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Grammar for IELTS Writing Task 1: which tense to use, the passive in processes and maps, Present Perfect, an exercise with answers

2026-10-12 · 15 min read

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Task 1 does not need complex grammar. It needs correct grammar: one tense for the whole graph, the right forms of about ten verbs and the passive where it belongs. An examiner sees The number of cars increase [increased] in 2010, Sales has rose [rose] or The clay [is] heated in the first lines, and the Grammatical Range and Accuracy score drops. Here and below, crossed-out words are extra or wrong, and words in square brackets are correct. Almost all these mistakes disappear after three questions: when did it happen, is it still true now, and who does the action. Below are four tenses (Present Simple, Past Simple, Present Perfect and Future Simple) and active and passive voice. They are enough for any type of task. There are tables of forms, typical mistakes of Uzbek and Russian speakers, a check and an exercise.

Which tense: look at the dates

The years on the graph tell you which tense to use in Task 1. Before you start writing, check: are there years on the graph, and are they already in the past?

The most common case is the first row: a line graph or bar chart with past years. So almost the whole answer is in Past Simple. Do not change tense without a reason: if one sentence says rose and the next one says rises about the same period, the examiner will decide that you mix up tenses.

Present Simple: about the graph itself and about things with no dates

The first sentence is always in Present

The graph is in front of you now, so the first sentence and the overview about the graph are in Present, even if the data is from the 1990s: The line graph shows how car ownership changed between 1990 and 2020. The verb about the graph is in Present, the verb about the data is in Past. A mistake: The graph showed, as if someone showed you the graph long ago.

Processes and diagrams with no dates

A process happens the same way every time and has no year. So the whole report on a process is in Present Simple: The cocoa beans are dried in the sun and then are sent to a factory. The same goes for a picture of a machine (how a turbine works) or shares with no year (what a family spends money on).

The -s ending: the most often lost letter

In Present Simple, a verb after he, she or it gets -s at the end. It is only one letter, so people often forget it. And in Task 1 you almost always write about “it”: the graph, the process, the number.

• The diagram illustrates…, The process consists of five stages., The table compares…;
• The number of stages is eight.: the subject is number, not stages;
• Each stage takes about a week.: after each and every, use the singular;
• spelling: go → goes, pass → passes, carry → carries, but stay → stays.

In the plural there is no -s: The figures show…, The bags are delivered…

Past Simple: trends with past years

Irregular verbs you cannot describe trends without

Most trend verbs are regular: increased, decreased, declined, peaked, remained, doubled, fluctuated. But the most useful ones are irregular, and this is where Task 1 loses points:

The mistakes rised, falled, growed cost more than you think: the examiner will not take them for typos but will count them as not knowing the verb. Learn the whole table, it is only eight rows.

Spelling of -ed

• if a short verb ends in one vowel and one consonant, the consonant doubles: drop → dropped, stop → stopped, plan → planned;
• consonant + y changes y to i: study → studied, vary → varied; vowel + y stays: stay → stayed;
• after -e, add only -d: decrease → decreased, decline → declined;
• level off → levelled off in British English, leveled off in American English; choose one and use it everywhere.

Negatives and did

After did, the verb goes back to its base form: The figure did not change, not did not changed. In Task 1 you rarely need a negative; it is often easier to say remained stable.

Present Perfect: only without a specific date

Russian has one past tense, and English has two. Uzbek has -di and -gan, but they do not match the English tenses one to one. Present Perfect (has/have + third form) is about a change whose result you can see now, and it is not used when a past date is named. If the sentence has in 2010, between 2000 and 2010 or in the 1990s, you need Past Simple:

• The number of tourists has increased [increased] in 2010.
• Since 2015, the number of tourists has increased.: from 2015 until now.

On graphs with past years you almost never need Present Perfect. Its place is “then and now” maps, which compare the past with today:

• then: In 1995, there was a farm to the north of the village.: Past;
• now: Today, the village has a school and a supermarket.: Present;
• the change: The farm has been replaced by a housing estate.: Present Perfect, usually passive.

The form is has/have + third form, not the second: has rose [risen], has fell [fallen], have grew [grown]. “Has rose” is one of the most common Task 1 mistakes: this tense does not exist.

Forecasts: future years on the graph (Future Simple and is expected to)

The future on a graph is a forecast, not a fact: nobody knows for sure what will happen. For a forecast in Task 1, two ways are enough:

• Present Simple passive + to + verb: is expected / is predicted / is projected to + verb. The verb is expected is in Present: people expect it now, and it will happen later. This is the most common and the safest choice: Coal use is expected to fall to 10% by 2040.;
• Future Simple: will + verb, with no to and no -s. It sounds more certain, so it is better to say whose forecast it is: According to the forecast, demand will double. Mistakes: will doubles, will to double.

By 2040 means “not later than 2040”. With it, people sometimes write will have reached (Future Perfect), but you do not need it in Task 1: is expected to reach is simpler and just as correct.

A singular subject takes is expected, a plural one takes are expected: Sales are predicted to recover.

Active and passive: who does the action

When you need the passive

In a process or on a map, what matters is what happens to the thing, and who does it is unknown or not important. So there you usually need the passive: be + third form.

