cover the distance — travel a certain distance
collocationB1IELTS 5+neutraloccasional
to travel from one place to another, especially when talking about how far you go
Say it like a native
Textbook We traversed the entire distance on foot.
Native We covered the distance on foot.
'Traversed' is literary; 'cover the distance' is the natural way to talk about how far you went.
Pattern: cover the distance (between A and B / of X kilometers, etc.)
In use
- It took us three hours to cover the distance between the two cities.travel
- During my last holiday, we rented bikes and managed to cover the distance from our hotel to the beach in under an hour.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ We covered a long way before lunch.
✓ We covered a long distance before lunch.
You 'cover a distance / the ground' — 'a long way' goes with 'come a long way' (a different meaning).
Common collocations
cover + distance— the distance, a lot of ground, 20 miles, the ground quickly
Don't confuse it
Not the same as 'make up the distance,' which means to catch up.