How to use Idioms in the IELTS Speaking test | Writing for Academic IELTS PDF Download

Idiom

An idiom is a phrase or expression that generally has non-literal meaning - the meaning cannot be directly understood by reading each word. For example, if you are very happy because you got a band 8 in your Speaking test, you might say: "I was over the moon when I saw my results". If we look at the literal meaning of these words, we think about looking over the moon up in the sky beyond the stars! However, the idiomatic meaning of this phrase is to do with happiness - "I was very happy when I saw my result."

Idioms are used so often in a natural way by native speakers that they often go unnoticed, we are not even aware that we are using them because we have grown up listening to these phrases and expressions. However, when you are a language learner, you have to learn how to use them correctly, so they don't sound unnatural. You might have heard the term collocation, which is also assessed in the IELTS Speaking test. Collocation refers to words that often go together naturally and are generally used in that order when speaking. For example, you would never say food fast as the order is incorrect, you would always say fast food. Collocation is very important when using idiomatic language as the words you choose are just as important as the order they are spoken in.

Phrasal verb

A phrasal verb is a compound verb where a verb is combined with an adverb or a preposition. When these phrasal verbs are made, they often have idiomatic meaning, and you cannot understand the meaning by reading what each word means. For example, the combination of the verb pick plus the preposition up - pick up - means lift. We can use this phrasal verb to ask someone to pick up something we dropped on the ground, or we can also use this expression to ask for a lift in a car - "I need a lift, can you please pick me up on the way to school?"

So, as you can see, we use idiomatic language all the time to express ourselves in a more colourful way where the combination of words we use have idiomatic meaning.

Let's look at some common idioms and phrasal verbs that are used in everyday communication.

Common everyday idioms

There are thousands of idioms and phrasal verbs used every day when we express ourselves. I will pick out (choose) a few that are used commonly in daily conversation.