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Describe a gift you would like to buy for your friend: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • How you knew your friend?
  • How long have you known him/her?
  • How would you choose a gift for him/her?
  • And explain why you would choose that gift for him/her.
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64 unique answers with expert feedback

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Cue 1:How you knew your friend?

  • Begin by mentioning how you met your friend, whether it was in school, college, or through mutual friends.
  • Share a brief anecdote that highlights your initial connection or shared interests.

Example

I met my friend Priya in college during our first year. We were both part of the same orientation group and quickly bonded over our love for literature and poetry. I remember how we spent hours discussing our favorite authors and sharing book recommendations.

Cue 2:How long have you known him/her?

  • Clearly state the duration of your friendship, such as how many years or months you have known each other.
  • Mention any significant milestones or experiences you have shared during this time.

Example

I have known Priya for about five years now. Over these years, we have celebrated each other's birthdays, supported one another through exams, and even traveled together during our summer breaks.

Cue 3:How would you choose a gift for him/her?

  • Discuss the thought process you would go through when selecting a gift, considering your friend's interests and preferences.
  • Mention any specific occasions or reasons that might influence your choice.

Example

When choosing a gift for Priya, I would think about her passion for reading. I would consider getting her a special edition of her favorite book or a personalized bookmark. Since her birthday is coming up, I want to make it memorable.

Cue 4:And explain why you would choose that gift for him/her.

  • Explain the significance of the gift and how it reflects your understanding of your friend's personality.
  • Share how you believe the gift will make her feel appreciated and valued.

Example

I would choose a special edition of her favorite book because it shows that I pay attention to her interests. I know how much she cherishes her books, and I believe this gift would make her feel appreciated and loved. It’s not just a gift; it’s a way to celebrate our friendship.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, choosing a thoughtful gift for a friend like Priya is a wonderful way to express my appreciation for our friendship. It reflects the bond we share and the memories we have created together over the years.

    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: Avoid Vague Descriptions

    Using vague language can make your answer less engaging and informative. It's important to provide specific details about your friend and the gift to create a clearer picture.

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    Tip

    Use descriptive adjectives and specific examples when talking about your friend and the gift to make your answer more vivid.

    2: Neglecting Personal Connection

    Failing to explain your relationship with your friend can weaken your response. The examiner wants to understand the significance of the gift in the context of your friendship.

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    Tip

    Share a brief story or memory that highlights your friendship to emphasize why the gift is meaningful.

    Rushing Through the Explanation

    Speaking too quickly can lead to unclear answers and missed points. It's essential to take your time to articulate your thoughts clearly.

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    Tip

    Practice pacing your speech by pausing briefly between points to ensure clarity and allow the examiner to follow your ideas.

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    IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

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    Describe your favourite food at a traditional festival or a special event in your country
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    Anonymous student Band 7.5

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    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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    Anonymous student Band 8

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    Sector 34 Test Centre, Chandigarh

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    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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    Anonymous student Band 6.5

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    Whitefield Test Center, Bengaluru

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    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.
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    Anonymous student Band 7

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    Begumpet Test Centre, Hyderabad

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    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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    Anonymous student Band 7.5

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    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

    My best friend from school, we have known each other since 10 years and the last time I met her was when I was in India for my summer vacations. So I would like to gift her a watch for her birthday that is coming up during the month of April, specifically on April 10th. So the main reason behind buying her a watch is that when we were in grade 11, she had gifted me a watch and ever since then I had in mind that I should also buy her a watch and since I know her preference and favourite colours, so I would like to buy an Apple watch and as she is a gadget freak, so maybe I would buy her an Apple watch since there are discounts coming up in the next month for Eid. I would go out to the mall and check out the prices. I would buy her this watch and give it to her when I go for the summer vacations in the month of July. I hope she would like the watch because I know her choice and who doesn't like the brand Apple.

    Band 6-7

    So, me and Abudal, we first met playing a cricket game in his society back when he was just 10 years old. And our friendship has grown over the years onwards. Not just grown, it has flourished. And now he is just as good as a brother to me. I have known the guy for about 10 years now. And it has been a wonderful experience growing up with him and sharing each and every day with him. Now, not talking to him for a day, feels like a day wasted. He has been one of the most important people in my life for about quite some time now. And he is one of the very few guys who understands me and knows how I feel about things. And he knows how to handle me. So, obviously, there is this person who is a very important place in my life. So, there is one gift that I would like to give him. For his 21st birthday, it would be a Playstation 5. Because he is very fond of gaming. And he has been wanting it for about twice of time now. And it would obviously be the Playstation 5, me being his best friend, give him that. Because he has been wanting it for a very long time. And I know how he feels about gaming and console gaming. He enjoys it a lot. And I definitely feel like it would be a Playstation 5.

    Band 6-7

    Basically, this go back, this go back to since my childhood, like, my childhood was very much fun and we had like 10 to 15 friends in my surroundings, but there was one friend who caught my eye. First, I wasn't, I was the smallest in the group and they wouldn't allow me to join many games like running and whatever stuff. They would be scared that I would get hurt because I was the smallest in their group. I had one friend, his name is Darwin, and he was the first person for me to be friends with. He was just backside of my house. He was just living in the backside of my house. So, I have known him for the past 20 years. We have been friends since the age of one. And the gift, and only he had PlayStation in his house. He wouldn't invite any other friends. He would only invite me because I was the quietest and I was always used to be alone. And he was the only one who used to invite me in his house to play PlayStation. So, as time passed by, he broke his PlayStation. He doesn't have one, but I have one. And he always comes and play. And he always come to play PlayStation in my house. And the gift I want to give it to him is a PlayStation 5 because he doesn't have one. And if I give it to him as a token of gift, which he use, which...

