the air quality could only worsen.

Disregarding a detailed list of activities for a free day would most likely translate into a sloppily organised day replete of spontaneous distractions and unforeseen costs.

INTENSIFY – to become stronger

Abandoning dated school buses would most likely intensify any road safety or pollution issues the school district might already be facing.

Disregarding a detailed list of activities for a free day would most likely intensify the chances the day descends into a sloppily organised event replete of spontaneous distractions and unforeseen costs.

Grammatically perfect but SOUNDS FORCED, and unnatural.

DEBATE – to discuss in a formal way

Those who debate in favour of abandoning school transport may have forgotten important issues such as air quality, road safety, and dual income families.

Again, not really suitable because there is no real debate, there is no issue, this is more a point of view. Whereas with the school bus issue, it’s easy to imagine a group of parents bickering at each other…