20 The language for comparing Here are some good phrases for comparing. See if you can adapt them to other task 1
questions.
The chart compares... in terms of the number of...
...is by far the most...
OR ...has by far the highest number of...
the figures for... tend to be fairly similar
In second place on the chart is...*
The number of... is slightly higher than...
Only four other countries have...
...all with similar proportions of...
...is the only country with a noticeably higher proportion of...
Note: Only use phrases like "in second place" if the chart shows some kind of competition.
Don't write "in first / second place" if the chart shows unemployment or health problems.
Comparative and Superlative Adjectives Being able to compare and contrast data is an essential skill for IELTS writing, especially in
Task 1. Comparatives and superlatives are one common way to do this.
Comparatives are used to compare
two things :
Leopards are faster than tigers. Superlatives are used to compare
one thing against a group of others :
The leopard is the largest of the four big cats. Here are the basics of how they are formed:
Example Word Comparative Superlative Words with one syllable high
higher
the highest
Words with three syllables or more productive
more productive
less productive
the most productive
the least productive
Words ending in –y wealthy
wealthier
the wealthiest
Short words ending with a consonant/vowel/consonant hot
hotter
the hottest
