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Describe a gift you recently gave to someone.: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • Who did you give it to?
  • What was the gift?
  • Why did you choose that gift?
Show all 26 answers

Cue 1:Who did you give it to?

  • Mention the relationship you have with the person to whom you gave the gift.
  • Share a brief context about the occasion or reason for giving the gift.

Example

I recently gave a gift to my younger sister, Priya, who just graduated from college. It was a special occasion for our family, and I wanted to celebrate her achievement.


Cue 2:What was the gift?

  • Describe the gift in detail, including its type and any special features.
  • Explain how you presented the gift to make it more memorable.

Example

The gift I chose for her was a beautiful silver bracelet with her initials engraved on it. I wrapped it in a lovely gift box and added a handwritten note expressing my pride in her accomplishments.


Cue 3:Why did you choose that gift?

  • Explain the thought process behind selecting that particular gift.
  • Mention any personal significance the gift holds for the recipient.

Example

I chose this bracelet because it symbolizes her journey and hard work throughout her studies. I wanted her to have something special that she could cherish and wear on important occasions.


Conclusion

  • Summarize the emotional impact the gift had on the recipient.
  • Reflect on the joy of giving and the importance of thoughtful gifts.

Example

Seeing the joy on Priya's face when she opened the gift was priceless. It reminded me of how meaningful it is to give thoughtful gifts that can create lasting memories.


Following this structure will ensure you cover all the essential points while providing a clear and engaging response to the cue card topic.


Tips to answer this Cue Card

1: Being Vague About the Gift

Candidates often give unclear descriptions of the gift, making it hard for the examiner to understand its significance. This can lead to a lack of engagement in the response.

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Tip

Be specific about the gift. Describe its features, appearance, and why it is meaningful to the recipient.


2: Neglecting Personal Connection

Failing to explain the relationship with the recipient can make the answer feel impersonal. This may lead to a less compelling narrative.

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Tip

Mention your relationship with the person and how it influenced your choice of gift to create a more personal story.


Rushing Through the Explanation

Candidates often rush their answers, skipping important details about why they chose the gift. This can result in a lack of depth in the response.

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Tip

Take your time to explain your thought process behind choosing the gift, including any special occasions or memories associated with it.


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IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

Reported by Leap students who gave IELTS

Describe your favourite food at a traditional festival or a special event in your country
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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Pitampura Test Centre, New Delhi

Answer

I like to taste different types of cuisine. Here I would like to talk about my favorite dish at my traditional festival of Onam which is Sadya. Sadya is popular in my city. We are experimenting these cuisines on Onam festival day. Onam is a famous festival in my city. All family members get together in my home and we make a delicious Sadya. There are many ingredients includes that Sadya. Moreover, we make a big feast that day as well as we create a lot of memories together and we wear that day the traditional dress called Sari and men wear the Dhotis. That festival is really important to us because the whole day we are conducting different kinds of games at our homes and all the family members came together. It's a memorable day in my life. This is the festival. We are making the Sambar and Aviyal. These all the kinds of foods are making with the vegetables.

Talk about a toy you liked in your childhood
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 8

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Sector 34 Test Centre, Chandigarh

Answer

The toy which I liked in my childhood was a panda doll, which makes me pleasant and makes me more blush. The pandas are the most beautiful creatures of the world, which looks gigantic and has pooshy cheeks and they are like stars in the clouds and they dream in me. Furthermore, these have been given by my father. My father is a very very beautiful artistic person, who makes me think of that. Every day you will face every difficulties and make you suffer and move forward. Pandas are always seen in Japanese countries. It is my lifelong dream to visit a Japanese country and click a photo with the original pandas, which makes sounds better.

Describe a time you were in a place where you didn't know the local language
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 6.5

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Whitefield Test Center, Bengaluru

Answer

As India is a very large country full of diversity, so there are many places which have their own language and speak their native language. The place which I visited and I didn't know about their language was Leladakh, which is about 300 km away from my hometown and it is a very good place as it consists of different kind of trees, animals and have many scenic views and I visited over there last year in summers as it was the best time to visit because it has many, it was cold over there and we had summers in our area so it was the best time to visit over there and I went over there with my whole family.