There are two mistakes here. A missing be: The clay [is] heated, The beans [are] dried. Without be, it means “the clay heated (something)”: the clay did something itself in the past. And the second form instead of the third: A new road was builded [built], The leaves are took [taken].

If it matters who does it, use by: The milk is collected by tankers. In a process you rarely need it, but it makes the text more varied.

When the passive is a mistake

Only verbs that can take an object (“what?”) have a passive: someone builds a bridge → a bridge is built. If the thing changes by itself, you cannot use the passive:

• The number of users was increased [increased].: the number grew by itself; was increased would mean that someone increased it on purpose;
• The change is happened [happens], The temperature is risen [rises]: happen, rise, fall, occur, remain are active only;
• for the same numbers there is a pair: rise (goes up by itself) and raise (someone lifts it): The government raised taxes → Taxes were raised, but Prices rose.

Natural processes: active

A life cycle, the water cycle, how rocks form: there is no person here, and the thing changes by itself. So almost everywhere you need the active, and the passive only where something acts on the thing:

• The eggs hatch after two weeks, and the larvae grow quickly.: active, nobody grows them;
• Water evaporates from the sea and forms clouds.: active;
• The rock is worn down by wind and rain.: passive, the wind acts on the rock.

In a factory it is the other way round: almost everything is passive, and active only when a machine or a person is named: A machine cuts the sheets into strips. A good answer about a process has both active and passive, and this raises the Grammatical Range score.

Order of steps in a process

In a process, the passive goes together with words that show the order of steps. There are only a few, and they do not change the tense: first, next, then, after that, once, after, finally.

• Once the grapes have been picked, they are crushed.: after once and after you can use the Present Perfect passive, “as soon as they are already picked”;
• The juice is then poured into barrels.: then goes between is and the third form;
• After being stored for a year, the wine is bottled.: after being + third form joins two steps in one sentence.

Pairs people confuse

A three-question check

For every verb in your answer, ask three questions in this order:

1. When? A finished date in the past → Past Simple. A future date → a forecast: is expected to or Future Simple (will). No dates, or about the graph itself → Present Simple. A change up to today with no date → Present Perfect.
2. Who does the action? The thing changes by itself (rise, fall, grow, hatch, happen) → active. Someone does something to the thing → passive, be + third form.
3. Is the form right? -s after he, she, it in Present; the second form in Past; the third form after has and after be; the verb agrees with the subject (the number … was).

There is no spellchecker and no hints in the exam, so keep two minutes out of twenty to check all the verbs. Check the eight irregular verbs from the table separately.

Exercise

Put the verb in brackets into the correct form. The answers are below.

1. The bar chart ___ (compare) the amount of rice exported by four countries in 2000 and 2020.
2. Rice exports from Vietnam ___ (rise) from 3 to 6 million tonnes over the period.
3. In 2005, the figure for Thailand ___ (stand) at 7 million tonnes.
4. By 2040, the number of electric cars ___ (expect) to reach 50 million.
5. First, the raw materials ___ (deliver) to the factory by lorry.
6. The eggs ___ (hatch) after about ten days.
7. Since 1995, the old harbour ___ (convert) into a shopping centre.
8. The proportion of people who walk to work ___ (fall) by 5% between 2010 and 2015.
9. A new hospital ___ (build) in the east of the town in 2008.
10. Once the leaves ___ (dry) by a machine, they ___ (pack) into boxes.

Answers: 1: compares, about the graph, Present, he/she/it form; 2: rose, a past period; 3: stood, a finished date; 4: is expected, a forecast, the subject number is singular; 5: are delivered, a process, someone does something to the materials; 6: hatch, a natural process, active; 7: has been converted, a map, a change up to today with no finished date; 8: fell, a finished period, the subject is proportion; 9: was built, passive, a past year; 10: have been dried or are dried (a machine dries them), then are packed.

How to practise

Take your last Task 1 answer and underline all the verbs. For each one, go through the three questions of the check. You will usually find two or three mistakes: one lost -s, one wrong form and one extra or missing be. Fixing them is easier than learning new complex structures, and the grammar score goes up just the same. Then write one process and one map: they are the best practice for the passive.

In Tilmashq, Writing Task 1 answers and Writing Task 2 essays are scored on all four criteria, including Grammatical Range and Accuracy, with quotes from your text and corrections, so wrong tenses and forms show up right in the feedback. The scoring is done by AI. In our experience, it is usually stricter than an examiner, so it is safer to read the band as a minimum. The tasks are our own, not taken from the exam.

Read next

• IELTS Writing Task 1: how to describe graphs, tables, processes and maps, a band 7 sample and where to practise with feedback
• How to describe trends in IELTS Writing Task 1: sentence patterns, prepositions and a worked graph with a full answer
• The overview in IELTS Writing Task 1: how to find the main features of a graph in two minutes, with a worked example
• The article the in IELTS: every rule with examples, when no article is needed, an exercise with answers and a free trainer
• IELTS Writing: format, criteria, timing and how to prepare
• IELTS Academic: how the exam works and what to read for each section

Download the cheat sheet (PDF) One page — print it and keep it next to you.

Updated: 2026-10-12