Technology vocabulary

Progress words

When you write and speak about computers and technology, very often you will be asked to say how technology has changed or progressed.

 

notes

Progress is an uncountable word, while advance is countable. So you say that "digital technology is an advance" but you cannot say that "digital technology is a progress"

Impact words

Another common topic is to talk about what effect computer technology has had on our lives

notes

Be careful with the difference between "affect" (generally a verb) and "effect" (generally a noun). Just to confuse you, in English they sound exactly the same.

"impact" and "influence" are often used with the preposition "on"

Technology and computer words

It is very easy to keep on repeating the same word without knowing it. One way not to do this is to change the form of the word or to use it in a different phrase.

 

notes

Be careful with the spelling of technology.

A "technophile" loves technology  and a "technophobe" hates it. In speaking, you could use the less formal word "geek" for technophile, but I would avoid it writing.

There is no great difference between "ICT" and "IT". However, as my example shows ICT is most frequently used as the name of an academic subject.

Adjectives

notes

It is normal to use hyphens (-) in adjective phrases such as "state-of-the-art" when they are used before nouns ("state-of-the-art technology"), but you do not always need them when they are used without a noun ("this technology is state of the art").

"obsolete" is similar in meaning to "outdated", but is a stronger word to show that the technology is so old that it cannot be used any longer.

It is normal to write "high tech" rather than "high technology".

Device words

This is a rather confusing set of words to describe different kinds of objects.

notes

A "device" is often something fairly small that allows you to complete a task. There is a strong collocation (very common phrase): "labour-saving device".

"Equipment" is an uncountable word so you need to say "a piece of equipment". It is a very general use word that can be used to describe almost anything mechanical.

"Gadget" is a word often used to describe objects that are either small or have a less serious purpose.

"Appliance" is typically used in the phrase "electrical appliances" (eg irons and kettles) that are less advanced technology.

Other useful words

This is a selection of other words that may come in useful when discussing technology

Read more: Technology vocabulary http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-vocabulary/technology-vocabulary/#ixzz1qTeFJAgZ 
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives