Grammar in IELTS Speaking
- Not measured here
- One quarter of your band
- Free scored take
Hear it in your own voice.
Describe a time you learned something from a mistake. You should say what the mistake was, when it happened, what the consequences were, and explain what you learned.
Press record, answer out loud, then press again.
One free take on this device · no account · no card
sayit does not score grammar
sayit's band is an estimate built from two things a microphone can actually measure — fluency and pronunciation. Lexical resource and grammatical range are marked by a human examiner and are not measured here. Everything below is real advice on the criterion, and the transcript we show after a take lets you judge your own grammar — but the number on the result is not measuring it, and we will not pretend otherwise.What actually moves grammar
Range means variety, not difficulty
Conditionals, relative clauses, a passive where it belongs, a past perfect when the sequence needs one. Four different structures in a two-minute turn is range; twelve subordinate clauses in one sentence is a crash.
Errors that change meaning cost most
A wrong tense in a narrative confuses the listener. A missing article rarely does. Examiners weigh errors by their effect on understanding.
Word endings are grammar you can hear
Dropped final consonants delete past tenses and plurals. This is the one place where a pronunciation habit shows up directly on the grammar criterion — and it is the part we can help with.
Complexity under pressure
Practise complex structures in Part 2, where you have a minute to plan. If a structure only works when you are writing, it is not yet available to you in a test.
Four drills that work
- 1Record a Part 2 and read the transcript afterwards, marking every verb tense. Narratives are where sequences go wrong.
- 2Take one answer and re-say it with a conditional in it. Then again with a relative clause.
- 3Say ten regular past-tense verbs and check the ending was audible on all ten — that is a pronunciation fix with a grammar payoff.
- 4Speak for two minutes and count how many different structures you used. Three is a reasonable target to start from.
Straight answers
Does sayit correct my grammar?
No. The band estimate is built from fluency and pronunciation only, and we say so on every result. We show your transcript, which makes your own tense and structure errors easy to spot when you read it back.
Is it better to speak simply and accurately?
Only up to a point. Perfectly accurate simple sentences cap the range half of the criterion. Examiners reward attempts at complexity even when the attempt is imperfect.
Do grammar mistakes matter in Part 1?
They are marked throughout, but Part 1 answers are short, so there is less evidence. Part 2 and Part 3 are where range is really demonstrated.
Hear your own grammar
Record one answer and read the full analysis: pace, pauses, filler count and every sound against its target. Free, no card, nothing blurred.
More reading: the pronunciation habits that hold a candidate at 6.5