Answering “What do you dislike about this?”

IELTS speaking is very popular for asking you questions where you have to explain your preference on your likes and dislikes. Although there is no such rule that best describes the way of answering IELTS questions, it is always better for you to know some language tips on How to Answer What do you Dislike about This?

When an IELTS examiner asks you such a question they really have no interest in the content of your answer but construct. They just want to know whether you can use the right grammatical structure.

First, let’s see some questions under this category…

» What do you dislike about parties? » What don’t you like about your job? » What do you dislike about eating in restaurants

Remember this formula

When the examiner asks you What do you Dislike About This? type questions, you must:

1. State your dislikes
2. Express the degree of your dislike.
3. Use very much

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Step- 1: What do you Dislike About This?

Expressing Dislike

Let’s look at how the two IELTS candidates, Jimhal expresses the idea of dislike.

Jimhal: l can’t stand repeating myself and this kind of conversation is very superficial; you don’t really get to know the person at all….

Notice that Jimhal uses a variety of phrases to talk naturally about things they don’t like. You should also try to use a varied range of ways to say you dislike something.

Here are some more expressions you should try to use:

• expression + noun

I don’t like parties.
I don’t enjoy music concerts.
I’m not huge on fashion.
I’m not really a fan of music.
I’m not interested in history.
I hate TV documentaries.
I can’t stand supermarkets.

• expression + verb-ing

I don’t like living in a big city.
I don’t enjoy watching television.
I’m not keen on reading about fashion.
I’m not really a fan of listening to live music.
I’m not interested in learning about history.
I hate watching TV documentaries.
I can’t stand going to the supermarket.

Step- 2: What do you Dislike about This?

Expressing Degrees of Dislike

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There are many ways of saying you don’t like something in English. Just saying I don’t like… all the time is boring for you and for your listener!

Let’s look at some ways to express degrees of dislike:
I absolutely hate it…
I don’t really like…
I thoroughly dislike it…
I don’t really enjoy it…
Icarc’f stand
I really don’t like…
I strongly dislike…

Step- 3: What do you Dislike about This?

Use of very much

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David: I don’t like my line manager or many of my colleagues very much– they’re all so….

Many students make the terrible mistake of saying the following types of sentences in the IELTS test:
I very like playing tennis. ( X )
I don’t like very much going shopping. ( X )
This is very bad English and does not sound like a native.

Look at the following correct native speaker sentences and see if you can see the correct word order patterns:

• I like playing tennis very much,
• I don’t like going shopping very much.

There are three rules you must remember:

• You cannot use very before a verb.
• You cannot use very much before a verb.
• You can use it very much after the activity.

Examples:-

• I like reading romantic novels very much,
• I really like reading romantic novels.
• I don’t like going climbing in the mountains very much.
• I really don’t like going climbing in the mountains.

If you want to sound like a native, we advise you to only use very much with short sentences.

To conclude What do you Dislike about This?:-

Step 1: State your dislikes

Step 2: Express the degree of your dislike.

Step 3: Use very much

I don’t particularly like my job. I am not interested in the fieldwork, and I don’t like my line manager or many of my colleagues very much, they’re all so boring. But what I absolutely hate about my job is the commute. It takes me about two hours to gel to work; I have to travel during the rush hour on the subway and public buses which are always jam-packed with people – it’s terrible!