Common Adverb and Adjective Collocations for IELTS

To achieve a Band 7.0+ on the IELTS writing and speaking tests, you should improve your writing and speaking skills by learning a diverse set of collocations. Using collocations in the right context will help you improve your IELTS score and speak more like a native speaker. Using new words as collocations can help us expand our vocabulary. Adverb + Adjective collocations are when words from an adverb are combined with words from an adjective.

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The adverb + adjective collocations listed below are taken from the British National Corpus to help you improve your vocabulary and score higher on the IELTS. "sb" refers to someone, and "sth" refers to something in the following.

Bitterly + cold, divided, disappointed, hostile, humiliated, hurt, opposed, resented, resentful, upset.

Example:

1. She said local people had complained bitterly about the lack of notice for the plan to extend the deadline by a year.
2. We see all four girls practicing for the sprint relay on a bitterly cold winter day, with constant rain lashing the track.

Also, check:

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Completely + acclimatized, alone, different, drained, empty or full, extinguished, immune (from/to sth), incapable (of sth), incomprehensible, lost, negative, new, open (with sb) (= honest), overlooked, revised, right/wrong, untenable.

Example:

1. To get out of the floodplain, a number of towns, including English, Indiana, have been completely relocated.
2. When sovereignty itself is contested, independence can be lost completely.

Deeply + ashamed, attached (to sb to sth) (= 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

Example:

1. He was deeply regarded & had a large circle of friends who adored him.
2. A customer of a restaurant is deeply affected by the manner in which staff serves them.

Entirely + absent, beneficial, clear, different, false, free, fitting, global, impersonal, loyal, new, obvious, serious, unconvincing, unexpected.

Example:

1. George sustains an injury that is entirely predictable as a result of mountaineering but has nothing to do with his knee.
2. Europe is a continent that is entirely located in the Northern Hemisphere and is mostly located in the Eastern Hemisphere.

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Heavily + armed, built, booked, censored, criticized, embroiled (with sb or sth), flavored, guarded, involved (in sth), muscled, polluted, populated, protected, publicized, regulated, represented, scented, soiled, taxed.

Example:

1. The Ruabon area was once heavily industrialized with large deposits of iron, coal, & clay.
2. During World War II, Guernsey was heavily fortified, far out of proportion to the island's strategic importance.

Hideously + bad, burnt, deformed, disfigured, disfiguring, effective, embarrassing, expensive, injured, lurid, mangled, scarred, swollen, ugly, unhygienic.

Example:

1. The world is so bad that staying positive becomes hideously difficult.
2. One couple runs into the murderer who is hideously scarred by a very bad latex effect.

Highly + commended, contagious, controversial, critical, dependent, developed, educated, enjoyable, flexible, intelligent, mobile, paid, personal, polished, popular, political, publicized, qualified, recommended, regarded, relevant, resistant, respected, significant, skilled, specialized, technical, toxic, trained, unlikely, valued, volatile.

Example:

1. Hydrogen & methane are highly flammable, which has led to some tragic accidents.
2. Paris cursed silently the thick smoke that had obstructed her highly developed olfactory senses.

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Painfully + acute, aware, evocative, learned, loud, obvious, self-conscious, sensitive, shy, slow, small, sparse, thin

Example:

1. A very old woman bent in half and tottering on crippled legs, slowly & painfully pushed her own empty wheelchair.
2. Anna's hair was scraped back into a painfully tight & still considerably wet ponytail.

Perfectly + arranged, balanced, capable, fitting (= appropriate), formed, genuine, good, healthy, normal, placed, proper, rational, reasonable, (all) right, safe, still, straightforward, understandable, valid.

Example:

1. She was dressed in a cowboy outfit of bright green and white, contrasting perfectly with the color of the horse.
2. It is perfectly consistent with his political leanings as a self-proclaimed Reaganite.

Seriously + damaged, exposed, hit (= damaged), ill. impaired, rich, threatened, undermined, wealthy.

Example:

1. How can anyone take conservative ideas seriously when there are people like this around?
2. However, in light of yet another death on our rail network, the concept is being taken seriously.

Totally + abandoned, abused, alien, 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

Example:

1. The cost increase will result in a doubling of our charges, which is totally absurd.
2. You sit right by the water on the edge of a pretty & totally unspoiled village.

Utterly + abandoned, alone, appalled, careless, dejected, destroyed, devoted (to sb), different, disastrous, fearless, futile, irresistible, impossible, lacking, ruthless, tragic, unacceptable, unattainable, unquestioning, useless, wrecked.

Example:

1. I remember being utterly thrilled by it, & the theme music is still one of my favorites ever tunes.
2. John was utterly shocked by his bad behavior.

The proper use of collocations in an IELTS writing test is critical to improving your IELTS score. Collocations are simply two or three words that sound natural when spoken by a native speaker. Correctly using collocations will allow you to write (& speak) like a native speaker; more importantly, collocations are one of the factors that IELTS examiners consider when scoring your test.