This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1473, Perennial IELTS Band 9 Savvy Vocab.
Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English, downloaded more than 22 million times with former IELTS examiner Jessica Beck and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz.
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Today, you'll be amazed by this high -scoring vocabulary that is extremely useful on both IELTS speaking and writing.
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Hey, Aubrey, are you a savvy traveler?
I think I am. Yeah, I like to look for deals when booking flights and hotels.
I think that considers that makes me a savvy traveler.
What about you? For sure.
I think most people listening are savvy travelers.
If you're good at planning travel and you have traveled a lot, you're a savvy traveler.
I think it comes with experience as well.
Yeah, for sure. I think the first couple times I traveled, I didn't know what I was doing.
I made some mistakes.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
So, guys, you know that traveling is definitely a hot IELTS topic.
It could come up anywhere on the exam, right?
Yes. Yes. There's lots of speaking questions that are asking you about your travel preferences or to describe a recent trip, but also writing.
You could write a letter in general training about travel or a task two essay.
So today's vocabulary is extremely useful all over the exam.
Yes. Yes. All right.
So let's get into it.
This vocabulary actually is coming from a New York Times article called, Want to Score Cheap Travel This Year?
Here's When to Buy.
And we used this article in a recent episode.
Yes, it was 1471. So scroll up if you missed it.
This was great practice for the IELTS reading exam.
But this was a passage that had a lot of high scoring vocab for you to use on speaking and writing.
A lot of vocab that would be difficult if this were in an IELTS reading passage or on a listening audio, would make it really difficult to pick out the right answers.
It would be so hard. I mean, even, we're teaching you a lot of vocabulary today, guys.
And this all came from like easily the first third of the article, right?
Yeah, it was just a few paragraphs.
There's so much great, so much great vocabulary in that article.
We highly recommend that you read it.
So let's get into the vocab.
Aubrey, what is the first phrase?
Yeah. So first is out to mean in advance.
So if you see or hear 30 days out, that means like 30 days before something else, before a trip maybe.
And there's two ways we say that, 30 days in advance or 30 days out.
Saying out instead of in advance, that's like two band point difference in vocabulary, the collocation of saying out instead of in advance.
I've never heard a student say that.
That's true and you can also say thirty days ahead but I have heard students say that as well.
I agree so if you can, if you're talking about how far in advance something was, say the date, the number of days, or the number of months and then just the word out.
Two years out means two years before something.
Yeah or like ahead of time would also be a synonym, I believe, and and then this next phrase you guys might have heard this one actually but we still want to teach it just in case because it is a wonderful phrase um off the beaten path or off the beaten track i think i say track more often but in the article it did say path so what does that mean to go off the beaten path yeah this is especially when traveling a place that most people wouldn't know about or don't go to like tourists don't know about it so you would never say like the eiffel tower in paris is off the beaten path no that's on the beaten
path we don't say it that way but yeah somewhere that most people wouldn't go to um and you know i'm certain that our listeners like to go off the beaten path when they travel um our listeners are brave they're risk -takers right they want to challenge themselves in an english -speaking university in a different country they want to challenge themselves by moving to another country so guys i'm sure that you can use this when you describe your travel experiences on ielts and it's even more flexible than that because we use it not just about travel but maybe about careers if you're like my family expected
me to be a doctor but i decided to go off the beaten path and do something else right we also use it just to do anything unexpected like a chain or something out of the ordinary It is a flexible idiom.
I love that. And in speaking part one, if you're describing your hometown, you could use this.
Basically, anytime you're describing a place or as Aubrey said, making a non -traditional choice, you can use this idiom.
Yes. Awesome. All right.
Our next word is caveat, which means like one bad thing about a good situation I hear this a lot I use it a lot but it is pretty level be it just sounds very polished and impressive professional totally yeah I use this word all the time I don't know why but it's become like one of my go -to words it's because there's always a catch there's another idiom right there's always a catch like nothing is ever perfect basically there's always a caveat so it's like um maybe you're looking for a new job right and you think you've scored like the perfect job but there's one caveat you have to move to idaho
or something like that that's a big caveat or if you're asked about your favorite restaurant be like oh this place has the best lobster bisque but one caveat is it's 10 miles from my house so anytime you're sharing about something you like or you do you can add this and share one thing that's a little bit negative about it yeah you know what just occurred to me this would be a great word to use in writing task two as well when you're talking about like advantages and disadvantages so if your opinion is that this topic is generally advantageous then the paragraph about what's not great right could be
a paragraph about caveats right you can use that in task two yes absolutely and it's definitely formal enough impressive enough for a task to essay great idea yeah um and our next word guys savvy what's this a fantastic adjective um we used that at the beginning of the show how would you define savvy that means like smart and clever this is spelled a little tricky if you're using it for writing with two V's, S -A -V -V -Y, which is really rare in English.