Describe a time when your friend damaged something you owned
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7

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Begumpet Test Centre, Hyderabad

Answer

When I was a kid, I had a little pencil box which had these four buttons which gave the pencil box an operative use. When you press the button, the box would open up. When you press the second button, a little part of it would slide out. Basically it was just a little electronical and a fun thing to have and I owned it when I was in 6th. One day after break, I was standing and talking there with one of my friends and another friend of mine was running through the hallway and accidentally she pushed my shoulder and my pencil box hit the ground and it broke into multiple pieces to the point that it was not functional anymore.

Describe a book you recently read
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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CBD Belapur Test Centre, Navi Mumbai

Answer

It Ends With Us is a book I read recently. It's by the author Colleen Hoare. It's mainly a story about two teenagers, Atlas and Lily, and how they just handle their life going through high school, adolescence, and just domestic violence at home. Both of them come from very, very different families. However, they have one common determining factor between them, which is domestic violence. The abuse that they've seen their moms go through is just insane, and they connect through that on a different level. They're actually in the same high school, but they never speak to each other until Atlas actually crashes into an empty house next to Lily's villa. When Atlas is homeless and he doesn't have anywhere to go, he just comes and breaks into the house next to Lily's, and Lily helps him with all the daily necessities like clothes and food, medicines and stuff. Furthermore, their friendship blossoms into love, but it doesn't really fructify as Atlas has to leave. This book really gave me a lot of knowledge about domestic abuse and how to deal with it.

All Answers

Here are all the answers by real-users practicing speaking for IELTS Cue Cards on our IELTS Prep App.

Band 6-7

Gifts are little gestures which indicate our love and affection towards a person. So basically, I went to my friend's birthday party and I was not sure what should I give her because she is a very privileged child, but still I decided to give some gift to her. So I purchased one e-wheel eye locket. It indicates that the person is saved by the whole universe. So I thought that it signifies my friendship to her. Moreover, I also gave her one little bag so she can bring whatever she want to bring in that bag. So it was amazing cute bag. She loves cartoons so I gave her a Doraemon structured bag so she loved it and everyone was praised my gift. So I.

Band 6-7

Recently, I gave a gift to two of my closest friends, spectacles from the Lenz car. It was a Ray-Ban aviator's cooling glasses. I gave it to them because they are moving abroad for their higher studies. They both have been in my life for the last 20 years from my early school days. We were very close and I thought I could give them that as a send-off gift as I will not be able to see them for the next couple of years. Why did they choose that gift? Because I didn't find anything relevant with my budget which is 2000 Rs. I didn't find anything relevant that they wanted. So, I chose the spectacles because they were thinking of buying that. They had mentioned that they liked the Ray-Ban aviator.

Band 6-7

Recently, one of my best friends have been going to US for completion of a master's and we as a whole friend group have decided to, had decided to give her refrigerator magnets with multiple photos on them. These magnets were really small, it was more of 4 by 3 centimeters, but it had pictures of us as a group, individuals, of her cat, of her family, of her favorite place, just so she can have a little part of her India wherever she goes. Those magnets were very durable which could be hung up on a refrigerator or anything which have a little metal or iron in it. I found this gift to be really personal and it has an emotional touch to it because I really wanted her to know that we will be there for her no matter what. And I came across the idea of gift while I was roaming around in the streets in my locality in Saudagarh. I was just walking around and I saw a magnet gift shop basically which also sold magnetic refrigerator and I started discussing over why if I could get them customized as such and I got them customized for my likings. So this is how we gifted our friend a little memory of us so that she can cherish it forever.

Band 6

Recently, I have given a gift to my mother on her birthday because a gift was a watch because she wanted that from so long. She never had a watch before that and recently I was done with my internship and from that money I bought a gift for her, though the price was really small for what she deserves but yeah, I tried to give the best gift I could, it was possible, so yes and also she loved that gift, she had that emotional tears in her eyes and she was really happy, happy after buying, after getting that gift. She didn't expect because earlier I used to only gift her the cards or like any mementos but this time I gifted her a watch and she was not expecting that at all and the best part was, as soon as she got it, since then she wears that like everyday in everyday use and she loves it.

