Transport & Travel Vocabulary Quiz
Do you know your platform from your terminal, or your roundabout from your junction? Test your knowledge of vehicles, directions, public transport, and travel terms across 20 multiple-choice questions at A2–B1 level.
Start the Quiz →What This Quiz Covers
Transport and travel vocabulary is one of the most practical and frequently tested word sets at A2–B1 level. Whether you are preparing for a Cambridge Key (KET) or Preliminary (PET) exam, studying for IELTS General Training, or simply need to navigate a foreign city with confidence, knowing the right words for vehicles, places, and directions is essential. This quiz brings together the core transport vocabulary that appears most often in everyday conversation and in standard English proficiency tests.
The 20 questions are drawn from six main areas: types of vehicle (road, rail, air, and sea), places and infrastructure (stations, airports, ports, roads), ticket and journey language (single, return, fare, boarding pass, departure), giving and understanding directions (turn left, go straight on, roundabout, crossroads), prepositions of movement and position (get on/off, by bus, at the terminal), and travel collocations (catch a bus, miss a flight, book a ticket). Each item is set in a short, realistic context — a conversation at a ticket office, a travel announcement, or a simple written instruction.
What You Will Learn
- Names and categories of common vehicles: bus, coach, tram, underground/subway, ferry, lorry/truck, motorbike, van — including where British and American English differ (underground vs subway, lorry vs truck).
- Key transport infrastructure vocabulary: platform, terminus, departure lounge, check-in desk, runway, bus stop, taxi rank, car park, motorway, roundabout, junction.
- Ticket and journey words: the difference between single and return, fare and ticket, boarding pass and passport, customs and immigration.
- Direction phrases used in everyday English: turn left/right, go straight on, take the second turning, at the traffic lights, opposite, past, next to.
- Essential travel collocations: catch/miss a bus or train, book/cancel a flight, check in, board a plane, get on/off a bus — and why the verb choice matters (ride vs drive vs take).
- Prepositions specific to transport: by bus/car/train (no article), on the bus/train, in a car/taxi, at the station/airport.
- Air and sea travel terms: departure gate, arrival hall, layover, connecting flight, cabin crew, life jacket, port, harbour, anchor.
- Road and safety vocabulary: speed limit, lane, overtake, pedestrian crossing, traffic jam, diversion, roadworks.
How to Prepare
Before starting the quiz, think through a journey you know well — from home to school, work, or a city centre — and list every transport word that comes to mind. Focus especially on verbs: English uses different verbs for different vehicles (ride a bike, drive a car, take the bus, catch a train, board a plane), and this is one of the most tested distinctions at A2–B1 level.
You can build vocabulary further with the Flash Cards exercise by searching for transport topics, or try the Word Search to pick up less common terms visually before the quiz. If directions are a weak area, the Complete the Sentence exercise includes items that practise prepositions of movement in context.
Related Quizzes
Frequently Asked Questions
By bus (no article) describes the means of transport used to travel somewhere: I go to work by bus. It answers the question "How do you travel?" On the bus (with article) describes being a passenger inside a specific bus: I met her on the bus this morning. The same pattern applies to other public transport: by train / on the train, by plane / on the plane. For cars and taxis the rule differs slightly: we say by car but in a car / in a taxi (not on).
A single ticket (called a one-way ticket in American English) allows travel in one direction only — from A to B. A return ticket (called a round-trip ticket in American English) covers both the outward journey from A to B and the return journey from B back to A. When buying a ticket at a British station or bus stop, the ticket seller will ask "Single or return?" This distinction is tested frequently in IELTS Listening and Cambridge KET/PET tasks involving travel scenarios.
The choice depends on the size of the vehicle. Use get on and get off for large vehicles where you step onto a platform or walk along an aisle: a bus, a train, a plane, a tram, a ferry. Use get in and get out for small enclosed vehicles where you sit inside a cabin: a car (get in the car), a taxi (get in a taxi), a van. A practical rule: if you walk along the vehicle's aisle, use on/off; if you sit enclosed in a small cabin, use in/out.
A platform is the raised area alongside a railway track where passengers board or alight from trains. You check the departures board for your platform number. A terminal is the main building of an airport or large bus or ferry station — the whole departure and arrival complex. Large airports often have multiple terminals (Terminal 1, Terminal 2, etc.). Within an airport terminal, passengers proceed to a specific departure gate (not a platform) to board their flight.
Lorry and truck refer to the same large goods vehicle. Lorry is the standard British English term; truck is the American English term and is increasingly used informally in Britain too. In IELTS and Cambridge exams based on British English, lorry is more likely to appear in texts and recordings. Other common British/American transport pairs: underground / subway, motorway / freeway, car park / parking lot, petrol / gas, caravan / trailer.
Check in (verb) or check-in (noun/adjective) has two main travel uses. At an airport, checking in means presenting your travel documents and bags to the airline's desk (or at a self-service machine) to confirm your seat and receive your boarding pass. Airlines usually open check-in two to three hours before departure. At a hotel, checking in means registering your arrival at reception and receiving your room key. The opposite in both cases is check out. Note that check in is two words as a verb, but check-in desk is hyphenated as a compound adjective.
A fare is the price or cost of a journey by public transport: The bus fare is £2.50. It refers to the monetary amount, not the physical object. A ticket is the physical or digital document proving you have paid and are authorised to travel: Please show your ticket to the driver. You pay the fare and receive a ticket. Common collocations: pay the fare, half fare, fare increase; buy/book a ticket, show your ticket, ticket machine, ticket office. In informal speech people often use the words interchangeably, but in formal writing and exams the distinction matters.
Clear directions in English typically follow this pattern: imperative verb + specific instruction + landmark or distance marker. Common direction verbs: turn, go, take, cross, continue, follow, pass. Common phrases: turn left/right at the traffic lights, go straight on past the post office, take the second turning on the right, cross the roundabout and take the third exit, it's on your left / on the right-hand side. Key prepositions: at the end of the road, on the corner, opposite, next to, between. At B1 level, learners are expected both to give and to follow multi-step directions using these expressions.
A harbour is a sheltered area of water where boats can moor safely, protected from rough weather — it can be natural (a bay or inlet) or man-made. A port is a facility — often including a harbour — where ships load and unload cargo or where passengers board and disembark from ferries and cruise ships. All ports have a harbour, but not all harbours are ports: a small fishing harbour used only by local boats would not be called a port. In everyday travel English, you would take the ferry from the port and sail into the harbour.
Transport is one of the most common topic areas in IELTS Listening — Section 1 often involves making travel arrangements or asking for directions, and you may need to complete a form with a destination, platform number, or fare. In IELTS Speaking, Part 2 topics sometimes ask you to describe a memorable journey. Cambridge KET and PET include transport vocabulary in reading, listening, and writing tasks, including giving directions to a friend. At B1 level, examiners expect accurate use of transport collocations (catch a bus, book a ticket, miss the train) and awareness of British and American English differences.