IELTS Speaking Vocabulary: HOLIDAYS

(upbeat music)

- We are talking about holidays.

If you've just arrived, why are you late? (laughs)

Don't worry. We're talking about holidays.

We're gonna start talking here in particular

about vocabulary for holidays, okay?

Collocations.

Just a quick look again at collocations here, right?

I just wanna share these with you.

So when we talk about a holiday, collocations with holiday,

we might have a...

Well, have a look.

You can probably guess a lot of these, right?

As you look, a ca holiday, a sk holiday.

So what you are looking at here, yeah, these, right?

You might have a camping holiday,

a skiing holiday, a summer holiday.

You could have a winter holiday. Why not?

A beach holiday.

A package holiday.

A package holiday is where everything is included.

Oops. Everything is included.

Food, tours, drinks, travel.

That's a package holiday.

Some people really like package holidays.

It's where you go to the travel agents.

Do people still go to the travel agents? I guess so.

I think a lot of people book online nowadays,

but if you go to a travel agents, they often offer

like a city break for the weekend,

including your flight, your food, your hotel,

a trip, guided tour.

That kind of package is a package tour, package holiday.

Everything is included.

It's a very common collocation. It's a very common holiday.

Very popular holiday. Lots of people like it.

Why? Because it's super convenient.

Everything is organized.

You just turn up and enjoy and eat and drink.

The downside is you have to follow

a strict timetable every day.

And there's no independence to do your own thing.

But, you know, it's courses for horses.

It's different people like different things.

So package holiday, a cruise holiday, right?

Some people like to go on a ship.

Just in case you don't know. Going on a ship.

Some people love cruise holidays.

Or an adventure holiday you could also have, right?

And breaks.

Well, actually, before we look at break,

just let me take some of your questions here.

Where are we? There was one up here.

What's the meaning of...

Okay, Nova, skiing. Let me show you.

It's a good question. A few people have asked about skiing.

It's a strange word because in English,

skiing has a double I, right?

But if we go into Google,

you'll see straight away, this is skiing, right?

Skiing on the snow.

To ski and the noun skiing, I-I, double I.

I know. Strange spelling, but that's it.

That's skiing. Good question.

Backpack holiday. Romelia, lovely to see you as always.

Yeah, backpack holiday you could have.

So that's where you put a rucksack and you go backpacking.

To go backpacking or to backpack.

A backpacking holiday. A backpack holiday.

We can add that one. Why not?

A backpack.

You can say, I would say, "Let's go backpacking."

I think that's quite a nice...

An example, right? To see how you use it.

Let's go backpacking.

Lots of young people go backpacking.

Albert, lovely. All-inclusive, an all-inclusive holiday.

So that's the same as a package holiday, right?

So how can I put that? Because...

Okay, it's a or an.

A or an, because some of these begin with a vowel, right?

So an adventure holiday.

An all-inclusive holiday.

Lovely. Nice, lovely.

An all-inclusive holiday. Very, very nice.

Camping. Yes, Komron, camping holiday.

A fitness holiday. I've never heard of a fitness holiday.

But you know, I am out of touch. I probably don't know.

I'm guessing that's where you do a lot of sport, right?

Recently actually my brother

and his wife went on a cycling holiday.

Oh, cycling holiday.

Cycling from one village to another

and stopping at different vineyards.

This was in France, in Provence, on France.

So a cycling holiday. Whoops, maybe a fitness holiday.

Possibly a walking holiday. Yes, cycling holiday, yes.

Definitely. Interesting ideas.

I'll answer that question in a moment.

I can see an interesting question.

So skiing, we said we've got, yes, skiing on snow.

Overseas holiday. Possibly, yes.

Staycation is quite...

Yeah, staycation is a kind of holiday

where you stay at home, basically.

Okay, great.

(laughs) Kristin, don't get caught.

You're secretly watching the lesson.

There was another question, but I've lost it.

They've all gone too fast. Not to worry.

A break we can talk about.

Yeah, a city break, a countryside break.

