practice / IELTS Writing Task 2 / Lexical Resource
#LR5
Literal translation from L1
Some sentences are grammatical word for word and still sound wrong, because they follow another language's pattern instead of English's — "I have twenty years" instead of "I am twenty years old", "it has many people" instead of "there are many people." Our mainframes flag this as #LR5 whenever a sentence reads like a direct translation, and in IELTS Writing Task 2 it counts against Lexical Resource every single time.
Each item shows, in parentheses, wording that comes from translating an idea word for word from another language. Type what English actually says for the gap.
Exam result
Step 1 When a sentence feels like a translation, ask "would a native speaker actually say it this way?"
Step 2 Learn these as whole fixed expressions, not word-by-word substitutions.
Step 3 Age, existence, and state verbs are the most common calques — check "have" first when something feels off.
In your next essay, reread every sentence that feels like a direct translation from your first language — and watch this error's count drop in your writing passport.