Story Collocation for IELTS: A List to Boost Your Score

Kasturika Samanta

8 min read

Updated On Oct 09, 2025

Enhance your writing and speaking abilities with advanced story collocations for IELTS Master their meanings, explore example sentences, and practice effectively to boost vocabulary range, fluency, and coherence for achieving a higher IELTS band score.

Lists of Story Collocations for IELTS to Boost Your Score
Notes
Story Collocation for IELTS: Practice Exercises
Story Collocations Answer Keys for Practice Exercises

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Story or storytelling is not just about creativity; it is about clarity, vocabulary precision, and natural language flow. The word ‘story’ appears frequently in IELTS answers, especially when you are describing experiences, events, or examples. Therefore, knowing the right story collocations for IELTS helps you sound natural, fluent, and idiomatic, which is essential for achieving a Band 7.5 or higher.

In this blog, we will explore different story collocations, categorized into verbs, adjectives, and other useful combinations, to help you enrich your overall vocabulary.

Lists of Story Collocations for IELTS to Boost Your Score

IELTS examiners look for natural, varied vocabulary. Therefore, using appropriate story collocations in IELTS answers sounds natural and fluent, avoiding awkward phrasing. Moreover, accurate story collocations show command of word combinations and help structure your arguments clearly.

Now, we will explore lists of the top important collocations for IELTS related to story in the tables below, including their meanings and example sentences.

Verb + Story Collocations

Learning verbs that combine naturally with ‘story’ helps you describe narrative actions precisely. So, these story collocations are ideal for IELTS Speaking Part 2 (personal experience) and Writing Task 2 (examples and descriptions).

Verb + Story	Meaning	Example Sentence
Believe a story	to think a story is true	It was hard to believe his story about winning the lottery twice.
Check a story	to verify its truth or details	Journalists always check a story before publishing it.
Make up a story	to invent or fabricate	He made up a story to avoid getting into trouble.
Read a story	to go through a story in text	I read a short story before going to bed.
Sell a story	to offer an exclusive story for money	The celebrity sold her story to a famous magazine.
Stick to a story	to keep repeating the same version	Even under pressure, he stuck to his story.
Tell a story	to narrate or recount an event	My grandfather used to tell fascinating stories.
Spread a story	to circulate or share widely	Rumours and false stories spread quickly on social media.

Common Adjective + Story Collocations

Adjectives that describe ‘story’ allow you to express emotion, tone, and impression, perfect for IELTS Speaking Part 3 and the writing tasks.

Adjective + Story	Meaning	Example Sentence
Complicated story	difficult to understand or follow	It’s a complicated story with many twists.
Full story	the entire or complete version	We still don’t know the full story behind the event.
Gripping story	very interesting and exciting	The movie was based on a gripping true story.
Same old story	something boring or repetitive	It’s the same old story — promises never kept.
Likely story	sarcastically expressing disbelief	“He was late because of traffic?” “A likely story!”
True story	based on real events	This novel is inspired by a true story.
Heart-warming story	emotionally uplifting	It’s a heart-warming story of friendship and courage.
Sad story	emotionally tragic	It’s a sad story of loss and resilience.

Noun + of + Story Collocations

These story collocations help you expand ideas and provide logical flow in essays or conversations. As a result, they are often useful in IELTS Writing Task 2 examples.

Noun + of + Story	Meaning	Example Sentence
Moral of the story	the lesson or message	The moral of the story is that honesty always pays.
Part of the story	a section or aspect	We’ve only heard part of the story so far.
Point of the story	the main purpose or idea	What’s the point of the story you’re telling?
Side of the story	one person’s version	Let’s hear her side of the story before judging.
Version of the story	a particular interpretation	Each witness gave a different version of the story.

Common Expressions with ‘Story’

Native speakers often use idiomatic expressions involving ‘story’. However, since idioms have an informal tone, using them naturally shows advanced vocabulary control, ideal for Band 8+ speaking.