So a break is normally a short holiday.

It's normally for one or two days, maybe three or four days.

So a holiday is normally longer,

and a break is normally shorter.

So a break is kind of...

It means a break from work. So it's a break.

Normally, we think of that as shorter.

So a city break, you go and visit a city.

Countryside break, you go and stay in the countryside.

Be careful, a city break is not

that you take a break from the city

and go to the countryside,

it's that you visit another city.

A countryside break, obviously you stay in a countryside.

Fishing holiday, absolutely, yeah. A safari holiday, yes.

Normally, yes, absolutely. Yeah, foreign holiday, yes.

All of these, absolutely.

Meditating holiday, I've never heard of it,

but I'm sure it exists, as you say, BabySongs.

Honeymoon holiday.

Alexander, the idea is right

but in English, we wouldn't say holiday.

We just say a honeymoon, right?

Not honeymoon holiday, only a honeymoon.

So we would say, you know, "We're going on our honeymoon."

I'll write this down. We are going on our honey...

So even happy couples just married can speak good English.

(laughs) We are going on our honeymoon

without holiday, right?

Excellent. Winter holiday we've got, yes.

A beach break, yes you could have a beach break.

Yes, let me write that in. Let's go for a beach break.

Again, the idea is that that is shorter than a holiday.

To go on a city break or to take a city break.

Yeah, let's go on a city break. Let's take a city break.

I want to go on a city break.

Nice, yeah, all of those are good examples there.

Excellent. Good.

(laughs) A coffee break. Yes, you are right.

Because that break is super short, right?

Just for a few minutes. Exactly.

So, bing, vocabulary.

Bing.

Holidays.

Holiday, now I've chosen this word because it actually has

two different meanings.

Sometimes there's a confusion.

A holiday is a time when you don't work

so you can travel or relax, right?

Camping holiday, cycling holiday, a winter holiday.

All of those are holidays. You don't work.

I'm going on holiday next week, so to go on holiday, right?

Notice the use to go on holiday.

I'm going on holiday next week.

We can also say, "I am taking a holiday next month."

So to go on holiday or taking a holiday.

Both of those are fine.

The other meaning of holiday

is an official day off work,

usually for national celebrations.

For national or religious sometimes celebrations.

And this is normally when we talk about

a holiday, one day, right?

Not always one day, but often.

So July the fourth. Today is a holiday, right?

In the United States, July the fourth

is the Day of Independence.

It's a holiday. It's a national holiday.

It doesn't mean people go camping and cycling and safari.

It's a holiday. It's a day off work.

The point is it's an official time off work.

Official being the important word here, right?

It's an official day off work.

Holidays, you choose. Up here.

But holiday here is an official day off work.

Now, yes, it's true. It's not always one day.

We can talk about the Christmas holidays.

You might talk about Ramadan holidays.

Holly is a one-day holiday.

Easter is like a three-day holiday.

So, but those are official holidays for...

Organized by the government if you like.

Okay, so there are two different meanings

to holiday basically.

In the UK, we often talk about a bank holiday

because this kind of holiday, number two...

Let me just put number one just to make it a bit clearer.

The kind of official holidays are...

Are what?

Kind of official holidays are normally one day...

In England, they're normally on a Monday.

I don't know why, but Mondays are often bank holidays.

So we have bank holiday Mondays.

I'm not sure why it's called a bank holiday.

Probably something to do with the banks, obviously,

but I don't know why.

We often call it a public holiday or a religious holiday.

We can say Christmas is my favorite holiday.

Next Monday is a bank holiday.

We are going to the beach for the day.

Next Monday is a bank holiday.

I'm pretty sure this is only in the UK

that we have bank holidays.

I don't think they say that in the United States or Canada.

And I'm not sure about Australia.

Maybe those of you in Australia can let me know

or New Zealand for that matter.

Hmm. Okay.

So, different meanings. Slightly different meanings.

Vesak holiday as well.

(indistinct) holiday as well. Yes, exactly.

