English for Travel: The 40 Situations Worth Practising Before Your Trip

You do not need more travel vocabulary. You need about 40 short exchanges that you can say out loud, fast, without thinking, while a tired agent behind a counter waits for you.

Why B2 travelers still freeze at the counter

Most of my students who ask for travel lessons already know every word they need. They can write "Could you tell me where the baggage claim is?" without a mistake. Then they land in Atlanta, the agent says "Wheryaheadedtoday?" in one word, and their mind goes blank.

The problem is not vocabulary. It is three things: you have never said the phrase out loud under time pressure, you have never heard the reduced version of the question, and you are not sure your pronunciation will land the first time. That is why I built my travel lessons around situations, not word lists. Each situation is a tiny script that you rehearse until it is automatic, and then we swap in the fast native version of what you will hear back.

The 40 situations, grouped by where you will be standing

Here is the full list. Print it, tick off the ones you can already do in one breath, and work on the rest. Each group has eight situations, and the sections below give you the phrases and the pronunciation note for each group.

Airport and plane: what they say, what you say

The agent's questions are short and reduced. Learn the reduced form on the left so you recognize it, and the answer on the right so you can say it without a pause.

• "Wheryaheaded?" (Where are you headed?) Answer with the city and nothing else: "Denver."
• "Any bags to check?" "One to check, one carry-on." Say CARE-ee-on with the stress on the first syllable.
• "Didja pack these yourself?" "Yes, I did." Not "Yes, I packed them by myself alone," which I hear a lot and which sounds nervous.
• Security: "Laptops out, shoes off." You may need to ask "Do I take my belt off?" Practice it so it comes out in one piece.
• Boarding: "Group three is now boarding." Numbers are the thing to listen for. Thirteen and thirty differ at the stress: thir-TEEN and THIR-ty.
• Seat problem: "Sorry, I think you're in my seat. I have 14C." Say the letter clearly: SEE, not SAY.
• Drinks: "Can I get a water, no ice?" The flight attendant will say "Anything to drink?" as ENNYthing-ta-DRINK.
• Immigration: "Purpose of your visit?" "Tourism, ten days." "Where are you staying?" Have the hotel name ready and say it slowly. Short answers sound confident; long polite sentences sound like you are hiding something.

Getting around and the hotel: 16 exchanges

• Taxi or rideshare: "Hi, I'm going to the Marriott downtown." If the driver asks "You Ashley?" just say "Yes, that's me."
• Ticket: "One round trip to Boston, please." Round trip is the American term; "return ticket" will get you a puzzled look.
• Directions: "Excuse me, which way is the subway?" Then listen for right, left, straight and blocks. Americans measure walks in blocks, not minutes.
• Confirming: "Does this train go to the airport?" Put the stress on airport.
• Renting a car: "I have a reservation under Costa." Be ready to spell your surname: C as in Charlie.
• Gas: "Pump four, forty dollars, regular." Make FOR-ty and FOUR clearly different in length.
• Parking: "Is it okay to park here overnight?"
• Delayed connection: "My flight was delayed and I missed my connection. What are my options?"

The trap in this group is can and can't. "You can park here" and "you can't park here" have opposite meanings and nearly identical Ts. Americans hear the difference in the vowel and the stress, not the T. I explain the mechanism in can vs can't in American English, and I check it first in every travel lesson because a wrong guess here costs you a parking ticket.

At the hotel, eight more exchanges cover every stay:

• Check-in: "Checking in, the name is Nguyen." Pause before the name and say it slowly. Front desk staff type what they hear.
• Early check-in: "Any chance the room is ready early?" The phrase any chance is polite and very American.
• Room problem: "The AC isn't working in 412." Say the room number as four-twelve, not "four hundred and twelve."
• Extra items: "Could I get two more towels sent up?"
• Wifi: "What's the wifi password?" Americans say WHY-fy.
• Breakfast: "What time does breakfast start?"
• Late checkout: "Is late checkout possible? Around one?"
• The bill: "There's a charge here I don't recognize." Calm, specific, receipt in hand.

Food and shops: ordering without the loop of "sorry?"

