Cities are a topic IELTS loves because they’re so open to debate. Writing Task 2 asks why young people leave villages and what should be done about it, how to solve the problem of expensive housing and whether a growing city should build upwards or outwards. In Speaking Part 3, the examiner asks you to compare life in a big city and a small town, or to imagine what cities will be like in twenty years.
The trap in this topic is familiar phrases that turn into word-for-word translations in English. Learners often call a city that’s pleasant and easy to live in a comfortable city, but English has one precise word for it: liveable, as in a liveable city and make the city more liveable. Housing catches people out too, because it has no plural, and so does entertainment, which is also uncountable when it means things to do for fun. Below are 27 collocations for essays and Speaking, a breakdown of these mistakes and an example of how LetsWords finds and explains a mistake like this in a sentence you write yourself.
This page is part of our IELTS vocabulary by topic guide. Traffic, public transport and roads have their own page, Transport; this one covers city life, housing and urban development.
Cities and housing: words and collocations
The pros and cons of city life
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| quality of life | how good and comfortable people’s lives are | Smaller towns often offer a better quality of life: cleaner air, less noise and less stress. |
| the pace of life | how fast and busy life is | Some people thrive on the fast pace of life in big cities, while others find it exhausting. |
| job opportunities | chances to find work | Young people move to cities mainly for better job opportunities. |
| local amenities | shops, schools, clinics and other services near your home | New housing estates often go up years before local amenities such as schools and shops arrive. |
| a vibrant cultural life | lots of exciting cultural events and places | A vibrant cultural life is one of the main attractions of living in a city. |
| noise pollution | harmful or annoying levels of noise | Noise pollution from traffic and construction can seriously disturb sleep. |
| overcrowded | with too many people for the space | Overcrowded neighbourhoods put pressure on local schools and clinics. |
| a sense of isolation | a feeling of being alone and cut off | Despite being surrounded by people, many city dwellers feel a sense of isolation. |
Housing
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| affordable housing | homes that people on average incomes can pay for | The council has promised to build more affordable housing for key workers. |
| a housing shortage | not enough homes for the people who need them | A housing shortage pushes up rents for everyone, not only for newcomers. |
| soaring property prices | house prices that are rising very fast | Soaring property prices have pushed many young families out of the city centre. |
| get on the property ladder | buy your first home | It now takes young couples years to save enough to get on the property ladder. |
| rent a flat | pay to live in someone else’s flat | Most students rent a flat with friends to share the costs. |
| high-rise buildings | tall buildings with many floors | High-rise buildings allow more people to live on less land. |
| cramped conditions | too little space for the people living there | Many families still live in cramped conditions, with three generations under one roof. |
| move into | start living in a new home | They moved into a new flat on the edge of the city last spring. |
Urban development
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| urban sprawl | a city spreading outwards into the countryside | Urban sprawl turns farmland into suburbs where residents depend on cars. |
| urban planning | designing how a city’s land and buildings are used | Good urban planning puts homes, jobs and shops within walking distance of each other. |
| green spaces | parks and other areas of grass and trees | Parks and other green spaces improve residents’ mental and physical health. |
| a liveable city | a city that’s pleasant and easy to live in | Wide pavements, parks and safe streets make a city more liveable. |
| regenerate a run-down area | bring a neglected district back to life | The project aims to regenerate a run-down area near the old port. |
| invest in infrastructure | spend money on roads, transport, utilities and services | Cities that invest in infrastructure early cope better with rapid growth. |
| gentrification | an area becoming wealthier and pricier, pushing out the people who lived there | Gentrification can revive a neighbourhood but force long-term residents out. |
City and countryside
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| rural areas | the countryside | Young people leave rural areas because there are few jobs there. |
| rural-to-urban migration | people moving from the countryside to cities | Rural-to-urban migration has left many villages with mostly elderly residents. |
| a close-knit community | a group of people who know and support each other | In a small town, you are part of a close-knit community where everyone knows each other. |
| settle down | start living a settled life in one place | Many people move to the city in their twenties and settle down in the suburbs later. |
Common mistakes
There are not enough places for walk in our city.
Correct: There are not enough places to walk in our city.
After places, the activity takes to + infinitive: places to walk (or places for walking). Walk without an article doesn’t work as a noun here.
Young families cannot afford to buy a housing.
Correct: Young families cannot afford housing. Or: Young families cannot afford to buy a home.
