What does “on the road” mean in English?

Living And Working Full-Time In A Camper Van

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A2 English listening practice · English · Picked for people who know a little

💡 Did you know?
on the road
English travel phrase
traveling — moving from place to place, not staying in one home

“On the road” means you are traveling or moving from place to place. In the video, a couple have been “traveling the country in a camper van for the past three years” — and people always ask: “How do you guys work from the roads?” Being “on the road” means your home is not fixed. You travel, sleep in different places, and keep moving. It describes anyone who travels a lot or lives a mobile life.

“On the road” is a very common English phrase. You can hear it in many situations: a band on tour is “on the road,” a truck driver is “on the road,” and a family on a long trip is “on the road.” The phrase also appears in the title of one of the most famous American novels, “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac (1957), about two men who drive across America. Today, with remote work, many people choose to live and “work from the road” — meaning they have a job they can do from a laptop in any location. Note that the standard phrase is “work from the road” (singular); “work from the roads,” as said in the video, is not the normal idiom. This is sometimes called the “digital nomad” lifestyle.

How common are the words?

How common are the words in this A2 English listening practice video?

95.4%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common English words
Most of the words in this video are common English words.

How common in written English

92.3%
Top 1,000
95.4%
Top 2,000
96.9%
Top 5,000

How common in spoken English

87.5%
Top 1,000
90.6%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-US 2012 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.

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