Useful IELTS Vocabulary | Advantage

Advantage is a noun.

Synonyms: benefit, help, blessing, profit, support, convenience, upper hand, superiority, dominance, initial supremacy

An advantage is something that makes you more likely to succeed than others.

  • Being able to speak English is a great advantage on a world tour.
  • The taller team has an advantage in a basketball game.
  • The advantages of a good education cannot be refuted.

Advantage can be followed by different prepositions.

Advantage over

  • Someone who speaks English has an advantage over someone who doesn’t.
  • Tall basket players have an advantage over short players.
  • The player who wins the first set in a tennis match has an advantage over her opponent.

Advantage of

  • The advantages of a foreign degree are often overrated.
  • Smart phones have the additional advantage of being easy to carry.

Advantages to

When the sentences begins with ‘there are’, you have to write ‘advantages to + noun / ing form’. Note that other words likes disadvantage, benefit, merit etc., are also followed by the same patterns.

  • There are several advantages to being able to speak English.
  • There are both advantages and disadvantages to having children in your forties.
  • What are the advantages of living alone?
  • In my opinion, there aren’t many advantages to living alone. (NOT …there aren’t many advantages of living alone.)

Advantageous is an adjective.

If something is advantageous, it is helpful, useful, beneficial or profitable.

  • Before visiting South America, it is advantageous to learn Spanish.
  • Winning the first set put the player in an advantageous position.

Manjusha Nambiar

Hi, I'm Manjusha. This is my blog where I give IELTS preparation tips.

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