Exactly, there are different kinds of holidays.

Each country has their own kind.

Charlotte, good question. Can holiday be a verb?

Yes, it can. To holiday, we do also say...

Yeah, it's rarely used but it does exist as a verb.

But we don't use it very much to be honest.

It's not easy to use so I would tend to avoid it.

I've no idea why the bank holidays are Monday.

I really don't know but they always are.

Synonyms for a holiday, we can talk about a vacation.

So as I mentioned, this tends to be a bit more...

Whoops, it tends to be a bit more in the USA

that they say that.

(coughing) But to be honest, nowadays,

even in Britain, we say a vacation.

A break, a getaway, an excursion, a trip.

These are a bit shorter.

So as I mentioned, a vacation and a holiday is longer.

A break, a getaway, the idea that you get away from work.

An excursion is a trip.

These normally are shorter, maybe one or two or three days.

And the shortest, a day trip. A day out.

These are just one-day holidays.

So these are synonyms,

not exact synonyms, but similar meaning, right?

Okay, good.

There's the getaway.

I know somebody was asking about getaways earlier.

Next word, destination. Very important word, destination.

It's not an easy word, right? Destination.

We have a kind of a soft stress on the de.

So when you see this, it's a soft stress

and that when you have the top one, it's the hard stress.

So we stress nation,

but there's a soft stress on des, destination.

Can you say that? Destination.

It kind of floats, right? Destination.

Nation. Destination.

Can you say it?

Collocations. A popular destination.

A holiday destination.

Great. Good, nice.

Spain is a popular destination for holiday makers.

Holiday maker is somebody going on holiday, right?

So Italy is our holiday destination this year.

It's not true, but it's an example. (laughs)

Okay.

Lyuba, nice to hear you. Lyuba, that's great.

Very pleased to hear that.

I'm happy that you're sharing this

with your students as well.

On holidays or on holiday?

On holiday. To go on holiday, yeah.

Is Christmas religious holiday? Yes, it is.

Celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Yes.

Excellent. Good.

Tourist, yeah, Mohab, this is a good one.

Tourist destination. Let me just help you a little bit.

So rather than tourist destination, tourist,

we would put it in the singular.

So the adjective tourist as an adjective.

A tourist destination, yeah? Tourist destination.

Nice. Very, very nice, great.

There are synonyms for...

Oh, not for destination but for holiday maker.

So people on holiday.

So for talking about people on holiday, holiday maker.

Two words, sorry.

Sightseer. sightseer.

It's a strange word, isn't it? And strange spelling.

It comes from this, right? To see the sights.

So the sights are the interesting touristic places.

A sight like, I don't know, like a museum or a statue.

The Eiffel Tower. Maybe a monument.

So these are the different sights.

So when you see the sights, you are a sightseer.

Not an easy word.

Sightseer, the stress on the sight. Sightseer.

Sightseer

I'm a sightseer.

I like to be a sightseer.

I like to be a sightseer.

Good, when you're practicing, really feel the rhythm

and the stress.

It's music, right?

I like to be a sightseer. (humming)

I like to be a sightseer.

There's just this flow, right?

It's a bit like, I don't know, dancing

in a way, in a strange way, okay?

We can also say a tourist, a traveler, and a visitor.

All of those can be used.

Slight differences in meaning but all more or less the same.

I should just make this clear

that we're talking about people as a noun, right?

Just let me make that clearer.

Holiday maker I think is the most popular

and tourist is the most popular.

Traveler and visitor are used less.

But yeah, definitely can be used.

Now, this is an interesting word, Muhammad,

and I'm glad you've brought this up.

A nomad, similar word to that.

A nomad is like a traveler, yeah.

I think the only difference is that a nomad...

A traveler, it can sound a bit like a profession.

Like a professional traveler.

Somebody who travels for long periods of time.

And similar for a nomad, we have the idea of somebody

who is moving for long periods of time, for months or years.

They move and they stay in different places.

We often use it idiomatically as well.

Nowadays, we talk about digital nomads.

