Vocabulary
Homes, renting, buying and affordability, for speaking and for Task 2. With a practice exercise.
IELTS vocabulary for housing is needed from the very first minute of the speaking test, when many candidates are asked whether they live in a house or an apartment. It returns in Part 3 and Task 2 as a question about affordability, home ownership and how cities should house growing populations.
The words below go beyond describing a building. They cover the way people rent, buy and pay for their homes, which is where most of the arguments are.
The words
Six groups. Learn one group at a time and write a sentence of your own for each word.
A detached house: a house not joined to any other
A semi-detached house: one of two houses joined by a shared wall
A terraced house: one of a row of houses joined together
An apartment block: a building divided into many flats
A studio: a small flat with one main room
A tenant: someone who pays rent to live in a property
A landlord: the owner who rents a property out
A lease: the legal agreement between them
A deposit: money paid at the start and returned at the end if there is no damage
Rented accommodation: housing that is rented rather than owned
A mortgage: a loan used to buy a home
A first-time buyer: someone buying their first home
To get on the property ladder: to buy a first home
Home ownership: owning the home you live in
The property market: the buying and selling of homes
Affordable housing: homes people on average incomes can pay for
A housing shortage: not enough homes for the people who need them
House prices: what homes cost to buy
Social housing: homes provided at low rent by the state or a charity
Homelessness: having nowhere to live
Spacious: with plenty of room
Cramped: uncomfortably small for the people living there
Cosy: small, warm and comfortable
Well-maintained: kept in good condition
Run-down: in poor condition
Accommodation is uncountable in British English: I am looking for accommodation, not an accommodation. It is also one of the most misspelt words in the test: double c, double m.
House and home are not the same. A house is a building. Home is where you live, whatever kind of building it is.
Method
Six ways these words earn marks rather than just filling space.
Terraced, semi-detached and detached describe exactly the kind of house you live in, and they are standard British English. A big house says far less.
You rent a flat, take out a mortgage, get on the property ladder, tackle a housing shortage and build affordable homes.
Is it better to rent or buy? Should the government build more homes? Why are young people struggling to buy a home? These recur, and the renting, buying and affordability groups answer all three.
I live in a flat is a complete but thin answer. I live in a fairly cramped two-bedroom flat in the city centre shows range in the same number of seconds.
Housing connects naturally to cities, money and families. Vocabulary from those topics makes housing answers fuller.
Accommodation, mortgage and maintenance are all regularly misspelt. In writing, a misspelt word counts against Lexical Resource.
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?
1Someone who pays rent to live in a property is a ______.
Tenant. The landlord owns the property and receives the rent.
2A loan used to buy a home is a ______.
Mortgage. A deposit is the part you pay yourself at the start.
3Which is correct?
Accommodation is uncountable in British English, so it takes no article and no plural.
4One of a row of houses joined together is a ______ house.
Terraced. A semi-detached house is joined to only one other.
5To buy your first home is to get on the property ______.
Ladder. It is a fixed expression. The property market is the buying and selling of homes generally.
6A flat that is uncomfortably small for the people living in it is ______.
Cramped. Cosy is small in a pleasant way, which is a positive word.
7Homes provided at low rent by the state are ______ housing.
Social housing. Affordable housing is a broader term for homes average earners can pay for.
8Which sentence is more precise?
B. The same argument, with precise terms and a natural fixed expression.
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. Where you live is a standard Part 1 question, and affordability and home ownership appear in Part 3 and Task 2.
Not in British English. Say accommodation, a place to live or somewhere to stay, never an accommodation.
A house is a type of building. Home is the place where you live, whether that is a house, a flat or a room.
Both are correct. Flat is more common in British English and apartment in American English.
Whether it is better to rent or buy, or what governments should do about rising house prices.
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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