Virtuous English AcademyFree Time & Hobbies — A2 English Vocabulary
This A2 vocabulary list gathers 30 elementary English words about free time & hobbies — what you do to relax and have fun. Every word comes with a simple definition, its British-English pronunciation and a natural example sentence, so you learn each one in real context. When you are ready, open the flashcards to practise and remember them for good.
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Using free time & hobbies words in English
Almost every hobby on this list is grammatically an -ing word doing the job of a noun: painting, drawing, baking, knitting, gardening, hiking, dancing. That single fact explains most of the grammar you need here — including why I like swimming is more natural than I like to swim, and why the verb in front of an activity is so often go. The other half of the topic is which of play, go and do a given activity takes.
What to watch out for
Go for -ing activities, play for games
Activities whose names end in -ing take go: go fishing, go camping, go hiking, go dancing, go swimming. Games with rules and an opponent take play: play chess, play cards, play football. Most other individual pursuits take do: do photography, do yoga, do a puzzle. Store the verb and the activity together as one item and you will never have to work it out.
After enjoy, only -ing is possible
I enjoy painting is correct; I enjoy to paint is not, ever. With like, love and hate both forms exist, but they lean different ways: the -ing form is about enjoying the activity itself, while the infinitive is closer to habit or choice. I like cooking means you find it pleasant; I like to cook at the weekend describes what you choose to do.
Go to a concert, but go camping
When the activity is a place or an event you attend, English needs a preposition and an article: go to a concert, go to the cinema, go to an exhibition. When it is an -ing activity, there is nothing between the two words at all: go camping, go fishing. Putting them together — go to camping — is the classic error, and it comes from treating the activity as though it were a destination.
Words learners mix up
Once the verb question is settled, what remains is telling near-neighbours apart: three kinds of picture, four ways of moving outdoors, and the places you go to when the hobby happens somewhere other than your own home.
Three ways of making a picture
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| painting | Both the activity and the finished object. I do painting is the hobby; a painting hangs on a wall. | She sold three paintings last year. |
| drawing | Working with a pencil or pen rather than paint. Same double life: the activity and the sheet of paper. | His drawing has improved enormously. |
| sketch | A quick rough drawing, done fast and not meant to be finished. Also a verb. | He sketched the bridge in ten minutes. |
| pottery | Making objects from clay. Uncountable for the craft and for the objects together — no a pottery in this sense. | I have taken up pottery this year. |
The -ing words are doing two jobs at once, and English lets context decide which: I like painting is about the activity, I like this painting is about the object. Pottery refuses to be counted the way painting can, so a single item is a piece of pottery or, more usually, a bowl or a mug.
Moving about outdoors
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| hiking | Long country walking, usually on hills and for several hours. Ordinary town walking is not hiking. | We went hiking in the Lake District. |
| cycling | The British word for riding a bicycle, as a sport or to get somewhere. Americans usually say biking. | Cycling to work takes twenty minutes. |
| jog | A verb: to run slowly for exercise. The noun phrase is go for a jog, and the activity is jogging. | I jog before breakfast three times a week. |
| camping | Sleeping outdoors in a tent. Uncountable, and the place you do it is a campsite. | They go camping every August. |
These are the words most likely to be over-claimed. A walk to the shops is a walk, not a hike; a gentle run is a jog and a fast one is a run; and staying in a caravan or a cabin is not really camping, however outdoors it feels. Being accurate here is the difference between sounding natural and sounding as though you have translated a brochure.
When the hobby happens somewhere else
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| concert | A live performance of music. You go to one, and the small ones are gigs in informal British English. | We went to a concert at the town hall. |
| theatre | The building and the art form together. It normally takes the: go to the theatre. | She goes to the theatre once a month. |
| club | A group of people who meet for a shared interest — and also a place for late-night dancing. Both are countable. | He joined a photography club. |
| magazine | A publication that comes out weekly or monthly. Countable, and you read or subscribe to one. | I get a gardening magazine every month. |
The article is what makes these sound right or wrong. Go to the theatre and go to the cinema keep the even when you have no particular building in mind, because English treats them as institutions; go to a concert takes a, because a concert is one event. Club is the one to be careful with, since we went to a club almost always means dancing rather than chess.