Restaurants are where my students report the most embarrassment, because the server is fast, the menu has words like sourdough and jalapeño, and there is a line behind you.

• Getting a table: "Table for two, please." The host will ask "Inside or outside?" and "Booth or table?"
• Ordering: "I'll have the salmon." Use I'll have or Can I get. "I want" sounds abrupt in American English.
• Dietary needs: "Does this have nuts in it? I'm allergic." Stress allergic on the second syllable: uh-LER-jik.
• Changing an order: "Actually, could I switch that to the chicken?"
• The check: "Could we get the check, please?" In the US it is check, not bill, at restaurants.
• Tipping: "Is the tip included?" Usually not; 18 to 20 percent is normal for table service.
• Buying: "Do you have this in a medium?" The cashier's "Did you find everything okay?" is a greeting, not a real question. "Yes, thanks" is the full answer.
• Returning: "I'd like to return this. I have the receipt." Say ruh-SEET; the P is silent.

A small thing that changes how servers treat you: say "Can I get a wadder?" with the flap T. It marks you as someone who has heard real American speech, and servers slow down and smile more. Students like Cesar tell me this one word did more for their restaurant confidence than a whole vocabulary list.

Problems and health: the eight you hope you never need

These are the situations where clear pronunciation matters most, because stress is high and the person helping you may be on the phone.

• Lost bag: "My bag didn't arrive. Here's my baggage tag." Say TAG with a clear final G.
• Lost phone or wallet: "I think I left my wallet in the taxi." Practice left so it does not sound like lift.
• Pharmacy: "Do you have something for a headache?" Americans say pharmacy or drugstore. "Chemist" will confuse people.
• Describing a symptom: "I've had a fever since yesterday." Symptom plus time, nothing more.
• Calling for help: "I need an ambulance at the Hilton on Main Street." Location first, then the problem.
• Police report: "I need to report a theft."
• Missed flight: "I missed my flight. Can you rebook me?"
• Card problem: "My card was declined. Can we try again?"

Final consonants are the issue here. Tag, left, theft, declined: many of my students, especially speakers of Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese and Thai, drop the last sound of a word. In a quiet lesson it is a small thing. On a phone with a dispatcher it is the difference between being understood and repeating yourself three times.

The English for travel speaking fixes that matter most

If you only have time to fix three things, fix these. They come up in almost every one of the 40 situations.

1. Number stress. thir-TEEN vs THIR-ty, fif-TEEN vs FIF-ty. Gate numbers, room numbers, prices, times. Get this wrong and you end up at the wrong gate.
2. Can vs can't. Long, clear vowel and stress on can't; short, reduced vowel on can. The T barely exists in either.
3. Final consonants. Say the end of receipt, ticket, left, tag. Hold the last sound a fraction longer than feels natural.

On the listening side, train connected speech: "Did you" becomes didja, "want to" becomes wanna, "What are you" becomes whaddya. You cannot hear them in your own head, which is why in lessons I say the reduced version first and only show the written form after you have guessed it.

Then there is the small talk that runs through all 40. The driver, the server and the person next to you on the plane will ask "So where are you visiting from?" and expect a friendly two-sentence answer plus a question back. Prepare three lines: an answer like "I'm from Lisbon, first time in Texas, it's a lot bigger than I expected. Are you from here?", an opener like "How's your day going?" when you arrive at a counter, and "Have a good one!" as you leave. My guide to small talk in American English has more openers and exits, and if talking to strangers makes you tense, my article on fear of speaking English explains why short scripted exchanges like these are the fastest way through it.

What to do this week

Pick ten situations from the table, the ten you are most likely to face on day one. Say each answer out loud five times, standing up, at the speed you would use with a real person. Record yourself on your phone and listen for two things: did every number have the right stress, and did every word end with its final sound. Tomorrow, take the next ten. In four days you will have covered all 40.

If you want someone to play the tired gate agent, the fast server and the driver, that is exactly what a travel lesson with me is. We run the situations live, I feed you the reduced questions at real speed, and I stop you only on the pronunciation that would actually cause a problem. You can book a first lesson for $25, and if you have a trip coming up, two or three lessons in the week before departure is usually enough. Lesson and pack prices are in the pricing section.

Questions students ask