Enlarge Your Vocabulary for IELTS - Key Word: Opportunity

In IELTS Writing and Speaking, collocations make your responses sound fluent and natural. One powerful word that appears often in academic and real-life contexts is “opportunity.” Understanding how to use it with verbs, adjectives, determiners, and quantifiers will help you enlarge your vocabulary and express ideas more precisely. This guide provides practice exercises, examples, and notes to help you master “opportunity” for IELTS success.

Verb + Opportunity

This structure highlights what people do with opportunities: whether they take them, miss them, or are given them.

Practice Exercise 1

Use the correct form of these verbs: come up, deny, give, grab, take, miss

1. You can’t let an opportunity like a trip to Australia go by. It’s simply too good to ___________.
2. I’d like to ___________ this opportunity to thank you all for coming.
3. This programme ___________ the public the opportunity to make their voices heard. So get on the phone straightaway!
4. Make sure you ___________ the opportunity with both hands! You won’t get another one like it for years.
5. An opportunity as good as this ___________ only once in a lifetime.
6. I would have liked to have learnt Spanish at school, but I was ___________ the opportunity. Only French and German were taught.

Answer Key:

1. miss
2. take
3. gives
4. grab
5. comes up
6. denied

Common Adjective + Opportunity Collocations

Adjectives are often used to emphasize the quality or uniqueness of an opportunity. Some adjectives carry positive meanings, while others highlight regret when chances are lost.

Practice Exercise 2

Complete the sentences with these adjectives: ample, great, missed, ideal, possible, rare, golden, right

1. We need to make an appointment with you for further tests. Please contact this office at the earliest ___________ opportunity.
2. Don’t worry. You will have ___________ opportunity to ask questions after the talk. The speaker intends to stay behind for about an hour.
3. This is a ___________ opportunity to see all the painter’s work together in one place. There hasn’t been an opportunity like this for 20 years.
4. Look, this is the right job for you! It’s a ___________ opportunity. Who else do you know gets the chance to work in New York for two years?
5. I’m not changing jobs at the moment but when the ___________ opportunity comes along, I intend to take it.
6. You mean he came to the club and I could have got his autograph! Another ___________ opportunity!
7. If you don’t invest now, you’ll miss a ___________ opportunity to double your money.
8. Club 18-25 offers an ___________ opportunity for you to meet other single people on holiday.

Answer Key:

1. possible
2. ample
3. rare
4. great
5. right
6. missed
7. golden
8. ideal

Determiners and Quantifiers + Opportunity

The word “opportunity” is often modified by determiners and quantifiers to show frequency, quantity, or limitation.

Practice Exercise 3

Complete the sentences with these words: only, much, no, this, every, an

1. Sue isn’t the best company to be with. She talks about her children at ___________ possible opportunity!
2. Since we started a family we don’t get ___________ opportunity to go out dancing.
3. If I have ___________ opportunity, I’ll take your books back to the library for you this afternoon.
4. She’s just in town for the day. This may be your one and ___________ opportunity to meet her.
5. The Professor left straight after his lecture, so there was ___________ opportunity to find out why he held such unusual ideas.
6. I’d like to take ___________ opportunity to thank all of you for your support.

Answer Key:

1. every
2. much
3. an
4. only
5. no
6. this

How to Use “Opportunity” in IELTS Writing?

Using collocations with “opportunity” in the IELTS Writing Task 2 can strengthen your arguments and improve fluency.

• Education essay:
  “Studying abroad provides students with an excellent opportunity to broaden their cultural understanding.”
• Workplace essay:
  “Equal job opportunities must be available to both men and women in order to achieve fairness in the workplace.”
• Technology essay:
  “The internet offers young people an unprecedented opportunity to access information instantly.”

How to Use “Opportunity” in IELTS Speaking?

In the IELTS Speaking, “opportunity” helps you describe personal experiences and future goals clearly.

• IELTS Speaking Part 1: “Whenever I get the opportunity, I enjoy reading books in the evening.”
• IELTS Speaking Part 2: (Cue Card – Describe a time you had to make a decision): “I was given the opportunity to join a leadership program, and it turned out to be life-changing.”
• IELTS Speaking Part 3(Discussion): “I believe that governments should create more job opportunities for young graduates.”

The word “opportunity” is a flexible and powerful tool for expressing chances, advantages, and possibilities in IELTS. By learning how to use it with verbs, adjectives, determiners, and quantifiers, you can enrich your vocabulary and express ideas more effectively. Practice the exercises above, notice how native speakers use the term, and apply it in your own IELTS responses.

For those aiming for top scores, following the IELTS Exam Preparation Tips for Band Score of 8+ can further enhance your vocabulary and overall test performance.

Also Check: 

• Improve Your Vocabulary for IELTS – Key Word: Space
• Improve Your Vocabulary for IELTS – Key Word: Size
• Using Collocation to Boost Your IELTS Score - Key Word: decision 
• Using Collocation to Boost Your IELTS Score - Key Word: a series of
• Grammar For IELTS : The Common Grammars And Sentence Structures In English (Part 1
• Grammar For IELTS : The Common Grammars And Sentence Structures In English (Part 2)
• Using Contrast in IELTS Speaking & Writing: Advanced Grammar in IELTS
• 100+ Advanced Vocabulary Word List for IELTS (PDF Available)