IELTS Speaking fluency and coherence tips: how fixed phrasal verbs can eliminate hesitation and help you reach Band 7 in your IELTS Speaking test.
Written by Amarjot Singh — 7+ years of experience, Certified IDP IELTS Trainer with an 8.5 overall IELTS score.
Rohan was one of those students who knew way more English than his speaking score showed. In our one-on-one sessions, he’d explain complex ideas about his engineering job without breaking a sweat. But the moment we hit record for a mock test, something strange happened — he’d start a sentence, get halfway through, and just… stall.
“I learned Spanish from my—” pause “—friend, um, I mean, my roommate taught me some—”
He wasn’t lacking vocabulary. He was second-guessing himself in real time, trying to decide which verb “sounded better.” That hesitation was costing him more in fluency marks than any grammar mistake ever could.
The IELTS Speaking fix wasn’t “learn more phrasal verbs” — it was “stop choosing”
Most students think the answer to sounding fluent is cramming more phrasal verbs. But Rohan already knew plenty. His actual problem was decision fatigue — mid-sentence, under pressure, he was trying to pick the “best” option instead of just having one ready to go.
So we did something different. Instead of a long list, I gave him one fixed phrasal verb per context, so there was nothing left to decide.
- Talking about learning something → always “picked up” (“I picked up Spanish from my roommate”)
- Talking about communication → always “drop a line” or “fill in” (“I’ll drop you a line next week”)
- Talking about daily routine / bedtime → always “hit the sack”
- Talking about future plans → always “branch out into”
That’s it. No menu of options to freeze over. Just a reflex: hear the topic, reach for the fixed phrase, keep moving.
Watching it click
A week later, Rohan was asked about his weekend routine. Without missing a beat, he said:
“Honestly, after a long week at work, I usually hit the sack pretty early on Fridays. I like to wind down with a book first though.”
No pause. No self-correction. It sounded like something a person actually says, because — this is the part people miss — it was something he’d said so many times in practice that it had stopped being “test language” and had just become his language.
Why this works better than an IELTS vocabulary list
Fluency and coherence is 25% of your IELTS Speaking score, and examiners are listening closely for hesitation patterns. A pause because you’re thinking about what to say (content) reads very differently from a pause because you’re thinking about how to say it (language). The first is normal — even native speakers do it. The second is what pulls your Band score down.
Fixed phrasal verb expressions remove the “how” from the equation entirely, so all your mental energy goes toward actually answering the question — which is exactly what an IELTS examiner wants to see.
An IELTS Speaking exercise to try this week
Pick just one context — bedtime, learning, or plans — and commit to a single phrasal verb for it. Use it in every IELTS Speaking practice answer for a week, even if it feels repetitive. Repetition is exactly the point. By the time your IELTS test day comes, it won’t feel memorized. It’ll just feel like you.
Struggling with the same “very” problem in your own IELTS Speaking practice?
I run live online IELTS coaching sessions at IELTS Sutra where we work through exactly this kind of vocabulary upgrade in real time.
DM me on Instagram @ieltssutra or reach out at contact@ieltssutra.com — I’d love to help you get past the Band 6 ceiling and into Band 7 IELTS Speaking territory too.
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