Definitely, pay attention to the spelling if you're using it in an essay.
That's a good tip. But, since this word, it's high level, but the meaning is easy.
It's just clever, right?
Because the meaning is easy, guys, you can definitely use this in so many places.
Anytime you're describing yourself, describing other people, you can and say that someone is savvy about something and then give an example about how they're so smart, right?
Yes, and it can be used to describe companies and governments, you know?
So then it could be useful in both part three and IELTS task two because you're sharing what they have done that is also smart, maybe a good policy you could call savvy.
Totally, like in a problem solution essay, right?
You could say one savvy solution would be - Yes, perfect.
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All right, this next phrase is also a lovely phrase.
I think it's easy to use and impressive.
Tried and true. So, this is an adjective phrase.
How would you define this?
Yeah, like dependable, something that always works.
And this can be used to describe like a method, policy, lots of different things can be tried and true.
Means you have tried it, it has been tested and proven to be effective.
So I am not a good cook.
But my son, he keeps telling me, he's like, no, you're a good cook.
You're a good cook.
And I'm like, that's because I only make the tried and true recipes, right?
I just only make the ones that I know how to do.
Right. I know I can do this.
I know you're going to like it.
We'll stick with that.
And then I'm not going to turn out.
No, like chicken corn on blue in this house.
We're about like spaghetti and meatballs.
But anyway, just to show you how flexible that phrase is guys, right?
So you could even use it in part one questions about cooking.
There you go. This next word is very high level and I really like it.
Leeway. I've never heard a student say that.
I don't think I have either.
It is less common it means like the amount of freedom to act or move that is available so this could definitely be useful in IELTS speaking questions even if you're asked about like your job for example you could say my boss gives me a lot of leeway with my schedule means sort of the same as flexibility totally yeah leeway is just like an amount of freedom that you have so yeah I think this is perfect for speaking part one questions about work because either you do have a lot of leeway as far as decision making as far as vacation sick time work schedule or you don't have a lot of leeway right
you have to adhere to um strict expectations so you could use it in the negative and say i don't have a lot of leeway or about your childhood this would be great to say my parents gave me a lot of leeway.
I didn't have a curfew.
They trusted me. So you're likely to be asked about your youth to force you to use the past tense.
Totally. This would be a great word to use.
I love it. Today's vocabulary is so useful.
All right. Two more phrases, guys.
Off -season. You guys might be able to guess what that means if you don't already know.
So off -season to describe travel because that is our topic today.
Off season would just be like any time that tourists don't normally go there.
Right. Exactly. So this was tricky in the episode.
If you missed it, one of the questions was asking if people should travel during the holidays.
And the parallel expression in the article was, you know, don't or do travel on off season times.
And unless you know that means like not during holidays, then that would be tricky yeah totally um savvy travelers always try to book a off season right we we know that's always the cheaper option okay this last word we saved the best for last guys this is such an impressive word and it's fun to say and you can use it in speaking and writing perennial um perennial that's it's such a lovely word it just means always like it's not not a difficult word to use.
There's another parallel expression that's also very high scoring.
What is that? Yeah, perpetually.
Synonyms are constantly, perpetually.
That's funny I said cinnamon. It's probably because I had cinnamon rolls this morning.
They're still on the brain maybe.
I love cinnamon rolls.
Yeah. These are super high scoring if you can say perennial or perpetually instead instead of always or constantly to push up that vocab score.
Think of how often, guys, you would use the word always in IELTS speaking or writing or to say all the time, band five, all the time, band nine, perennial, like cinnamon rolls are a perennial favorite in my house.
It just means like, people always love cinnamon rolls.
Exactly. So perennial is the adjective, perennially is the adverb.
I've heard this most with plants my mom would always plant perennials but it's a less common to use this way as an adjective adverb so definitely use it in your speaking your writing the examiner is going to be impressed by that super impressed all right guys uh thanks for listening today if you have an ielts question for us leave it in a review wherever you're listening now guys please remember to rate and review this podcast and maybe we'll give you a shout out in a future show.
Awesome. Thanks, Jessica.
Such amazing vocab today.
So good. I'm perennially impressed with our episodes.
All right. We'll see you next time.
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