Advanced Grammar for IELTS : Common Adverb + Adjective Collocations

To get Band 7.0+ for the IELTS Writing and Speaking test, you should develop excellent writing and speaking skills by learning an extensive repertoire of collocations.

Using collocations in the right place will help you boost your IELTS band score and help you speak more like a native speaker. Using new words as collocations may help us to boost our vocabulary. Adverb + Adjective collocations are where the words from Adverbs go along with the Adjective words.

The following (adverb + adjective) collocations are taken from the British National Corpus with the help you improve your vocabulary and score higher in IELTS. (Below, “sb’ = somebody and ‘sth’ = something.)

• Bitterly + cold, disappointed, divided, hostile, humiliated, hurt. opposed, resented, resentful, upset
• Completely  +  acclimatized, alone, different, drained, empty/full, extinguished, immune
  (from/to sth), incapable (of sth). incomprehensible, lost, negative, new, open (with sb) (= honest), overlooked, revised, right/wrong, untenable
  
• Deeply + ashamed, attached (to sbtsth) (= strong feeling for), conscious, conservative, depressed, disappointed, disturbed, divided, embedded, embittered, hurt, indebted (to sb), ingrained, in love with, involved, involved (in sth), lamented, meaningful, moving, religious, rutted
• Entirely + absent, beneficial, clear, different, false, fitting, free, global, impersonal, loyal, new. obvious, serious, unconvincing, unexpected
• Heavily  +  armed, booked, built, censored, criticized, embroiled (with sb/sth). flavored,
  guarded, involved (in sth). muscled, polluted, populated, protected, publicized, regulated, represented, scented, soiled, taxed
• Hideously + bad, burnt, deformed, disfigured, disfiguring, effective, embarrassing, expensive, injured, lurid, mangled, scarred, swollen, ugly, unhygienic
• Highly + commended, contagious, controversial, critical, dependent, developed, educated, enjoyable, flexible, intelligent, mobile, paid, personal, polished, political, popular, publicized, qualified, recommended, regarded, relevant, resistant, respected, significant, skilled, specialized, technical, toxic, trained, unlikely, valued, volatile
• Painfully  +  acute, aware, evocative, learned, loud, obvious, self-conscious, sensitive, shy, slow, small, sparse, thin
• Perfectly  +  arranged, balanced, capable, fitting (= appropriate), formed, genuine, good.
  healthy, normal, placed, proper, rational, reasonable, (all) right, safe, still, straightforward, understandable, valid
• Seriously  +  damaged, exposed, hit (= damaged), ill. impaired, rich, threatened,
  undermined, wealthy
• Totally + abandoned, abused, alien, anaemic, decent, destroyed, different, embarrassed, harmless, homogeneous, honest, impervious (to sth), inadequate, incompetent, integrated, irresistible, logical, new, normal, overpowering, stiff, surprising, unacceptable, unbelievable, undefined, unjustified, wasted
• Utterly + abandoned, alone, appalled, careless, dejected, destroyed, devoted (to sb), different, disastrous, fearless, futile, impossible, irresistible, lacking, ruthless, tragic, unacceptable, unattainable, unquestioning, useless, wrecked

Practice Exercise

Read the article below and decide which word (A – C) best fits each space (1 – 10). The exercise begins with an example (0).

See also:

• IELTS Vocabulary
• IELTS Grammar
• IELTS Vocabulary books
• IELTS Grammar books
• IELTS Listening Vocabulary
• IELTS Sports Vocabulary
• English Pronunciation in use Intermediate pdf
• IELTS Work Vocabulary
• Advanced Vocabulary for IELTS