So young people, hey, even me could be an older person.

If my life is digital, my job is digital. I work online.

A lot of young people working online

live in different places for maybe three months, six months.

And they travel, right? They're a nomad, a digital nomad.

That's a common expression, right?

As Corinne says, yeah, it's a nomad,.

It's a person moving often.

It goes back. It's a very old term.

It goes back to the tribes

who would move from village to village.

They were nomadic, right? Nomadic people, nomadic tribes.

But we still use the word today, a nomad.

But it's that idea of traveling for a long period of time.

So if you are going to London for a weekend,

you're not a nomad.

You could be a traveler.

But again, a traveler, I would think

is a person who often travels.

So if you go to London for a weekend once a year,

it's not a traveler.

A traveler often travels. Good, I like the word nomad.

That is coming up later in the lesson.

So keep your eyes open. Great question, Muhammad Ismail.

Thank you for that.

Okay, let me move on.

Shall I put a digital nomad?

I'll just add that 'cause somebody asked a digital nomad.

Sorry, it's a long explanation, but there you go.

A digital nomad.

For me, it's a person working online

and moving or living in different places

for periods of time.

Next one, accommodation. We've got two words actually.

Accommodation, stress on the dation. Accommodation,

Notice accomma, it's a-comm-a.

So it's not a-commo, it's a-comma.

A-comma.

Do you know like when you're writing, you have a, (hums)?

A comma, right?

Ba-ba-ba-ba, comma, da-da-da-da.

A-ccomma. Accomodation.

So just say accommodation.

Accommodation.

Comfortable accommodation.

Cheap accommodation.

Nice, excellent. Good.

Accommodation, meaning of course,

it's a place where someone may live or stay.

So accommodation can be where you live,

your house or your flat is accommodation,

but it's also a hotel where you're staying for a few days.

It's interesting, in English, we don't say

to live in a hotel.

It's very strange to live in a hotel. (laughs)

In some languages, it translates like,

"I'm living in a hotel."

No, you're not. You're staying in a hotel.

The only people who live in a hotel

are probably the owner and possibly the staff.

But you don't live in a hotel.

You stay in a hotel, but you live in your house.

But accommodation is all of those, right?

For example, we need to book the accommodation.

I can't find any cheap accommodation.

Great. This word is a strange word, itinerary.

Itinerary. Itinerary.

Stress on the T. Itinerary.

Itinerary.

Can I do it the other way? Itinerary. (laughs)

Itinerary.

Very often actually, British people say itinery.

It should be itinerary but we say itinery.

Itinerary.

And that is your planned route or journey day by day.

Do you know often you'll knock over your microphone?

Often, you'll write Monday, visit London.

Tuesday, visit Manchester.

Wednesday, visit Nottingham, right?

This is a holiday around England. That is your itinerary.

It's what you are going to do each day.

It's a planned route or journey.

It can include destination, time, activity.

It could just be a map, but it could be more complicated.

We talk about a travel itinerary.

Try and say this. Itinerary.

A travel itinerary.

A daily itinerary.

Mm-hmm, not bad.

Have you made a travel itinerary?

Have you made a daily itinerary for your holiday?

Some people do, some people don't.

Brian, I'm living at a friend's house.

Can I call it my accommodation?

I think if it's temporary...

It's a bit unusual. It's a bit strange.

I think it's more...

You could, yeah, but I think you could.

It depends on the context, I think.

How long you're staying there.

Ali, talking about your holidays,

I've planned to go on an adventure holiday like safari

to explore every nook and cranny.

Very nice. Great.

Excellent. Good.

What else have we got?

Is an air ticket as itinerary? No, no, no.

So the itinerary is normally the list of

a planned route or journey.

So list of destinations,

times, activities.

Oh, help. (laughs) Thank you.

Yeah, so it's not one thing like a ticket.

It's more a list or a plan, right?

It's the plan rather, yeah.

Okay, good. Good question.

Thank you so much for that.

(speaks in foreign language) Nice to see you here.

