IELTS Speaking for Success - ✈️ Crowded places (Part 1) + Transcript

Episode Date: December 9, 2025

2026 New Year Sale: https://successwithielts.com/sale Do you like crowded places? Is the city where you live crowded? Is there a crowded place near where you live? When was the last time you were in a crowded place? Tune in and have a great day! - Book a class with Rory here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://successwithielts.com/rory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our course on Phrasal Verbs: https://successwithielts.com/podcourses Transcript: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://successwithielts.com/s13e05 Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2025 Podcourses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, lovely. I'm Maria. And my name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the AILT Speaking for Success Podcast. The podcast dreams to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way. We've started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high I-I-LT score. Your pet-9 score. Oh, Rory, you're late again. Come on. I know. Sorry, Maria. Town was very crowded. I struggled to get... back in time. It was crowded? Shall we talk about crowded places? Oh yes, let's talk about them.

Crowded places, dear listen. Do you like crowded places? Well, I mean, I don't mind them, provided there's some sort of way out or it's not forever. No one likes being jammed into a tight space for ages, do they? Is the city where you live crowded? Not overly, even at rush hour, there's still some elbow room on public transport, and it's easy enough to make your way home or wherever you need to be. Then again, it's a small town, so it's not like we have throngs of people to deal with. Is there a crowded place near where you live? I think the closest thing might be the local pub, which is pretty popular, though I've never been there. There's usually loads of people crammed in there on a Friday or Saturday night.

When was the last time you wore in a crowded place? I don't know, actually. Maybe on the bus to the capital, although it wasn't like we were packed in like sardines or anything like that. It was just the closest thing to crowded. Would you like to visit more crowded places in the future? I imagine so, but not because of the masses of people. It will be the reason they're there, like a popular shopping centre or something like that. At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health,

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As you know, we now release all of our premium content for free, and it's available for one month. After one month, it goes into our super secret archive. To sign up for the archive, click the link in the description below. See you soon. Dear listener, crowded places, well, crowded places are locations where large numbers of people gather together. shopping centers are crowded, sports stadiums, public transports, public events, maybe like streets, parks, airports, train stations, you know, concert venues.

Your local coffee shop could be crowded. So anything could be crowded, your house could be crowded, if you invite lots of people in and they're just there. Rory, do we have any synonyms to like a crowded, so if a place is crowded? What else can you say? Hoeching. No, that's a Scottish word meaning there's lots of people, but don't say that to your examiner. Packed. Full, rammed. I think those are all good ones for talking about lots of people crowded into one place. So we say like places full of people. And you can paraphrase like, I don't mind a crowd.

So a crowded place, but we can use crowds of people. Or you can say that I dislike crowd. I hate being in a crowd, or I hate being in a place full of people. And you can say, like, I don't mind them. So I'm okay with crowded places. I don't mind crowded places. Or if it's not forever. You can also say, I dislike being jammed into a tight space. So to be jammed into a space, into some space,

means that you are there with lots of people and you're kind of kind of squashed. Like, oh, you know, like this. I can't move. There's so many people. Too many people. Too many people. And usually places get crowded at rush hour.

When people commute to work, there is not enough elbow rule. Elbow room, space to move. It's an idiom for describing space to move, actually, so it fits with being crowded. Yeah, could you give us another example with this phrase elbow? Well, usually on London buses there's not enough elbow room. So buses could get really crowded at rush hour with not enough elbow room,

which means that there isn't enough space to move around. Or you can say that, oh, I was squashed. I was squashed in at dinner, so I was like jammed into space with very little elbow room. So literally I didn't have enough space to move. We say on public transport. There isn't enough elbow room on public transport. Or wiggle room. Ooh, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle. Room to wiggle. Yeah, to kind of move your body. And you can say that buses get really crowded, buses get really packed with people on my way home. so when I make my way home, when I go home, all the buses are usually packed.

Filled with people. And crowded places near where you live, usually some shops, stores, local pubs, which are pretty popular, right? And loads of people are crammed in local pubs. Again, like, loads of people, which means that a lot of people, many people, many people, people. And we've said people are jammed into some place and here a synonym, crammed. Cramed in somewhere. Rory, could you give us an example with to be crammed in? Well, no one likes being crammed into a tight space, do they? Or sometimes it can feel uncomfortable if you're crammed into a classroom together. Yeah. And you can say like the last time I was in a crowded place, like in a crowded place,

was when I was on the bus, on train, I was packed, like people were packed like sardines. And this is a usual idiom that we're using about crowded places to be packed like sardines. Packed in like sardines. Yeah, backed in like sardines like a fish, you know, and you go shopping and you buy this jar of little fish. Maybe I'm.

Sadins. Mm, the bushes. And to be packed in like sandins means the place is extremely crowded, there is no room to move around. There is very little elbow room. And you can also say like packed or squashed like sardines. We were squashed like sardines in the rush hour train. Or you could just say you were squashed in? I was squashed in.

in, yeah, like a pang, squashed in there. Too many people, like, ugh. And you can say that, well, the last time I was in a crowded place, it was when I was traveling by bus, we were squashed like sardines, so it was very unpleasant, everybody was sweating, you know, what a trip it was. And the deal is that if you enjoy concerts

on some festivals, you might say, like, yeah, I usually go to crowded places because I enjoy festivals, concerts or clubs and in the future I might visit some famous concerts to be around masses of people to be around loads of people or masses of people and especially like during Christmas all shops are packed people are crazy looking for everything

deals bargains yeah so you say that Christmas is coming or like A popular festival is coming, so yeah. And I have a nice joke. Oh dear. Maria has packed a joke. Right, and we have a joke, a stupid joke, and Rory will explain it. So, the joke is, how do you draw a crowd?

So how do you draw a crowd? With a pen. Seriously, I don't understand the joke. How do you draw a crowd with a pen? Okay, if you draw, if you draw a crowd, then you make people come to you. You help create the crowd. And of course, if you also draw with a pen or pencil,

you draw a picture. Oh, okay, so the question is about how do you draw a crowd, how do you create a crowd? And the answer is just with a pen, but it should be, oh, you draw a crowd by invite, people. You draw a crowd by, I don't know, getting everybody together, but the answer is strange with a pen. Ha ha ha ha, ha, how stupid it is. Oh, do listener, are you okay? Are you with us?

Oh, I'm not okay. Yeah. Thank you very much for listening, all right? Hopefully your brain is packed with vocabulary and synonyms and idioms and idioms about this you know, like to be jammed in, to be cramped in, to be packed in like sardines, yum, yum, yum, yeah, these are all like not enough elbow room. So these are very specific synonyms about crowded places and crowds. All right? Now, let's get out of this episode, which is jam-packed with grammar and vocabulary.

Yeah. Bye. Do you like crowded places? Well, I mean, I don't mind them, provided. Did there's some sort of way out or it's not forever. No one likes being jammed into a tight space for ages, do they? Is the city where you live crowded? Not overly.

Even at rush hour, there's still some elbow room on public transport and it's easy enough to make your way home or wherever you need to be. Then again, it's a small town, so it's not like we have throngs of people to deal with. Is there a crowded place near where you live? I think the closest thing might be the local pub which is pretty popular, though I've never been there. There's usually loads of people crammed in there on a Friday or Saturday night.

When was the last time you wore in a crowded place? I don't know, actually. Maybe on the bus to the capital, although it wasn't like we were packed in like sardines or anything like that. It was just the closest thing to crowded. Would you like to visit more crowded places in the future? I imagine so. but not because of the masses of people. It'll be the reason they're there,

like a popular shopping centre or something like that.