Traffic

Question

How do I explain (the way a teacher would) that the sentence 'It's traffic' is incorrect? I just know that it doesn't sound good and that 'traffic' is not an adjective when you mean 'you got stuck in traffic' or 'traffic was heavy' or 'you caught a heavy traffic'.
And what are other possible alternatives?

Philip · Accepted Answer

It [the reason I'm late] is traffic [ that was bad].

Samwalker · Answer

Sorry, Philip. I'm quite confused with your response. Could you make clear? I don't get it.

CalifJim · Answer

traffic is certainly not an adjective, but that doesn't mean that the sentence It's traffic is incorrect. It depends on the context.
If you ask someone the reason that they are always late, they may answer It's traffic as an abbreviated form of It's traffic that makes me late.
To have a better response to your question, you may have to clarify the context in which the statement was used.
CJ

Samwalker · Answer

Philip:
Sorry, I get it now. Not until I read CalifJim's response.

CalifJim:
Thanks!

I get it.

So could you give more alternatives when they want to say that they caught a heavy traffic on their way to work (no prior questions asked).
Something like:
Out of the blue, Bob said "It's traffic." (when he actually meant he got into traffic jam on his way to work.'

Philip · Answer

samwalkerPhilip:
Sorry, I get it now. Not until I read CalifJim's response.

CalifJim:
Thanks! I get it.
So could you give more alternatives when they want to say that they caught a heavy traffic on their way to work (no prior questions asked).
Something like:
Out of the blue, Bob said "It's traffic." (when he actually meant he got into traffic jam on his way to work.'

I often rely on CJ to clarify my explanations. He's very good!

CalifJim · Answer

samwalkerSo could you give more alternatives for when they want to say that they caught a in heavy traffic on their way to work?

I got caught in traffic.
I got stuck in traffic.
The traffic was bad today.
I've never seen traffic so heavy.
I think I hit every red light in town.
CJ

Samwalker · Answer

Yes, CJ.
Your examples were the almost the same examples I gave them...

We got/were stuck in traffic for several hours.
There wasn't much traffic on the roads.
They must have got caught in rush-hour traffic.
There was a lot of/heavy traffic on the roads this morning.

The problem was I didn't know how to explain it to them 'the English teacher way'...

v

Samwalker · Answer

Philip: I often rely on CJ to clarify my explanations. He's very good!

Hey, Philip, I'm sure I was neither thinking so well nor carefully absorbing your post when I read it. I actually understood it when I tried to understand it more. Sorry, my bad. I hope you don't get me wrong. No hurtful intention. I'm sorry if my words didn't seem so nice/well put together.

Traffic

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