Expression	Meaning	Example Sentence
Cock-and-bull story	a ridiculous or unbelievable tale	He gave us a cock-and-bull story about why he was late.
Hard-luck story	a story designed to gain sympathy	He always tells a hard-luck story to get help.
Success story	a person or situation that has achieved success	Her business is a real success story.
Rags-to-riches story	story of someone rising from poverty to wealth	The film tells a rags-to-riches story of determination.
Love story	a story about romance	It’s a classic love story set in Paris.
Real-life story	based on actual events	The documentary features real-life stories of survival.
Inside story	secret or detailed information	Journalists revealed the inside story of the scandal.

Notes

A story is also a report in a newspaper:
- The Times has a story about that bribery scandal.
If we say that something is ‘only a story’, we mean that it is not true.
We say ‘to cut a long story short’ when we don’t want to go into details.
We talk about detective, horror, ghost and love stories.

Story Collocation for IELTS: Practice Exercises

To enhance your comprehension and use of the story collocations for IELTS, we have put together a few exercises that you should take some time to solve.

Exercise A: Use the correct form of these verbs.

believe check

make up read

sell stick to

He says he was at home at the time of the crime. We’ll need to _____________ his story. See if you can find someone who can back it up.
Your mother will never _____________ that story about you missing the last bus. Just tell her the truth!
No, I didn’t _____________ the story_____________ I’ve told you the whole thing is true!
When mum and dad ask us how the window was broken we must all_____________ the same story if we want them to believe us!
In my opinion, criminals should not be allowed to make a fortune by _____________ their stories to the newspapers.
Did your parents _____________ you stories before you went to bed?

Exercise B: Complete the sentences with these adjectives.

complicated full

gripping same old

likely true

That TV series about a doctor working in Africa in the 1920’s is based on a_____________ story.
I don’t think that we’ve heard the_____________ story of the Prime Minister’s resignation yet. I think there’s a lot more to come.
He said he found the video recorder under a tree! That’s a _____________ story! How can he expect anybody to believe that!
It was such a _____________ story that the children wouldn’t leave until they had heard how it ended.
I’ll tell you about my childhood some other time. It’s a long and _____________ story and I don’t have time to go into it all just now.
It’s the_____________ story wherever you go – the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The world doesn’t change.

Exercise C: Complete the sentences below with these nouns.

moral part point side

I couldn’t make much sense of the story. In fact, I couldn’t see the_____________ of it at all.
We’ve all read about it in the papers, but before we make any judgements I think we should hear his_____________ of the story first.
The main lesson or _____________ of the story is that crime doesn’t pay.
Some crucial facts have been missed out. We’ve only heard _____________ of the story!

Exercise D: Complete the sentences below with the following nouns and noun phrases.

cock-and-bull hard-luck success

rags-to-riches love real-life

Lots of companies have gone out of business during the recession. The Green Shoe company is a rare_____________ story.
I can always tell when Pete is lying. He gave me some _____________ story about helping a friend decorate his living room – a highly unlikely story! Pete has never used a paint brush in his life!
The beggar told me some _____________ story about being cheated out of his inheritance.
The film was based on the _____________ story of General Patton.
He was brought up in poverty in a Glasgow slum, but through hard work and a bit of luck he became the millionaire owner of a huge supermarket chain. It’s a classic _____________ story.
Why do all _____________ stories have happy endings?

Story Collocations Answer Keys for Practice Exercises

Ex A: 1. check 2. believe 3. make the story up 4. stick to 5. selling 6. read

Ex B: l. true 2. full 3. likely 4. gripping 5. complicated 6. same old

Ex C: 1. point 2. side 3. moral 4. part

Ex D: 1. success 2. cock-and-bull 3. hard-luck 4. real- life 5. rags-to-riches 6. love

In conclusion, story collocations help you to share your experiences and opinions vividly and naturally in English. To master them, you can keep a ‘Collocation Journal’, add five new story collocations daily to your advanced vocabulary word list for IELTS, and use them in short example sentences. Over time, they will flow naturally into your speaking and writing, guiding you towards your desired band score.

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