Sports & Activities Vocabulary Quiz
Are you a sporting expert in English? Test your vocabulary for sports names, equipment, venues, action verbs and key collocations across 20 multiple-choice questions covering a wide range of individual and team sports from A1 to B2 level.
Start the Quiz →What This Quiz Covers
Sports vocabulary is among the most engaging and motivating vocabulary topics for English learners. Whether you follow football, tennis, swimming, athletics or martial arts, being able to talk about sports in English opens up huge areas of conversation, media and cultural understanding. This quiz covers sports across all levels, from the most basic (football, swimming, tennis) to less familiar sports that appear in IELTS Listening texts and Cambridge Reading passages.
The 20 questions address: naming sports correctly and distinguishing between similar terms (athletics vs gymnastics; sailing vs rowing); matching sports to their equipment and venues (racket, bat, lane, pitch, court, track, rink, pool); the critical verb collocations for sports — play (team sports and competitive games), do (individual activities and martial arts), go (-ing activities); action verbs in specific sports; and sports idioms used in general English (level playing field, hit below the belt, move the goalposts).
What You Will Learn
- The essential three-verb rule for sports collocations: play football/tennis/chess (team sports and competitive games with opponents); do gymnastics/yoga/karate/athletics (individual disciplines); go swimming/running/skiing/cycling (activities with -ing forms).
- The vocabulary for sports venues: pitch (football, rugby, cricket), court (tennis, basketball, squash), track (athletics, cycling), ring (boxing, wrestling), pool (swimming), course (golf), rink (ice hockey, ice skating), slope/piste (skiing).
- Sports action verbs: serve, volley, sprint, tackle, header, dribble, pass, shoot, score, save, foul, referee, umpire, lap, overtake, overtake.
- Common sports idioms in general English: a level playing field, move the goalposts, hit below the belt, be in the running, come up to scratch, the ball is in your court.
How to Prepare
Before the quiz, review the three key sports collocations verbs — play, do, go — and practise categorising at least 20 sports into the correct group. This is the single most commonly tested sports vocabulary point at A2–B1 level. Then review sports venues and the equipment associated with each sport you know. The Flash Cards exercise lets you build a custom sports vocabulary set with definitions and context sentences.
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Frequently Asked Questions
The choice of verb depends on the type of activity. Use play with team sports and competitive games that involve opponents: play football, play tennis, play chess, play basketball. Use do with individual disciplines, exercise activities and martial arts: do gymnastics, do yoga, do karate, do athletics, do weightlifting. Use go with activities that take an -ing form: go swimming, go running, go skiing, go cycling, go surfing, go hiking. When in doubt, do is often a safer choice than play for activities that are not clearly team-based.
These are all names for sports venues but each is associated with specific sports. A pitch is a marked grass or artificial surface for football, rugby, hockey or cricket. A court is a smaller, usually hard-surface area for tennis, basketball, squash or volleyball. A track is a circular or oval surface for athletics (running) or motor racing. A field is a general open area often used for American football, baseball or cricket (the outfield). A course is used for golf or horse racing. A ring is used for boxing or wrestling. A rink is the ice surface for ice hockey or ice skating.
English has many sports-derived idioms: a level playing field (fair conditions for everyone), move the goalposts (change the rules during a process), hit below the belt (act unfairly or cruelly), the ball is in your court (it is your turn to act/decide), be in the running (have a chance of winning or succeeding), come up to scratch (meet the required standard), throw in the towel (give up/admit defeat), on the back foot (in a defensive or disadvantaged position), a close call (a narrow escape), step up to the plate (take responsibility at a crucial moment).
Athletics (British English) or track and field (American English) covers running, jumping and throwing events — sprints, hurdles, long jump, high jump, discus, javelin, shot put, marathon. Gymnastics involves acrobatic and artistic body movements performed on apparatus (beam, bars, rings, floor, vault) or rhythmically with equipment (ribbon, ball, hoop). Both use the verb do: do athletics, do gymnastics. Note that in American English, athletics can refer more broadly to competitive sports in general.
Key equipment–sport matches: football: ball, boots/cleats, shin pads, goal; tennis: racket, ball, net, court; swimming: goggles, swimming cap, lane rope, pool; cycling: bicycle/bike, helmet, jersey; boxing: gloves, ring, mouthguard; cricket: bat, ball, wickets, pads; golf: clubs, ball, hole, fairway; rowing: oar, boat/shell, coxswain; skiing: skis, poles, boots, slope/piste; basketball: ball, hoop, backboard. Knowing the correct equipment vocabulary prevents common errors like calling a tennis racket a "bat" or a swimming pool a "court".
Both are officials who enforce the rules of a sport, but the term varies by sport. Referee is used in football, rugby, basketball, boxing, wrestling and martial arts. Umpire is used in cricket, tennis, baseball and volleyball. Some sports use neither — athletics uses judges, and cycling racing uses commissaires. In casual conversation, ref is a common informal shortening of referee. A linesman (now often called a lines official or assistant referee) assists the main official by watching boundary lines.
For football and team sports: England beat France 3–1 / England won 3–1 / France lost 3–1 / The score was three–one / It was a draw (0–0). For tennis: She won 6–4, 7–5 / He lost in straight sets. Scores are usually read as numbers: "six–four, seven–five". In cricket, say England made/scored 250 runs. For athletics: She ran the 100m in 10.8 seconds / He set a new world record. To describe performance: win, lose, draw, tie, beat, defeat, score, concede, equalise, lead, trail, come from behind.
Individual sports are those where one person competes alone against others or against a course/target: tennis (singles), golf, swimming, athletics, gymnastics, boxing, cycling, skiing. Team sports involve groups of players competing together: football, rugby, basketball, volleyball, cricket, hockey, baseball. Some sports can be either: tennis (singles vs doubles), rowing (single sculls vs team boat), cycling (individual time trial vs team events). In IELTS Speaking, you may be asked to compare individual and team sports — a common Task 3 discussion topic about motivation, discipline and social benefits.
Yes. Sports and physical activities appear regularly across all four IELTS skills. IELTS Listening features conversations about sports facilities, booking courts and swim sessions. IELTS Reading includes texts on sports science, the history of specific sports and Olympic competition. IELTS Speaking Part 1 frequently asks about your favourite sport or physical activity. IELTS Writing Task 2 topics include professional sport, physical education in schools and the commercialisation of sport. Cambridge A2–B2 exams test sports vocabulary in gap-fill and matching tasks. A strong sports vocabulary helps across all these contexts.
In British English, sport is typically used as an uncountable noun when referring to physical activity in general: I enjoy sport / She is good at sport / Sport is important for health. In American English, sports is more commonly used in this general sense: I enjoy sports / He is good at sports. When referring to specific activities, both varieties use sports as a plural or modifier: water sports, extreme sports, sports day, sports car, sports centre. In formal writing and IELTS, sport (British) is expected for the general concept.