    Band 6-7

    so I know my friend since I was in school we've been friends from a long time since I can remember we I know her since I was in nursery class so she's very special to me and she's my best friend her name is Janhvi and she lives nearby my house and we have done all the things together we have completed each and every bucket list that a friend could have and they want to do things with each other right so I know my friend loves efforts so I would like to give her a handwritten letter and a photo frame because I feel that she values these kind of efforts more she likes personalized touch whenever we go out she always mentions how she loves people who communicate love who themselves with the help of all these gifts so I would like to give her a handwritten letter from my side to make her feel special and to show that I even I can do some efforts for her also she is a big fan of photo frames because it always displays the memories that we created together so I would like to gift her a photo frame as well so that she can be sure so that every time she looks at the photograph she remembers me and our moments together moreover I love her so much that I think we have that the photo frame would not give justice to her so a handwritten letter would be fine and it would just do well right yeah that's all thank you

    Band 6-7

    I have known my friend Anas for many years. We studied together in college and we have maintained contact since then. It's been over 10 years that we have known each other. A gift I would like to purchase for my friend is saffron. Anas is very fond of saffron and he consumes it on a daily basis. He believes that this ingredient has surprising benefits to the body and he loves to get it on a daily basis. I would love to buy him saffron as I come from the land where it is famously grown in. So I think he would appreciate if I could bring him original, unadulterated saffron which he would be able to use. Also saffron is a very expensive ingredient so if I bought him some I think he would cherish that, he would appreciate that. So that is one gift I would like to give him.

    Band 6-7

    I am an artist and I love arts and crafts. I usually gift my friends personalized items that I craft with my skills. Having said that, to my most favorite friend, I would like to gift a terrarium made with my own hands. The most important part of this terrarium is that it contains a running water fountain so that he can hear the sound of water all throughout his day during his hustle and bustle of his work. This is because he loves the sound of water and always finds that calming and relaxing. For this reason, I would like to make this in a form of terrarium with a lot of plants, water bodies and a real flowing waterfalls with a water pump and gift for his birthday that is coming up. This is because he has been a very important person and a source of support in my life. Without him, this will be the first gift that I would like to give him along with a remote car that also he loves and is fond of. This is a bit cliche but yeah, boys tend to like remote cars and he has also mentioned that one of his childhood dreams was to own a remote car which he didn't get at that time. So, I want to fulfill that cute little wish of him. And the terrarium that I spoke about, I have already started making one but it is taking a lot of time to gather all the required materials to put everything in place. Hopefully, I complete it by his birthday and gift it for him.

    Band 6-7

    I got acquainted with my friend in 7th grade. We were not actually very close back then. Our bond got stronger since past three to four years and I think I would gift her a trip to Vrindavan because she is a very fond of Lord Krishna and she really really wants to go there and I want to go there as well so it would be a fun trip and also an enhancing experience for both of us to to make our bond stronger and spirituality is a subject that she likes a lot so it would be very very helpful she has mentioned to me in the past that she really wanted to go there and she haven't been there even though she lives nearby

    Band 6-7

    A gift that I would buy to one of my friends is the PlayStation 5. Among the various aspects of my neighborhood, the one thing I love the most is this friend. I have known him for a decade now. Initially, we would talk very less, but later on we got together to play PlayStation video games. However, as time passed, we both started to like the video games we played and he, in the recent years, he started to play more and more video games and he wanted a new PlayStation 5. He has been wanting this gift for almost two years now and I think this would be the most apt gift for him because he loves video games and he is always playing them. He also plays certain online games connecting the entire world and in this way, he goes to competitions and also wins prizes. So hence, I think that for my neighborhood friend, I would gift him a PS5.

    Band 6-7

    I prefer buying gifts for my friends after selecting according to their interest and likes. So, I know one of my friend, her name is Rose Maria. I know her from my college first year itself, maybe we acquainted with ourselves for a couple of years. So, for selecting, as I said, I look into her interest. So, she is basically a studious person and is really generous one. Furthermore, she likes to read a lot. So, I usually prefer to buy books, novels. Actually, she has a collection of books at her home, which I heard from her many times. So, I prefer selecting books, novel books especially. She likes to have that a lot. So, I would prefer that. Then, we like to spend time together. So, once she said she likes to write stories, her vocabulary has been increased by reading those story books as well as from other books also. Gifts are actually a part of connection with our friends. So, giving an important gift to others remains within them for a long period of time, even if we are separated apart.

    Band 6-7

    A gift that I would like to buy my friend, first I would like to start how I met my friend. When we were in the class 12, we first met through an online application called Zoom app wherein we both were attending a lecture meeting and from there we started to talk, have conversations daily and became good friends. The gift that I would like to give him is the Rolex watch as in he has a very stylish appearance and his personality is impeccable. Rolex watch surely matches his personality as in the gold texture, the style and the design matches his funkiness as well as the love behind his work. As he has a business, it is essential for him to be on time at different places for different meetings. So a Rolex watch would be the best gift that I could give him so that he could feel stylish and could match his personality as well as could reach in time to those places and meetings that are really important and essential for the growth of his business. My friend will truly love this gift because I have given it with lots of love and care. In the conclusion, a gift like Rolex watch would surely complement the personality of my friend.
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