Short answer: phrasal verbs are not banned in IELTS Writing. Informality is what costs marks, and some phrasal verbs are perfectly academic — "carry out research", "point out that", "result in", "account for".
What damages a Task 2 essay is a conversational phrasal verb such as "put up with" or "get across", not the grammatical form itself.
The advice candidates usually receive — "avoid phrasal verbs in Writing, use them in Speaking" — is a useful simplification that produces two bad habits: swapping natural phrasal verbs for stiff Latinate ones in essays, and avoiding them so completely in Speaking that the answer sounds like a written report read aloud.
Safe in academic Writing
These are neutral or formal. They appear in academic prose and cost you nothing in Task 1 or Task 2.
| Phrasal verb | Meaning | Sentence frame |
|---|---|---|
| carry out | conduct | Researchers carried out a longitudinal study. |
| point out | note, draw attention to | Critics point out that the policy ignores… |
| result in | cause | Deregulation resulted in a sharp rise in… |
| account for | constitute; explain | Manufacturing accounted for a third of exports. |
| bring about | cause (change) | Automation has brought about significant change. |
| rely on | depend on | Rural communities rely on subsidised transport. |
| focus on | concentrate on | The report focuses on urban households. |
| consist of | comprise | The sample consisted of 400 participants. |
| lead to | cause | Poor insulation leads to higher consumption. |
| set out | state, present | The legislation sets out three obligations. |
| stem from | originate in | The problem stems from a shortage of housing. |
| give rise to | cause (concern) | These findings give rise to concern about… |
Speaking-only — and their written equivalents
These are natural in the interview and a register mismatch in Task 2. Learn both columns: the left one for Speaking, the right one for Writing.
| Say in Speaking | Write in Task 2 | Note |
|---|---|---|
| put up with | tolerate | "Put up with" is fine in Part 3 and jars in an essay. |
| get across | convey | Also avoid "get" as a general-purpose verb in Writing. |
| find out | discover · establish | "Find out" is borderline; safe in Task 1 reporting, weak in Task 2 argument. |
| come up with | devise · propose | Very common in coached answers; fine spoken, informal written. |
| cut down on | reduce | "Reduce" is shorter as well as more formal — a rare win on both counts. |
| look into | investigate | Safe in a General Training letter, informal in Task 2. |
| go up / go down | rise / decline | In Task 1 these cost you directly; the data language is expected. |
| deal with | address · tackle | Borderline rather than wrong. "Address the issue" is stronger. |
| get rid of | eliminate · abolish | "Abolish" for laws and practices, "eliminate" for problems. |
| bring up (a child) | raise | "Bring up" is natural spoken; "raise children" is standard written. |
Do not over-correct. Replacing "carry out research" with "execute research" or "lead to" with "engender" makes an essay worse. If a phrasal verb appears in the academic-safe table, use it — Lexical Resource rewards natural precision, and a Latinate word chosen for weight is exactly the misuse that costs a band.
The grammar half, which is marked separately
Phrasal verbs generate two recurring errors, and both are charged to Grammatical Range and Accuracy as well as to vocabulary.
- Separable verbs with a pronoun object must split. "Carry it out", never "carry out it". This is a fixed rule and a common error.
- Inseparable verbs never split. "Rely on it", never "rely it on". Nothing can come between the verb and the particle.
- The particle is part of the meaning. "Look into" (investigate), "look after" (care for), "look up to" (admire) share a verb and share nothing else. Learning "look" is useless; the unit is the whole phrase.
How to choose under exam pressure
- Ask what task you are in. Speaking and the General Training letter tolerate informality; Task 2 does not.
- If a single word is genuinely more precise, use it. "Reduce" beats "cut down on". If it is only longer, keep the phrasal verb.
- Never guess a particle. A wrong particle is a lexical error and often changes the meaning entirely.
- Check pronoun placement. This is the one phrasal-verb error that is purely mechanical and therefore fully preventable.
Whether register is what is costing your Writing band is answerable: the Writing Checker reports Lexical Resource separately from the other three criteria, so you can see whether the problem is word choice or something else entirely.
For the register question in the other direction, idioms for Speaking covers the language that belongs in the interview and nowhere else.