Useful+ idioms+ for+ ielts+ speaking

KEITH O'HAREUSEFUL IDIOMS FOR IELTS SPEAKING... He has helped over 40,000 students prepare for their IELTS Speaking test with his online courses.. Idioms are important because they help

KEITH O'HARE

USEFUL IDIOMS

FOR IELTS SPEAKING

C O P Y R I G H T © 2 0 2 2 , K E I T H S P E A K I N G A C A D E M Y

Keith runs The Keith Speaking Academy He has been working in international education for

over 20 years as a teacher, teacher trainer, and education manager

He has helped over 40,000 students prepare for their IELTS Speaking test with his online

courses.

About the Author

C O P Y R I G H T © 2 0 2 2 , K E I T H S P E A K I N G A C A D E M Y

In this PDF, I will showy you lots of useful idioms for IELTS Speaking that

you can use for any topic

Idioms are important because they help you understand natural

English, and also because to get a Band 7+ in IELTS Speaking you need to use ‘some less common and idiomatic vocabulary’

Many students find idioms a challenge –

Which do I learn?

How do I use them?

Well there are thousands of them, and I suggest you should learn 1 idiom

a day as a regular part of your daily English diet

Rather than going to lists, I would note them as you hear them in context, such as a podcast or TV series

C O P Y R I G H T © 2 0 2 2 , K E I T H S P E A K I N G A C A D E M Y

My take on this is, it’s a good idea

To my way of thinking , it’s a good idea

I’m in two minds about this.

I’m on the fence

In IELTS Speaking you are often asked to give your opinion on a topic, and there are different idiomatic expressions you can use to express your opinion

Let’s take the following question:

Many governments are investing in space travel What do you think about this?

You could reply with either of the following,

If you are unsure about your opinion, you could say one of the following;

If you want to talk about one most important idea, you can use the expression,

For example,

It boils down to money Can we afford to invest in space exploration?

I don’t think so

Or you might say,

It boils down to one thing, our planet is in danger, so we need to explore space.

It boils down to + noun = the most important thing is _

C O P Y R I G H T © 2 0 2 2 , K E I T H S P E A K I N G A C A D E M Y

Very often in the test, you are asked whether you like something or not For example,

Do you like your job / football / fast food? (Single nouns)

Here are some useful idioms for IELTS Speaking that you can use in this case The first is to say you like it, the second is if you don’t care or you are indifferent, and the third is to say you don’t like it

It’s the bees knees = I love it

I can take it or leave it = I don’t care / mind It’s not my cup of tea = I don’t like it

C O P Y R I G H T © 2 0 2 2 , K E I T H S P E A K I N G A C A D E M Y

A.I.

Museums

Art

Architecture

I can’t make head or tail of it (GB)

I can’t make heads or tails of it (US)

I can’t get my head around it

Some topics in IELTS Speaking can be confusing and you may not honestly really understand them

For example,

That’s fine, you just need to say you don’t fully understand them, or you find them confusing

This is a great opportunity to show off your language If the examiner asks,

What do you think of Artificial Intelligence?

You can try the following:

C O P Y R I G H T © 2 0 2 2 , K E I T H S P E A K I N G A C A D E M Y

I’d like to talk about my father

The person I want to talk about is none other than my father

In IELTS Speaking Part 2, you may need to talk about a person, maybe some you like or admire

Instead of saying,

You could say,

‘none other than’ is used to introduce someone that might be a surprise

to the listener

C O P Y R I G H T © 2 0 2 2 , K E I T H S P E A K I N G A C A D E M Y

is hands down the best

is second to none

is a cut above the rest

I think the world of

Harry Kane is hands down the best football player in England

My Maths teacher is so good, she is second to none

Samsung phones are a cut above the rest

I think the world of my father

As mentioned above, in Part 2, you may have to talk about a person, or possibly a place, an activity, or a thing

If you want to describe any of these as good, you can use the following expressions,

Here are some specific examples:

C O P Y R I G H T © 2 0 2 2 , K E I T H S P E A K I N G A C A D E M Y

It’s a run-of-the-mill restaurant

This hotel is ok, but nothing to write home about

If on the hand, you want to describe a person, place, activity or thing as normal, nothing special, you can say,

C O P Y R I G H T © 2 0 2 2 , K E I T H S P E A K I N G A C A D E M Y

Finally, some things may not be good at all When we want to compare 2 things or people, saying one is not as good as the other, we can say,

The latest Marvel film is not a patch on the previous film.

This restaurant is not a patch on the one we went to last week

This singer is ok, but she can’t hold a candle to Beyoncé

Here are some specific examples:

It is not a patch on = It’s not as good as

It can’t hold a candle to = It’s not as good as

C O P Y R I G H T © 2 0 2 2 , K E I T H S P E A K I N G A C A D E M Y

I hope you will find these idioms useful for your IELTS Speaking test

Remember, always learn idioms in context, and just learn 1 or 2 a day

Idioms are fun because they help you add colour, metaphor and

humour to your speech This is why they are used a lot in the news, or by

politicians to make their speech more attractive

Think of them as a the salt or pepper of your speech, they add flavour

Don’t overuse them in your speech, it won’t sound natural – too much salt will ruin the flavour of your speech!

Which idiom are you going to learn and try using?

WWW.KEITHSPEAKINGACADEMY.COM

Find out more about my work at