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Punctuation in IELTS Listening

by Aiana
(Kazakhstan)

Can I write answers using commas?

The speaker on the tape was talking about vitamins, their functions, which products we can get them from. When talking about vitamin C she said:

We need 30 mg a day, and can only really get this amount from eating plenty of citrus fruit and fresh vegetables.

(Her exact words. If you are wondered how I managed to memorize them: I was doing a practice listening and I just pasted the sentence from a transcript)

I could write no more than 3 words, and in a column where to get it, I wrote: citrus fruits, vegetables.

In answer key, the correct answer was: fruits and vegetables.

So my questions is: can I write answers using commas or it will be considered as incorrect?

Comments for Punctuation in IELTS Listening

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Oct 28, 2016
 Puncutation
by: IELTS buddy

Hi,

You are worrying about the wrong thing.

It's not the punctuation that is important it is whether you got the right answer or not.

The answer was 'fruit and vegetables' but you wrote 'citrus fruit and vegetables' so the answer is wrong. You will be marked because you got the wrong answer, not because you write a comma in there.

I'm not aware that commas ever appear in listening test answers, but even if they did, it would be unlikely you'd be marked wrong if you missed it out.

The test is testing your listening skills, and you can't hear punctuation so it would not really be fair to grade you on it.
Jun 24, 2017
 Ielts listening: new type of question
by: Anonymous

In listening section, the audio said ' the title of this subject is social studies colon (:) research'

I was asked to write the answer in 3 words.

Question was:

Title _________

I answered 'social studies; research'

So I used the wrong punctuation i.e. semi colon instead of a colon

Will I lose a mark for this.
Jun 28, 2017
 Ielts listening: new type of question
by: IELTS buddy

You don't need to use punctuation in IELTS listening test answer, so I'd be very surprised if you lost a mark for that.

As you got the right words I'm sure it would just be marked correct (or it certainly should be).
Jul 26, 2017
 confusion regarding filling two blanks in same question
by: Shiraz

In IELTS Listening..How to write answer in following scenario:

Q- New technology allowed the production of goods made of...........and..........

The correct answer is 'Metal & Leather' but how to write two answers in same place on answer sheet?

Should I write them like this A- metal,leather or B- metal/leather or C- metal leather ?
Which one is correct?

On the answer key of Cambridge paper 6 Test 1, it's written as option B..metal/leather
but in some answer keys, when we are in above mentioned scenario, They write answer as option C..neither using a Comma nor a Slash..

Please Clarify...Thank You
Jul 27, 2017
 confusion regarding filling two blanks in same question
by: IELTS buddy

It wouldn't really matter as long as you wrote both words down.

Sometimes it may appear as two questions so (2)......and (3)...... in which of course there would be a separate place in the answer key for each question.

If it was (2)...... and ....... then just write both words in the answer key box.

It won't matter if you write both words with no slash or you could put a slash.
Oct 29, 2017
 Hyphens
by: Anonymous

The ans was door-to-door...but I wrote door to door. Will it be correct? And is space necessary in writing digits in listening?
Oct 30, 2017
 Hyphens
by: IELTS buddy

They don't publicise whether they accept a word without hyphens when it should have them, but I expect they do.
Jul 26, 2018
 Post by Aiana regarding punctuations
by: Smriti

Hi,

I have also done this test posted by Aiana and have the same question.

Since the speaker mentioned citrus fruits and vegetables. so ideally in answer i should mention citrus fruits and not just fruits. But the answer should be in three words so we have two options :

1: citrus fruits, vegetables OR
2: fruits and vegetables.

Now why the second option is taken as correct answer and not the first one ??

Jul 26, 2018
 Post by Aiana regarding punctuations
by: IELTS buddy

What test are you referring to? I'd really have to see the test and questions to know what the answer should be.

Remember when it says no more than 3 words that does not mean you need 3 words, it can be 1, 2, or 3 words.
Jul 27, 2018
 Post by Aiana regarding punctuations
by: Smriti

Hi,

In response to my earlier comment. I don't know about the actual test but i did it at this link

https://ieltsonlinetests.com/ielts-mock-test-2018-july-listening-practice-test-1

the question is in section 4 Q. 40.

See if this link helps. Thanks.
Jul 27, 2018
 fruit and fresh vegetables
by: IELTS buddy

I can see from looking that it says:

"We need 30 mg a day, and can only really get this amount from eating plenty of citrus fruit and fresh vegetables".

So I would agree with you that this question is not that well put together because really the answer should be 'citrus fruits and vegetables' as it is not referring to all fruits so by writing 'fruits and vegetables' in your response it is not strictly correct.

I wouldn't worry as it's not a real test from IELTS. Those tests are very difficult to write and you will find occasionally when you do practice tests that some questions are slightly confusing. You have to hope that the real ones have been put together properly.
Jul 28, 2018
 Post by Aiana regarding punctuations
by: Smriti

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. I hope in real test i will not face these confusions...!!
Jul 29, 2018
 Post by Aiana regarding punctuations
by: IELTS buddy

The real IELTS tests are tested by people before they are used so any issues should be discovered. Therefore it should be ok.
Nov 04, 2019
 How about apostrophe
by: Anonymous

The question was like
Give ____________ notice of move in

And the answer was two weeks’ notice.
If i write two weeks instead of two weeks’ , is it wrong?
There was no word count limited on this question.

Im dying to know!
Dec 02, 2021
 punctuation in ielts listening
by: Anonymous

Can i write 1,80 instead of 1.80
Dec 06, 2021
 punctuation in ielts listening
by: IELTS buddy

It's not clear what you're referring to. Is it a measurement and what is the context?

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Writing Mr and Mrs

by zhanbaur

For the Listening part, should we write the full stops in name titles, like "Mr.", "Mrs."?

Comments for Writing Mr and Mrs

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Oct 03, 2019
 Writing Mr and Mrs
by: IELTS buddy

No you don't need to but something like that wouldn't affect your score whether you did or didn't.

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