IELTS Sentence Completion: method, traps and practice
You complete unfinished sentences with words taken from the passage or the recording, inside a strict word limit. The sentences are paraphrases of the source — the skill is recognising the same idea in different clothes, then lifting exactly the right words, in the right form, without exceeding the limit.
How Sentence Completion is scored
One mark per sentence, and the answer-rules apply in full force: exceed "no more than two words and/or a number" and the item scores zero even when the content is right, a misspelled answer scores zero, hyphenated words count as one word, and ALL CAPS is officially fine. In Reading the completed sentence must also be grammatical — if your words break the sentence, you have lifted the wrong words. Completion answers follow the order of the text or audio, which is a free navigation aid most candidates never use.
The rules that outrank technique: word limits are absolute — an over-limit answer scores zero even when the content is right — hyphenated words count as one word, ALL CAPS is officially fine, and both US and UK spellings are accepted (misspellings of either are not). The full set, sourced and dated, is in the IELTS answer rules.
A three-step method that survives the clock
- Step 1. Read the incomplete sentence and predict the kind of word missing — a noun? a number? a place? The grammar of the gap narrows the answer before you touch the source.
- Step 2. Find the sentence's paraphrase in the passage or listen for it in the audio: question order follows source order for this type, so the answer to item 3 lives between the answers to 2 and 4.
- Step 3. Copy the exact words from the source — no rephrasing, no padding — then read the completed sentence back. It must be grammatical, within the word limit, and spelled exactly as the source spells it.
The traps that cost the most marks
- Padding the answer past the word limit ("the main library" when the answer is "library"). Over-limit answers score zero — the rule that costs the most completion marks.
- Writing your own paraphrase instead of the source's words. The completed sentence is checked against the text; synonyms that preserve the meaning still lose the mark.
- In Listening, chasing a missed sentence while the recording moves on — the audio plays once, and one lost item becomes three. Guess, and rejoin at the next question.
See the method on a fresh question
Prompt: Passage sentence: "The observatory was relocated in 1962 because light from the expanding suburbs made faint stars impossible to detect." Question: "The observatory moved because of ___ from nearby housing." (No more than two words.)
Approach: The gap needs a noun — the cause of the move. The paraphrase link is "nearby housing" for "expanding suburbs", which points you at "light". Write exactly that one word: "light". Writing "light pollution" would be inventing a phrase the sentence never uses, and "light from suburbs" bursts the two-word limit for a zero. Predict, locate, lift — and read the finished sentence back before moving on.
This example is original to TestDayTwin — no genuine IELTS test question appears here.
Drill Sentence Completion free
Our IELTS practice runs in a replica of the computer-delivered screens with instant scoring — timed passages with free navigation in Reading, once-only audio in Listening.
Questions learners ask
Can I change the word form in IELTS Sentence Completion?
No — use the words exactly as they appear in the passage or recording. The task tests locating and lifting, not rewriting, and the completed sentence is expected to be grammatical with the source's own words. If the exact words will not fit grammatically, you have found the wrong words.
What does "no more than two words and/or a number" mean exactly?
At most two words plus, optionally, a number written in digits. A hyphenated word like "check-in" counts as one word. Going over the limit scores zero for that item even when the content is right, so never pad an answer — the full rule set is in our IELTS answer-rules guide.
Are sentence completion answers in order in the passage?
Yes — for completion types, answers follow the order of the text (and of the recording in Listening). Use that: once you have located item 2 and item 4, item 3 must sit between them, which turns a whole-passage hunt into a search of a few lines.
Does spelling matter in sentence completion?
Completely — a misspelled answer scores zero. Both US and UK spellings are accepted, and you may type answers entirely in capitals; what is never accepted is a misspelling of either variant. In Listening, if a word is spelled out letter-by-letter, reproduce exactly that spelling.
Related IELTS question-type guides
Question-type behaviour, section structure and answer rules follow official IELTS guidance as verified for our IELTS format guide andanswer-rules guide (July 2026, computer-delivered test). TestDayTwin is an independent practice site.