Vocabulary
Places, housing, transport and infrastructure, for describing where people live. With a practice exercise.
IELTS vocabulary for cities is unusually useful because it appears in every paper. Speaking Part 1 asks about your hometown, Part 3 about urban life, Task 2 about transport and housing, and listening Section 2 is frequently about a place.
Most candidates describe a city with big, small, busy and nice. The words below let you say the same things precisely, which is what Lexical Resource is assessing.
The words
Six groups covering the places, the buildings and the systems that connect them.
Urban — of the city.
Rural — of the countryside.
Suburban — the residential areas around a city.
The outskirts — the edge, where the city meets the countryside.
Inner city — the central residential districts.
Cosmopolitan — with people from many countries.
Metropolitan — relating to a large city and its surrounding area.
Coastal, inland and mountainous describe where a city sits.
CBD — Central Business District, the commercial centre.
Accommodation — the general word for places to live.
Housing estate — a planned residential area.
Apartment in American English, flat in British English.
High-rise — a tall residential building.
Detached house — standing on its own.
Skyscraper — a very tall building.
Office tower — a tall commercial building.
Landmark — a well-known building used to identify a place.
Industrial estate — an area set aside for factories and warehouses.
Public transport — buses, trains and trams.
Commuter — someone who travels to work daily.
Congestion — heavy traffic.
Pedestrianised — closed to cars.
Infrastructure — the roads, pipes and networks a city runs on.
Urban sprawl — uncontrolled outward spread.
Regeneration — improving a run-down area.
Gentrification — when an area becomes wealthier and existing residents are priced out.
Overcrowding, pollution, a housing shortage.
Method
Six points worth getting right.
Urban means the city. Suburban means the residential belt around it. Using them interchangeably is a precision error.
A small town can be cosmopolitan and a huge city can fail to be. It refers to a mix of nationalities and cultures.
Flat and apartment, ground floor and first floor. Either is accepted, but be consistent within one answer.
You ease congestion, tackle overcrowding, invest in infrastructure, regenerate a district and commute into the centre.
Describing your hometown as a coastal city on the outskirts of a metropolitan area is a far stronger answer than saying it is quite big.
Three precise terms in a row reads as a list. Two well-placed words in a paragraph is what a high band looks like.
Practice
Match the definition to the word.
Each definition matches one word exactly. Where two options seem close, ask which one is more specific.
Precision is the point: several answers will be true, but only one will be exact.
1The edge of a city, where it meets the countryside.
The outskirts. The suburbs are residential areas around the city, which may be well inside the edge.
2The opposite of rural.
Urban. Suburban is a subdivision of urban rather than its opposite.
3A city with people from many different countries and cultures.
Cosmopolitan. Metropolitan refers to size and area, not to the mix of people. A small town can be cosmopolitan.
4The uncontrolled outward spread of a city.
Urban sprawl. Gentrification is about an area becoming wealthier, which is a different problem.
5Which is the natural pairing?
Ease congestion. Reduce and tackle also work. The other three are not natural English.
6Which is the stronger speaking Part 1 answer?
B. Two precise terms, a specific figure and a personal detail. Same information, considerably more to assess.
Almost everyone does at first. This is one of the fastest topic sets to improve, because the words are concrete and easy to attach to places you know.
The complete IELTS course on IELTStestONLINE has video lessons on every question type, many more exercises like this one, and your own support tutor you can ask when an answer does not make sense. Take a look at the complete course
Choosing from options is easier than producing the word under pressure in the speaking test.
IELTStestONLINE keeps every score you get in one place, gives you an estimated band as you work, and assesses your writing and speaking against the four criteria so you can see where you stand before test day. See what full membership includes
Urban refers to the city itself. Suburban refers to the residential areas around it. They are not interchangeable.
Having people from many countries and cultures. It describes the population rather than the size, so a small town can be cosmopolitan.
Either is accepted. Flat is British and apartment is American. Be consistent within one answer rather than mixing them.
When an area becomes wealthier and existing residents are priced out. It is a useful word for Task 2 questions about housing.
In every paper. Speaking Part 1 asks about your hometown, Task 2 covers transport and housing, and listening Section 2 is often about a place.
Full membership
Learning them takes a fortnight. Knowing whether you are using them accurately enough for the band you need takes an assessor.
IELTStestONLINE assesses your writing and speaking against the four IELTS criteria, instantly and as often as you like, using a system built by a former IELTS examiner and examiner trainer. It keeps every score in one place with an estimated band, and it carries no advertising.
See what membership includes