Travel and Transport
Learn 20 easy A1 English words for travel and transport - plane, station, ticket, luggage, journey - with examples, a story and a quiz.
This lesson contains the single most common mistake English learners make: saying have a good travel. English has three words where many languages have one – travel, journey and trip – and the tutor box below sorts them out for good. Learn the 20 words, then come with me on the first time I ever left the country, which did not go smoothly.
20 words to learn
The 20 words
/ˈtrævl/
To go from one place to another, usually far. As a noun it is uncountable.
I love to travel in September.
/kɑː(r)/
The vehicle most families own.
We went by car.
/bʌs/
A big vehicle that carries many people for a small price.
The bus to the city leaves every hour.
/treɪn/
Carriages that run on metal lines.
The train was completely full.
/pleɪn/
It flies. Also called an aeroplane or airplane.
Our plane lands at midnight.
/ˈtæksi/
A car with a driver that you pay for one journey.
We took a taxi from the airport.
/baɪk/
Short for bicycle. It has two wheels and you push the pedals.
He goes to work by bike.
/bəʊt/
It travels on water.
We crossed to the island by boat.
/ˈsteɪʃn/
The building where trains or buses stop.
I will meet you at the station.
/ˈeəpɔːt/
Where planes arrive and leave from.
Be at the airport three hours early.
/ˈtɪkɪt/
The paper or code that lets you travel.
Keep your ticket until the end.
/ˈpɑːspɔːt/
The small book that lets you enter another country.
My passport expires next year.
/ˈlʌɡɪdʒ/
All the bags you travel with. Uncountable – never luggages.
I only had one piece of luggage.
/ˈdʒɜːni/
One trip from one place to another. Countable.
The journey takes four hours.
/ˈhɒlədeɪ/
Days when you do not work and often go away. Americans say vacation.
We are on holiday next week.
/həʊˈtel/
A building where you pay to sleep when you travel.
The hotel was near the sea.
/əˈraɪv/
To get to a place. Arrive in a city, arrive at a building.
We arrive in Cairo at six.
/draɪv/
To control a car. Past tense: drove.
My brother will drive us to the airport.
/mæp/
A picture of a place that shows you where things are.
I had a paper map in my bag.
/əˈbrɔːd/
In or to another country. Never with to.
She has never been abroad.
Now read the story
Story · all 20 words
The First Time
The first time I went abroad I was twenty-one and I had never been on a plane. My mother packed my luggage three days early, then unpacked it and packed it again twice, and by the last night she had put in two extra jumpers for a country where it was thirty degrees.
The journey started badly. Our neighbour was going to drive me to the airport in his car, but on the morning itself his car simply did not start. So at half past four we stood in the empty street waiting for a taxi that a friend of my uncle had promised, and my father said nothing at all for twenty minutes, which was worse than shouting.
I had my ticket in one hand and my passport in the other and I did not put either of them down for four hours. At the gate my father gave me one useful piece of advice and one useless one: “Follow the signs,” and “Do not speak to anybody.”
On the other side everything was different. I did not understand the machine that sells train tickets, so I took a bus from outside the station in completely the wrong direction and saw a large part of that city that I had not planned to see. I had a paper map in my bag, folded so many times that the one street I actually needed was inside the fold.
I arrived at the hotel six hours later than planned, in the dark, and slept for eleven hours. The next morning I hired a bike for three euros and rode along the water with no idea where I was going, and in the afternoon I took a small boat to an island for no reason at all. That was the day I understood why people travel. Now I take one holiday a year – and I still pack three days early.
Travel, journey or trip? This is the mistake almost every learner makes at least once.
travel = the general idea, and a verb. I love travel. I travel a lot. It has no plural.
journey = one movement from A to B. The journey took four hours.
trip = going somewhere and coming back. a business trip, a trip to the sea.
✓ Have a good journey! or Have a good trip!
✗ Have a good travel! ✗ I made three travels last year.
Luggage is uncountable, like furniture and information: How much luggage do you have?, one piece of luggage – never luggages.
The preposition patterns:
by car, by bus, by train, by plane, by bike – but on foot.
arrive in a country or city, arrive at a building or a station. Never arrive to.
go abroad – no to, ever.
How you go: car, bus, train, plane, taxi, bike, boat.
Where you go through: station, airport, hotel.
What you carry: ticket, passport, luggage, map.
The words for the whole thing: travel, journey, holiday, abroad, arrive, drive.
Tell the story of your last journey in five sentences: where you went, how you went, how long it took, where you stayed, and one thing that went wrong.
Now practise with the questions below.
Check your understanding
Answer the questions below. You will see instantly if you are right.
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