Housing means homes in general and is uncountable: no a and no -s. For one flat or house, use a home, a flat or a house. The home vs house exercise explains how home differs from house.
The life in big cities is very stressful.
Correct: Life in big cities is very stressful.
When you mean life in general, life takes no article. You only need the life when you go on to say whose life or what kind of life: the life of a city courier.
The city offers many entertainment for young people.
Correct: The city offers a lot of entertainment for young people.
Entertainment in the sense of things to do for fun is uncountable: a lot of entertainment, not many.
How LetsWords explains mistakes like these
Mistakes like these are almost invisible to the person who makes them: places for walk and a housing feel natural when you’re translating in your head. That’s why LetsWords catches them in sentences you write yourself. Here’s what one task looks like.
You’re reviewing job opportunities. LetsWords shows you a hint in your native language meaning “chances to find work”. You recall the English expression and write a sentence about moving to the city:
Young people leave from rural areas because there are little job opportunities.
The feedback explains two mistakes:
- leave from → leave: when you mean moving away from a place for good, leave takes a direct object: leave rural areas, leave home;
- little → few: little goes with uncountable nouns, and opportunities is plural, so you need few.
Young people leave rural areas because there are few job opportunities.
LetsWords explains each correction in your native language: Russian, Korean or Vietnamese. A few days later, the expression comes back in review, and you use it in a new situation, for example in a Speaking answer about why people move to the capital. That’s how a collocation from a list becomes one you recall from memory and write without mistakes.
Start practising with feedback on your mistakes
When you sign up, you choose IELTS as your goal and your level, and LetsWords picks the right practice for you. You can try the feedback before you pay.
Using these collocations in Writing Task 2
An exam-style task:
As cities grow, more and more people live in new residential districts far from the city centre. What problems does this cause, and what measures could be taken to address them?
A paragraph with solutions:
The most effective solution would be to stop cities from expanding outwards indefinitely. Local authorities could regenerate run-down areas close to the centre and require developers to include a fixed share of affordable housing in every new project. At the same time, new districts should be designed around green spaces and local amenities such as schools, clinics and shops, so that residents do not have to cross the city for everyday needs. Such urban planning would limit urban sprawl and turn outlying neighbourhoods into places where people genuinely want to live, rather than simply sleep.
Why the paragraph works. The task asks for measures, and the paragraph gives two specific ones, regenerating areas near the centre and building new districts around the services people need, then shows the result. The collocations let you talk about complex things briefly: urban sprawl replaces a whole explanation of a city spreading outwards. The last sentence describes a commuter suburb where people only come home to sleep, without any awkward invented term: places where people genuinely want to live, rather than simply sleep. The IELTS Writing band descriptors for Band 7 in Lexical Resource mention awareness of style and collocation, and this paragraph shows it without a single rare word.
Using them in Speaking
A Part 3 question: Why do so many young people move from small towns to big cities?
Mostly for job opportunities, I think. In my home town there are maybe two or three big employers, so if you want a career in IT or design, you basically have to leave. Cities also offer a vibrant cultural life, which matters a lot when you’re twenty. The downside is that housing is so expensive: a lot of my friends spend half their salary on rent.
The answer draws on a personal example, which is perfectly normal in Speaking and sounds convincing, and the topic collocations come from the same tables you use for essays.
Practise for free
- city vs town: a large city and a smaller town;
- home vs house: the building and the place where you live;
- move in: start living in a new home, or move in together;
- settle down: stop moving around and live a settled life;
- cottage: a small house in the country, not a mansion;
- make ends meet: have just enough money to live on;
- whereas: a linking word for comparing city and countryside.
You’ll find other exam topics in our IELTS vocabulary by topic guide.
From the list to real use
Reading that a city that’s good to live in is liveable is easy; recalling that word in the exam instead of the familiar comfortable is a skill. Move from the list to real use with LetsWords: practise with the IELTS set for your level and add collocations from this page to your collection, for example affordable housing or quality of life. You recall each expression from a hint, write a sentence with it, and LetsWords points out the mistake and explains it in your native language, while spaced repetition brings the expression back until it feels natural. Then test the vocabulary in a full text: the IELTS Writing section has Task 2 questions on cities and transport, about living in the centre or the suburbs, traffic jams and public transport, and a full answer gets detailed feedback on all four criteria, tied to what you wrote. When you sign up, you answer a few questions about your goal and level, and LetsWords picks the right practice for you. You can try the feedback before you pay.