Top 9 Idioms for IELTS Speaking Band 7.0

Dear Friends of Planet English,

Do you know that using idiomatic language in your IELTS Speaking will help enhance your scores in vocabulary? An idiom contains a deep meaning of what is actually said. It is used to turn up the volume of your message!

Let’s learn 9 formal English idiomatic expressions which have equal translation in Indonesian. 9 of 10 students in Planet English who achieved band 7.0 in IELTS Speaking admitted to use one idiom in their performance. 

• English: Looking for a needle in a haystack.
• Indonesian: Mencari jarum dalam tumpukan jerami.
• Meaning: extremely difficult.

• English: Play with fire.
• Indonesian: Bermain api.
• Meaning: to act in a way that is very dangerous.

• English: Kill two birds with one stone.
• Indonesian: Sekali dayung dua-tiga pulau terlampaui.
• Indonesian: Sambil menyelam minum air.
• Meaning: to succeed in achieving two things in a single action.

• English: Jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.
• Indonesian: Sudah jatuh tertimpa tangga.
• Indonesian: Keluar dari mulut buaya masuk mulut harimau.
• Meaning: to go from bad to worse.

• English: Like two peas in a pod.
• Indonesian: Bagai pinang dibelah dua.
• Meaning: very similar, especially in appearance.

• English: Where there is a will, there is a way.
• Indonesian: Di mana kemauan, di situ ada jalan.
• Meaning: if you want something, you can do it.

• English: The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
• Indonesian: Rumput tetangga selalu terlihat lebih hijau.
• Meaning: other people always seem to be in a better situation than you.

• English: Turn over a new leaf.
• Indonesian: Membuka lembaran baru.
• Meaning: to start over again, usually in a better way.

• English: Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.
• Indonesian: Belum bertaji sudah berkokok.
• Meaning: you cannot depend on something before it has happened.

Many Indonesian candidates of IELTS are bilinguals. It means they know two languages equally well. Learning idioms both in English and Indonesian is really refreshing for bilingual speakers. So, what is your favourite English idiom for IELTS Speaking? Will you be able to use it in your IELTS Academic Writing Task 2?

Feel free to drop your comment below!

Author and Translator: Norma Sholikah

Supported by: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/