Collocations that sound natural
Hobbies come up in the first five minutes of any conversation with somebody new, and these are the phrases that answer the question without sounding rehearsed.
instrument
play an instrumenta musical instrumenttake up an instrumentlearn an instrument
Take up is the phrasal verb for starting a hobby and it works with almost everything on this page: take up cycling, take up knitting. Its opposite is give up.
chess
play chessa game of chessa chess cluba chess set
No article at all in front of the game itself — I play chess, never the chess — which is the same rule as for football and cards.
concert
go to a concerta live concerta concert ticketa classical concert
The performers give or play a concert; the audience goes to one. Nobody makes a concert.
collection
start a collectiona stamp collectionadd to your collectiona large collection
The verb collect takes the things directly: I collect old postcards. It also means to go and fetch something — collect a parcel — which is a separate everyday sense.
puzzle
do a puzzlea jigsaw puzzlea crossword puzzlesolve a puzzle
You do a puzzle while you are working on it and solve it when you finish. British newspapers call the word one a crossword, usually without the second word.
club
join a cluba book cluba member of a cluba local club
The verb is join, not enter or write in, and you are then a member. To stop, you leave the club.
Where each word belongs
Two of these are words learners meet in reading and then use in speech, where they sound bookish. The rest carry a British spelling, a British brand name, or a second meaning worth knowing.
- pastimeWritten · slightly formalA pleasant way of passing free time. It suits an essay — a popular British pastime — but in conversation people say hobby or simply something I do. Note the spelling: one s and one t, despite the two words it came from.
- leisureFormal · compoundsMostly seen in fixed compounds: leisure time, a leisure centre, the leisure industry. Alone it sounds like a report. British speakers say LEZH-er; Americans say LEE-zher.
- theatreBritish spellingAmericans write theater, and in American English the word can also mean a cinema, so going to the theater is ambiguous there and is not here. British English keeps -re in this family: centre, metre, litre.
- volunteerNoun and verbA person who works without pay, and the verb for offering to do it: volunteer at a charity shop, volunteer to help. The unpaid work itself is voluntary work, and the adjective is voluntary, not volunteer.
- craftTwo sensesMaking things by hand — usually plural in arts and crafts — and also a skill learned over years: the craft of writing. The recent craft beer and craft bakery borrow the second sense to mean small and hand-made.
- relaxVerb · not an adjectiveYou relax, and afterwards you are relaxed. I am relax and it makes me relax are the two errors; the second should be it helps me relax or it is relaxing.
Sentences to try
Four frames that cover the three verbs. Put your own hobbies in and notice which verb each one takes.
- I go hiking in the hills every Sunday.
- My brother plays chess at a club on Tuesdays.
- I really enjoy baking at the weekend.
- We are going to a concert next month.
Questions about free time & hobbies vocabulary
When do I use play, go or do for a hobby?
Use play for games and sports with rules and an opponent — play tennis, play chess, play cards. Use go when the activity is an -ing word, which covers most things you leave the house for: go fishing, go camping, go swimming, go dancing. Use do for most other individual pursuits: do photography, do a puzzle, do yoga. There is no deep logic here, so the reliable method is to learn the verb and the activity as a single unit.
Should I say "I like painting" or "I like to paint"?
Both are correct after like, love and hate, and the difference is small. The -ing form talks about enjoying the activity in general: I like painting. The infinitive leans towards a habit or a considered choice: I like to paint in the morning. After enjoy, however, only the -ing form is possible — I enjoy painting — and I enjoy to paint is simply ungrammatical, so the safest general habit is to reach for -ing first.
Why is it "go camping" and not "go to camping"?
Because camping is the activity, not the place. English puts go straight in front of -ing activities with nothing between them: go camping, go shopping, go running. The preposition only appears when what follows is somewhere you arrive at — go to the cinema, go to a concert, go to the gym. So the test is simple: if the word after go ends in -ing, use nothing; if it is a place or an event, use to.