Vocabulary
Customs, festivals, heritage and change, for speaking Part 2 and for Task 2. With a practice exercise.
IELTS vocabulary for culture is one of the most useful sets you can prepare for speaking. The Part 2 cue card regularly asks you to describe a festival, a tradition or an important celebration, and Part 3 and Task 2 go on to ask whether traditions are disappearing and whether they should be protected.
This page covers culture in the sense of customs and heritage. Music, art and theatre have their own page on the arts.
The words
Six groups. Learn one group at a time and write a sentence of your own for each word.
A custom: a traditional way of doing something in a society
A tradition: a belief or practice passed down through generations
A ritual: a set of actions always performed in the same way
Etiquette: the rules of polite behaviour
A norm: what is considered normal or expected in a society
A festival: a day or period of celebration
To celebrate: to mark a special occasion with enjoyable activities
To commemorate: to honour the memory of a person or event
A public holiday: a day when most people do not work
Festivities: the activities that make up a celebration
Cultural heritage: traditions, buildings and objects passed down from the past
A heritage site: a place protected for its historical or cultural value
Indigenous: belonging to the original people of a place
Folklore: traditional stories and beliefs of a community
To preserve: to keep something from being lost or damaged
Cultural identity: the sense of belonging to a particular culture
Multicultural: including people of many cultures
A minority: a smaller group within a larger society
Diversity: a range of different people or cultures
Values: beliefs about what is important and right
To die out: to disappear completely
To revive: to bring something back into use
Assimilation: becoming part of another culture and losing your own
Culture shock: confusion felt when living in an unfamiliar culture
Modernisation: the process of becoming modern
A custom is a practice. Customs can also mean the place at an airport where goods are checked, so context matters.
Celebrate is used for happy occasions. For a sad or serious event, such as remembering those who died in a war, use commemorate or mark.
Method
Six ways these words earn marks rather than just filling space.
Commemorate, preserve and indigenous let you say exactly what you mean about the past. Precise verbs matter as much as precise nouns.
You observe a tradition, hold a festival, preserve cultural heritage, pass down customs and experience culture shock.
Describe a festival or celebration is a very common Part 2 task. Knowing how to describe what happens, when and why, in English, removes most of the difficulty.
Are traditions disappearing? Should governments spend money preserving heritage? Is globalisation a threat to local culture? These recur in Part 3 and Task 2.
Statements about what all people from a country do read badly. Many families in my country or in some regions is more accurate.
If a festival or dish has a name in your language, say it, then explain it in English. The explanation is where the marks are.
Practice
Choose the answer that fits each sentence.
Read the whole sentence before you choose. Several options will be real words, and often more than one will nearly fit.
The test is precision: which word, or which pairing, means exactly what the sentence needs?
1The rules of polite behaviour in a society are its ______.
Etiquette. Folklore is traditional stories and beliefs, which is a different idea.
2Each year the town holds a ceremony to ______ those who died in the war.
Commemorate. Celebrate is for happy occasions and would be inappropriate here.
3Belonging to the original people of a place is ______.
Indigenous. It is the precise and respectful term.
4Which is the natural pairing?
Pass down. You can also hand down a tradition. Pass away means to die.
5When a tradition disappears completely, it ______.
Dies out. Die down means to become less strong, such as noise or wind.
6Confusion felt when living in an unfamiliar culture is ______.
Culture shock. Assimilation is becoming part of another culture, which may happen later.
7Traditions, buildings and objects passed down from the past are our cultural ______.
Heritage. Identity is the sense of belonging, which heritage can help create.
8Which sentence is more precise?
B. Precise nouns, a natural phrasal verb and a clear argument.
That is the commonest vocabulary problem at Band 6, and it is very hard to see in your own writing because each word looks correct on its own.
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Recognising a word in a multiple choice is not the same as producing it accurately under time.
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Yes. Festivals and traditions are frequent Part 2 cue cards, and cultural change appears regularly in Part 3 and Task 2.
They overlap. A custom is a usual way of doing something. A tradition emphasises being passed down through generations.
Yes, for names of festivals or dishes, but explain them in English. The explanation is what the examiner assesses.
Celebrate is for happy occasions. Commemorate means to honour the memory of a person or event, often a serious one.
Both, in general English. This page covers customs and heritage, and the arts page covers music, art and theatre.
Full membership
Technique takes most candidates to about Band 6.5. Past that, the limit is usually the range of language you can use accurately, and knowing where you stand is the first step.
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