IELTS Speaking Exercise:
Paraphrasing

When you can't remember an English word,
use other words!

1. How to explain what you mean:

There are five ways to explain your meaning: 1) use simple words to explain, 2) use opposites, 3) compare to other things, 4) say what it is NOT, and 5) use examples.


2. Examples:
snake:
a living thing that is frightening
Is this a good example of paraphrasing? NO! There are MANY living things that are frightening! How can we make this better? First of all, a snake is long, isn't it? And it has no legs, right? And why is it frightening? Because if it bites us, we may get sick or die! So here's a better way to paraphrase:

snake:
a long animal with no legs, and if it bites us, we may die!
Here are some more bad examples of paraphrasing. Can you make them better?

fingers:
part of our body, we use it to eat
smile:
we do this when we get a good score on the IELTS
hungry:
how we feel at 3 o'clock in the afternoon

Here are some better ways to explain these words:

fingers
part of your hand, you have five of them
smile
you do it with your mouth to show you are happy, you turn it up
hungry
how we feel when we don't eat for a long time

3. Try some yourself!
Think about how to paraphrase these words:

banana:

a long, sweet, yellow fruit that monkeys like to eat

run:

we do this with our feet when we are late or in a hurry, it is faster than 'walk'

thirsty:

how we feel when we don't drink, not 'hungry', we need some water

software:

part of your computer but not the machine, it tells the computer what to do, some examples are Windows, Word, Photo Shop, and email