Words for travel, and telling a story in the past
You can talk about trips with exact words, and tell a story with the past simple and past continuous in the right places.
I was standing on the platform when they cancelled my train. That sentence has two past tenses, and each one does a different job.
Travel is a topic where IELTS often asks for a story. It might be a Part 2 card about a trip that went wrong, or a letter to a friend about a holiday. First the words for travel, then the two tenses you need to tell the story.
Warm-up
What was happening?
Play the clip once. A woman describes the start of a bad trip. Listen for what was going on when they reached the port.
A missed ferry
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In the exam you hear this once. Here you may play it again after you have tried.
What was happening when they got to the port?
Words for travel
Trips and transport
Going somewhere and coming back, with your time there. A journey is only the travelling part. Travel is the activity in general, and you cannot say a travel. Our trip to the lakes lasted a week.
Start a trip. We set off before dawn to miss the traffic.
Leave or arrive later than planned. Our flight was delayed by four hours.
Arrive too late for the next train, bus or flight you had to change to. We missed our connection and slept at the station.
A short stay in the middle of a long trip. We had a two-night stopover on the way home.
The money you pay to travel by bus, train, plane or taxi. Train fares go up in the school holidays.
Places and tourism
The place you are travelling to. The island has become a popular destination for walkers.
A place to stay, such as a hotel or a flat. In British English it has no plural. The price includes accommodation and breakfast.
Visit the famous places in a town as a tourist. We went sightseeing on our first morning.
A place many visitors come to see. The old lighthouse is the main tourist attraction on this coast.
Far from the places most tourists visit. We stayed in a village off the beaten track.
The businesses and jobs in one area. Visitors' spending supports the local economy.
Grammar: past simple and past continuous
A story needs two kinds of past verb. The past simple gives the events, one after another. The past continuous describes what was already going on at that moment, such as the weather or what you were doing.
Finished actions, in the order they happened. We landed at six, found a taxi and went straight to the hotel.
Was or were + -ing, for something in progress at a moment in the past. It was raining, and people were queuing for taxis.
The longer action takes the past continuous, the short one the past simple. We were boarding when the captain made an announcement.
While usually goes with the longer action, when with the short one. While we were waiting, the gate changed. We were waiting when the gate changed.
Mistakes to watch for
- We were arriving at the hotel and we were checking in. These are events in a row, so both take the past simple: We arrived at the hotel and checked in.
- I waited for the bus when it was starting to rain. The tenses are the wrong way round. The wait is the long action: I was waiting for the bus when it started to rain.
- I was knowing the way. Verbs for states, such as know, want, need and belong, do not usually take -ing: I knew the way.
- Last summer I go to the coast. A past time needs a past verb, in speaking as much as in writing: Last summer I went to the coast.
Watch me do one
Two things happened on the way to the airport: we drove along the coast road, and a tyre burst.
First I decide which one was already going on. The drive was, and the tyre burst in the middle of it.
So the drive gets the past continuous and the burst gets the past simple: We were driving along the coast road when a tyre burst.
With while, the long action comes straight after it: While we were driving along the coast road, a tyre burst.
After that, the story moves on in the past simple, one event after another: We pulled over, changed the wheel and reached the airport just in time.
Swap the tenses and the meaning goes wrong. We drove along the coast road when a tyre was bursting makes a burst tyre sound like something slow.
Practice with Elita7 questions
Seven questions. The first five are on the tenses, the last two on the travel words.
Spot the past continuous
Only one of these sentences uses the past continuous. Look for the form, was or were + -ing.
Which sentence is in the past continuous?
The long action
Put the verb in brackets into the right past tense. Use two words.
I (sleep) when the plane landed, so I missed the view of the coast.
Write no more than 2 words.
The right way round
One sentence is correct. Each of the other two has one mistake with a past tense.
Choose the correct sentence.
A walk on the beach
Put each verb into the past simple or the past continuous.
We (walk) along the beach when my sister (find) an old coin in the sand.
Write no more than 2 words in each gap.
Find the slip
One sentence in this story has a mistake with a past tense. Choose it.
Which sentence contains the error?
A trip or a travel?
One of these sentences is correct English. Which one?
Choose the correct sentence.
Words and meanings
Match each travel word to its meaning.
Use it
A trip that went wrong
Write five or six sentences about a trip where something went wrong. Start with the scene, then tell what happened in order.
Write about a trip where something went wrong, or one you remember well. Set the scene with the past continuous: what was happening, what the weather was doing. Then tell the events in order with the past simple. Use at least two travel words from this lesson.
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Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Before you go
Tell the events of a story in the past simple, one after another.
Use the past continuous, was or were + -ing, for what was already going on.
When a short event cuts into a longer one, the longer one takes -ing: I was reading when the train stopped.
Say a trip. Travel is the activity in general and never takes a.
Next: Next comes a reading passage about people who choose to travel slowly, by train, coach or boat, with multiple choice questions on it.