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.