IELTS Listening sentence completion
Sentence completion looks like note completion and is marked like it, but it gives you more to work with. Each item is a whole sentence with one gap, which means the grammar is complete except for your answer — and complete grammar is a constraint you can use before you have heard anything.
If the gap follows "made entirely from", the answer is a material, and it is uncountable or plural depending on what follows. If it follows "a", the answer is a singular countable noun. Candidates who read the sentences properly in the preparation time have already narrowed most gaps to a shape before the recording starts.
The cost of ignoring that is the word-form mark: hearing the right thing and writing it in the wrong number or part of speech.
What it looks like on the paper
Numbered sentences, each with one gap, under a word limit. The sentences follow the order of the recording and paraphrase it rather than quoting it.
Where it appears
Parts 2, 3 and 4. It tends to appear where the content is explanatory rather than transactional — a talk or a discussion rather than a booking.
Try one
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The sentence reads: "The old bridge was built entirely from ______." Which word fits the gap?
Where the marks actually go
Singular where it needs a plural
"Built entirely from local stone" and "built from local stones" are not both English. One of them is what the sentence can take.
What to do: Read the sentence with your answer in place before you move on. The ear catches a wrong plural faster than the eye.
Too many words
Rewriting the speaker's whole phrase instead of the part the gap needs.
What to do: The sentence already supplies everything except the gap. Write only what is missing.
A word that fits the meaning but not the slot
A noun where the sentence needs an adjective, or a verb in the wrong tense.
What to do: Decide the part of speech in the preparation time and write it next to the gap.
The method, in order
- 1Read every sentence first and note the word limit.
- 2For each gap, write the part of speech and, for nouns, whether it must be singular or plural.
- 3Listen for the meaning of the sentence, not its words — the recording will have rephrased it.
- 4Write the shortest form that completes the grammar.
- 5In the transfer time, read each sentence aloud in your head with the answer in it.
How to practise this one on purpose
Do the preparation step with no audio at all. Take a set of sentence-completion items and, for each gap, write the part of speech and whether a noun has to be singular or plural. Then listen. You will find most gaps were already half-solved by the grammar.
Common questions
How is this different from note completion?
The marking is identical. The difference is how much help the page gives you: a full sentence constrains the answer's grammar, where a note heading often does not.
Do I have to copy the speaker's exact words?
You must write words that were said, but you choose which. Take the ones that complete the sentence inside the word limit, not the whole phrase around them.
Do I have to change the word I hear to fit the sentence?
No — and you should not. The answer is a word or words actually said in the recording, taken in the form they were said. If what you heard will not fit the grammar of the printed sentence, you have almost certainly identified the wrong part of the sentence, not a word that needs editing.
Is this the type costing you marks?
The free listening check is six short clips and three minutes. It gives you an indicative band and, more usefully, which listening skills the misses cluster in — so the next month of practice goes somewhere.
Take the free listening test →The other question types
Lisenia is an independent study tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the British Council, IDP or Cambridge Assessment English. Band figures here are indicative practice guidance, not official scores.