Band 6

A month ago my parents celebrated their 30th anniversary together and during that time me and my brother secretly planned a surprise for them. We decided to gift them a very beautiful photo frame and it went really well because it was a complete surprise for them and they had no idea that we are going to give them. That photo frame was so beautiful we created a very beautiful, we gathered lot of pictures together and put together as a photo frame and we gifted it to them. They really loved it.

Band 6

I give the gift to my friend. I gave the gift for my friend's birthday. She is celebrating her birthday on 24th of February every year. It is not only her birthday, it is past Mrs. Jayalalitha's birthday also, so that everyone is celebrating. I like my friend very much, so that every time I prefer to give gift to my friend. I bought a elegant sari for her. I bought a elegant sari for her. It is green color with jheri border. She likes saris very much, that too silk saris. She is the best friend.

Band 6

gifts are marvelous I gave many gifts to someone but here I would like to talk about a gift that I recently gave to my husband that is trimmer and it's also a watch it really helped him he is always late in his job but now he is on time and it helped her so much I really like to give this type of gifts to every person and it's not too expensive but it is look like a chain it's look like rollers green and it is brown in color that is very beautiful my husband liked it very much they he always used it when they need

Band 6

Recently, last year, I gifted my father an iPhone 15 because his mobile was really damaged and he did not wanted to take a new mobile for himself. So I thought to give him a mobile with the salary that I had saved and he was really happy. To receive it, when I gave it to him, his eyes were all teary and I could see how proud he was that his daughter has given him the gift. He always used to tell me that my daughter uses iPhone but see her father uses Samsung mobile so I always felt bad about it and I wanted him to feel special on his 50th birthday so I surprised him with this mobile phone. Looking at him, I felt so happy, the feeling I cannot express in words, the amount of pride I could see in his eyes about his daughter was indescribable. It was a very good feeling.

Band 5-6

One of the recent gifts that I got from someone was from a colleague of mine and that was because of secrets and that happened last December. So it was a small tabletop plane with a miniature clock on the front of its nozzle. So its nozzle was basically converted into a miniature clock. Now why I felt like this even though the gift was so small in size but then its significance was very big to me. Now why I would say that is its not always about having something big like a lamp or something that signifies a huge part of my life like lets say getting me something related to my favourite series or movie. This had a very different purpose to it. This is something that I could elevate the design of my house and I really care about how my desk whether it be my own house or somebody else's whenever I sit somewhere I would like my desk to be very elegant, very beautiful. It just puts me in a very nice mood. So its important in that way. Now what happened to the gift is a different story though. So my maids son who accompanies her to my house everyday just likes to play around with my stuff and without me realising he one day took the miniature gift from my table and I was okay with it because I always have a clock with me hanging on the wall or I can always refer to my phone for the time. But then if the kid really liked it and if he is very happy with it who am I to stop him from taking it and what I gifted in return was way bigger than this by the way not to brag I gifted my sacred santa a huge lamp and I am actually proud of the fact that I got it for a cheap price.

Band 5-6

honestly speak I gave number of gifts to my family members and friends and relatives but here I would like to talk about that time when he gave gifts to my best friend it was the birthday of my 18th birthday of my best friend so he decided to celebrate the 18th birthday with family members and friends so that time he called me for invitation so I decided to go for her birthday party so I went to the shopping mall because I don't have any special items for them to to give her as a gift so I went to the shopping mall to purchase a beautiful dress for my friend because her favorite color is black so I buy black dress western dress for my beautiful friend so when I gave a dress to my friend she felt very happy and also over the moon because the dress is very attractive and beautiful in colors it's a very simple and unique dress so after hour she wear that dress on her birthday because the dress is very very beautiful so she decided to wear on that day and when she wear so I received number of compliments from my friends because I choose a beautiful gift for my friend and also she is very happy and thanks me a lot because the dress is very expensive and also good attractive and suits on her so so that was a gift I gifted to my best friend
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