Dominic Cole’s IELTS Blog www.dcielts.com IELTS and academic caution vocabulary The language of academic caution can be used in IELTS to improve the coherence of your writing and speaking Here are some basic variations: number frequency probability some sometimes may most usual/usually might many/much normally could a lot of generally/in general likely/likelihood several on the whole possible/possibly a few/a little tend probable/probably perhaps/maybe Grammatical problems Please note this common mistake made with some/many/few/most some people correct to talk about people in general some of the people some of people correct to talk about a particular group of people incorrect Variations - word families To use these words well, you need to be able to use the different forms of the words Here are just two examples Possible possible It is possible that the city will possibly The city could possibly grow Dominic Cole’s IELTS Blog www.dcielts.com possibility Thereʼs a possibility that the city will grow Probable probable It is probable that the city will grow probably The city will probably grow probability The probability is that the city will grow Variations - qualifying adverbs If you want to add further variation to your speaking/writing, consider using adverbs of degree such as “fairly”, “quite” and “rather”; eg It is fairly likely that It is quite probable that It is rather unlikely that Variations - some idiomatic expressions for general ideas Here are some more idiomatic expressions to express general ideas As ever, choose the expressions that mean something to you and practise using them in context You not need all these phrases If you are uncertain about their meaning consult Macmillan Online Dictionary a fair amount of thereʼs a fair amount of unemployment a good deal Young people tend to watch TV a good deal by and large By and large, people in my country enjoy watching cricket as a rule As a rule, men tend to less housework than women nine times out of ten Nine times out of ten Iʼd read a book before more often than not More often than not I ask my wife before