Understanding ‘Struggle’: Key Vocabulary for IELTS Success
Learn about the word ‘struggle’ for your IELTS preparation. This video covers its meaning as both a noun and verb, etymology, synonyms, antonyms, usage examples, and common mistakes to avoid. Improve your vocabulary and boost your IELTS score with this essential word.
Imagine you’re facing a challenging task, and no matter how hard you try, it seems impossible to complete.
This is what we call a struggle. Today, we’re going to explore the word struggle, an essential vocabulary item for your IELTS preparation.
Word type: Struggle can be used as both a noun and a verb.
Meaning: As a noun, struggle refers to a difficult task or challenge that requires great effort to overcome.
As a verb, it means to make forceful or violent efforts to get free of restraint or to resist attack, or to have difficulty dealing with something.
Word history: The word struggle comes from Middle English. It’s believed to have Scandinavian origins, possibly related to the Swedish word strukkla, meaning to quarrel.
Synonyms: Some words with similar meanings to struggle include battle, fight, strive, grapple, and contend.
Antonyms: On the other hand, words with opposite meanings include succeed, thrive, flourish, and prosper.
Examples use in sentences: Let’s look at how we can use struggle in different contexts. As a noun: The struggle for independence lasted many years.
As a verb: He struggled to lift the heavy box. In a more abstract sense: Many students struggle with math.
Common errors in use: One common mistake is confusing struggle with strive. While both involve effort, struggle implies difficulty or resistance, while strive simply means to try hard.
For example, You might say I’m striving to improve my English, but I’m struggling with pronunciation.
Another error is using struggle with instead of struggle to when talking about actions. For instance, it’s correct to say I struggle to wake up early, not I struggle with wake up early.
Remember, struggle is a versatile word that can effectively convey the idea of facing and working through difficulties.
Using it correctly in your IELTS speaking and writing tasks can help demonstrate your vocabulary range and boost your band score.
Practice using struggle in your everyday English to become more comfortable with it.
