IELTS · Guides · October 23, 2026 · 4 min read

IELTS Matching Sentence Endings: method, grammar checks and a worked example

In matching sentence endings you get the first halves of several sentences and a longer list of possible endings, A–F or A–G. You choose the ending that completes each sentence so that it says what the passage says. The beginnings follow the order of the text, there are always more endings than beginnings, and many endings fit the grammar of several beginnings, which is what makes the task tricky.

What the task looks like

Questions 6–9. Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A–F, below.

6. Early dogs were useful to hunters because
7. The first breeds were created when …

A they could follow animals by smell. B people began to choose dogs for particular jobs. C wolves were too dangerous to keep. …

You write one letter per sentence. Each ending is used once at most.

Method

1. Read the beginnings first and underline the key words. Because the beginnings follow the order of the text, they also tell you where to look: question 7 comes after question 6 in the passage.
2. Find the place in the text for the first beginning and read it carefully.
3. Finish the sentence in your own words before you look at the endings.
4. Now look for the ending that matches your version. Expect a paraphrase, not the text’s own words.
5. Check grammar and meaning together. Read the whole sentence aloud in your head. Then check it against the text: a sentence that is grammatical and true in real life can still be wrong for this passage.
6. Cross out each ending once you use it. The remaining choices get easier.

How the extra endings trick you

• True, but about something else. The ending is a fact from the passage, but it belongs to a different beginning or a different part of the text.
• Good grammar, wrong meaning. After because, any ending that starts with a clause fits. Grammar narrows the list; it does not choose the answer.
• Cause and effect reversed. The text says A led to B; the ending says B led to A.
• Partly right. The ending matches half of what the text says and adds something it does not say.

A worked example

Coffee arrived in Europe in the seventeenth century through the ports of Venice and London. At first it was sold by pharmacists as a medicine, and doctors argued about whether it was good or bad for the health. Coffee houses soon spread across London, and because anyone who paid for a cup could stay and listen to the conversation, they became known as “penny universities”. Some rulers distrusted them as places where people discussed politics, and in 1675 the English king tried to close them down, though the order was withdrawn within days.

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A–E.

1. In its first years in Europe, coffee
2. London coffee houses were called “penny universities” because
3. The attempt to close coffee houses

A customers could learn from the discussions around them. B was treated as a kind of medicine. C failed almost immediately. D doctors recommended them to their patients. E was popular only among the rich.

Answers: 1 — B, 2 — A, 3 — C.

1. Sold by pharmacists as a medicine → treated as a kind of medicine. E fits the grammar of sentence 1, but the passage says nothing about the rich.
2. Anyone who paid for a cup could stay and listen → customers could learn from the discussions. D fits the grammar after because and mentions doctors from the text, but the text says doctors argued about coffee, not that they recommended coffee houses.
3. The order was withdrawn within days → failed almost immediately.

Common mistakes

• Choosing an ending because it contains a word from the text.
• Checking only grammar.
• Forgetting that the beginnings follow the order of the text and searching the whole passage for each one.
• Using an ending twice. Each ending is used once at most; if two sentences seem to need the same one, one choice is wrong.

Practise on real-format texts

These practice-room texts include matching sentence endings, with each answer checked and explained:

• Seeing in colour
• From wolf to best friend
• Putting the world on paper

When the endings are not given and you write them yourself, the task becomes sentence completion. Every type is listed in the IELTS Reading guide.

Common questions

Do the answers follow the order of the text? The beginnings do. The endings are listed in random order.

How many extra endings are there? Usually two or three more than the number of beginnings.

Is it in General Training too? Yes, though it appears more often in Academic texts.