Expand Your IELTS Vocabulary – Transportation 

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Talking about transportation is a frequent occurrence in everyday life, and the IELTS Speaking test is no exception. The theme of transportation is likely to arise in any of the three parts of the Speaking test. You may be asked to discuss your experience with public transport and daily travel, talk about a specific type of transport (e.g. boats), describe a journey you’ve made, or speculate about transportation in the future. In addition, transportation is also a common theme for Writing Task 2. Here you’re likely to be asked to analyze a specific problem related to transportation and, in some cases, identify possible solutions. So let’s take a look at five relevant sub-topics that we recommend you use to get your vocabulary sets started:

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When learning idioms related to transportation for your IELTS, keep in mind that many idioms in English include words related to transportation, but are not necessarily used to talk about transport (for example, the idiom to throw someone under the bus means to put the blame on another person). Here we’ll look at some idioms that you can use to talk about transportation on your IELTS test:

idiom

meaning

example

bumper to bumper

with very little space between two cars in a line of cars

The traffic’s usually bumper to bumper all the way to work.

backseat driver

a passenger in a car who gives unwanted advice to the driver

My wife’s very much a backseat driver - she always tells me to speed up or slow down.

hit the road

to begin a trip

I like to hit the road early when going on long journeys.

hitch a lift/ride

to get a free ride in someone else’s vehicle

After the festival, we hitched a lift back to the city.

beat the traffic

to leave early to avoid traveling when the roads are crowded

I always try to leave early in the morning so I can beat the traffic on my way to school.

Don’t forget to keep your vocabulary notebook nearby when preparing for the test in order to keep extending your vocabulary sets. If you think of other possible sub-topics that you can explore during your preparation time (e.g. at the airport), write them down and make sure to include the useful details shown above for each new vocabulary item.

Stay tuned for our next IELTS vocabulary theme – the environment!

By Andrea Castro