Useful+ idioms+ for+ ielts+ speaking

USEFUL IDIOMS
FOR IELTS SPEAKING
KEITH O'HARE


About the Author
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.

COPYRIGHT © 2022, KEITH SPEAKING ACADEMY


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.

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COPYRIGHT © 2022, KEITH SPEAKING ACADEMY


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,
My take on this is, it’s a good idea
To my way of thinking, it’s a good idea
If you are unsure about your opinion, you could say one of the following;
I’m in two minds about this.
I’m on the fence.
If you want to talk about one most important idea, you can use the
expression,

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

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COPYRIGHT © 2022, KEITH SPEAKING ACADEMY


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

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COPYRIGHT © 2022, KEITH SPEAKING ACADEMY


Some topics in IELTS Speaking can be confusing and you may not
honestly really understand them.
For example,
Science
A.I.
Museums
Art
Architecture
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:
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

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In IELTS Speaking Part 2, you may need to talk about a person, maybe
some you like or admire.
Instead of saying,
I’d like to talk about my father
You could say,
The person I want to talk about is none other than my father
‘none other than’ is used to introduce someone that might be a surprise
to the listener.

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COPYRIGHT © 2022, KEITH SPEAKING ACADEMY


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,
______ is hands down the best
________ is second to none
______ is a cut above the rest
I think the world of ________
Here are some specific examples:
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

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COPYRIGHT © 2022, KEITH SPEAKING ACADEMY


If on the hand, you want to describe a person, place, activity or thing as
normal, nothing special, you can say,
It’s a run-of-the-mill restaurant
This hotel is ok, but nothing to write home about

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COPYRIGHT © 2022, KEITH SPEAKING ACADEMY


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,

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 ______

Here are some specific examples:
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

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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?

Find out more about my work at
WWW.KEITHSPEAKINGACADEMY.COM

COPYRIGHT © 2022, KEITH SPEAKING ACADEMY