Good. Excellent.

Freelancer, very nice video. Really awesome.

Thank you very much. That's very nice.

And here, Health Riddle says,

"We prepare a tunnel itinerary for work schedule."

Interesting. I need some more context.

Itinerary like a schedule. Yes, yep if you like, good, yep.

It's a plan, it's a schedule. Yep, yes.

My exam is coming tomorrow.

How advice can you give me to prepare?

Watch this lesson and then go to bed. Just relax.

Just listen and read to lots of English.

Don't study. Not the day before the exam.

It's not worth it. Just surround yourself with English.

Listen, read, but relax. It's a big day tomorrow.

Relax and believe in yourself.

I'm sure you'll do great, my friend.

Okay, excellent. Good.

A bit more vocabulary just to add in.

We've got, I'm gonna add in budget,

which is my final word, right?

Now budget has different forms.

Budget can be a noun

and it's countable and it's a financial plan basically.

A financial plan. A budget.

Budget.

Watch my mouth, budget.

Dget, dget.

Budget. A budget.

Make a budget, stick to a budget or follow the budget.

The budget is, in England, it's the financial plan

of the president or the treasury we call the budget

but you can have a personal budget, a personal budget.

So you'll have a budget maybe for your,

the money that you earn and how you spend it.

A holiday budget.

how much money you're gonna spend on your holiday.

Okay, a budget.

For example, we need to draw up a budget.

Nice, to draw up means to make, to draw up a budget.

Let's stick to the budget, meaning follow.

It's not within our budget,

meaning it's too expensive.

Let me just make that clear.

So to draw up a budget, to make.

To stick to the budget, to follow.

It is not within our budget, it's too expensive, right?

Look at that auto complete. It makes my life easier.

Notice budget is also a verb. To budget.

Same stress, to budget.

And this is to plan how much you'll spend.

We often say, "I haven't budgeted for something."

I haven't budgeted for food.

Or you know, you may say, "Well, you need to budget for,

well, if you go on holiday to England..."

Better example, so lots of students, not true,

some students ask me for advice about

going to study in the UK.

And I say, "Well, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."

And remember, you must budget for accommodation for a year.

Budget for rent, budget for food, budget for going out.

And of course, you need to pay the fees

because some students just look at the fees

and they forget to budget for accommodation.

To budget for food, to budget for going out.

So you need to budget for all of those things,

to budget for something.

Also, it hasn't finished, budget can be an adjective.

We can say something that's very cheap a budget hotel.

A budget flight, a budget hostel, a budget camping site.

Right, it can be an adjective, meaning very, very cheap.

So budget, very flexible word.

Canaletto, thank you so much.

Eva, welcome back from your holiday.

Eva is one of my students on the gold course

who's sharing her photos in Scotland.

She went on holiday in Scotland. You're so lucky.

We had to stick to our budget in Scotland.

So we were eating out only twice.

You mean twice a day or the whole holiday? (laughs)

Great. Yes, similar thing, similar.

Not exactly the same but similar.

Does budget as an adjective have the same meaning

as budget-friendly?

Yes, it does. Exactly.

Because budget-friendly means

it's good for your budget so it's cheap or good value.

So yes, it's the same meaning, Linh Chu.

Great question, yes.

Kevin says, "I need to budget for my overseas education."

Yes.

Sheldon, "Can we use plan to replace itinerary?"

Yes, you can. Itinerary is a more advanced word.

But you could say plan, absolutely, yes.

Cost-effective. Fantastic word, right?

Nice. I think that's really, really good.

So budget, we say is very cheap.

We could say it's cost-effective.

Actually, let me change this

'cause I think budget's not very cheap.

'Cause very cheap sounds like low quality, right?

It's not always true. Let's say cheap.

Budget is cheap, cost-effective.

Yeah, nice. Maa, thank you so much, great.

I love all the contributions.

It's like it's our class, right?

We are creating it together rather than my class. Love it.

Okay, I think that is enough vocabulary. (laughs)

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