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Describe a time when someone apologized to you: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • When it was
  • Who this person is
  • Why he/she apologized to you
  • And how you felt about it
Show all 43 answers

Cue 1:When it was

  • Mention the specific time or occasion when the apology took place.
  • Provide context about what was happening in your life at that moment.

Example

It was about six months ago, during the festive season of Diwali. I was busy preparing for the celebrations and was quite stressed with all the arrangements.

Cue 2:Who this person is

  • Introduce the person who apologized and explain your relationship with them.
  • Share a little background about this person to give context.

Example

The person who apologized was my younger brother, Rohan. We have a close relationship, and he often looks up to me for guidance, especially during important family events.

Cue 3:Why he/she apologized to you

  • Clearly state the reason for the apology and what led to it.
  • Explain how the situation affected you and why the apology was necessary.

Example

Rohan apologized because he had forgotten to buy the sweets I had asked him to get for our Diwali celebration. This was important to me as it was a tradition in our family, and I felt disappointed when I realized he hadn’t done it.

Cue 4:And how you felt about it

  • Describe your feelings when he apologized and how it impacted your relationship.
  • Reflect on whether you accepted the apology and how it made you feel afterward.

Example

When Rohan apologized, I felt a mix of frustration and understanding. I knew he didn’t mean to let me down, and his sincere apology made me feel appreciated. I accepted his apology, and it actually brought us closer as we laughed about it later while preparing for the festivities together.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, receiving an apology from my brother not only resolved the tension but also strengthened our bond. It reminded me of the importance of communication and understanding in relationships, especially during busy times like festivals.

    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 Responses

    Giving vague or unclear answers can make it difficult for the examiner to understand your experience. Specific details help create a clearer picture of the situation.

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    Tip

    Include specific details about the time, the person, and the reason for the apology to make your response more engaging.

    2: Neglecting Emotions

    Failing to express your feelings about the apology can make your answer less impactful. Emotions add depth to your story and show your personal connection to the experience.

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    Tip

    Describe how you felt at the moment of the apology and how it affected your relationship with the person.

    Overly Long Responses

    Providing overly long or complicated answers can confuse the listener and dilute your main points. Clarity and conciseness are key in speaking tests.

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    Tip

    Practice summarizing your story in a clear structure: when it happened, who was involved, why they apologized, and your feelings.

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    IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

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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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    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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    Anonymous student Band 7

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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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    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

    Uh, yes. I cannot, I am unable to recall the time when someone apologized to me, but recently one of my friends, Rahul, apologized to me because we were playing football in the park nearly Dadar ground park. And as we were all teammates, we were playing like, we were rustling, playing, kicking one another. And Rahul kicked me very drastically and hurtfully. I got hurt. I got some of the bandages on my leg. My knee was bleeding. I fall off and I really started crying when I was, when I get, when I got hurt. Meantime, all my friends, my coach and my mom came by to pick me up. They took me to the hospital. They got me the proper medications and stuff. After a few hours, I got a call from Rahul that he was really sorry for kicking me out. And he really felt guilty for doing so. He told me he didn't do it intentionally. It was a mistake by his side and he won't really do it again. But he told me he's going to bring me my favorite chocolates and a bouquet just for formality. But I instructed him to bring me a protein bar of chocolate flavor as an apology to me. And he really did. He came by. He brought some chocolates and a pastry for me with a sorry written on it. And it was really tasty. It was really delicious. I really enjoyed the pastry and he said sorry again.

    Band 6-7

    A person who apologised recently to me was my girlfriend. She apologised to me because she hurt my feelings the other day and the reason was I expected something from her but instead she started to not do it. I was unhappy which led to my feelings being hurt. Because of this she had to apologise to me. She called me over the phone and she started talking about how she felt when I said something to her. It was basically a miscommunication between both of us which led to an argument. Later she understood me, she stood by my side, she apologised to me and everything was sorted.

    Band 6-7

    I was speaking with a priest. He talked about anything with me. He is very close with me. But suddenly he changed. He didn't spend his time with me. So many times I asked the reason. But he always says that I am busy. I got no more replies, no more reason from himself. Finally I said that we can't talk hereafter. For that he apologized. I am extremely sorry. But I couldn't forgive him because I think he blamed me.

    Band 6-7

    When I was in my second year in my college, we were preparing for a competition. It was a group competition. A team of 20 members had to make a vehicle so that we have to work together and make the vehicle to compete in the competition. A classmate of mine, who was also on the team, didn't complete his work during the deadline, before the deadline, so he had come to me and apologized to me that he didn't complete the work during the time. It was a crucial task, but other team members and myself had managed to complete the work for him and submit the work, so it was not a big issue. But as a friend, he apologized to me and he apologized to the team on his behalf. It was a good gesture from him and we all accepted his apology and we started working together as a team. So apologizing to a friend or to a team member is a vital role, is a vital thing in team building and also teammates.

    Band 6-7

    This was during my schooling period, my high school period when I was in 12th standard. We were playing football, when we were playing football, this person, my friend actually, slight tackled me and I was seriously injured. But it didn't seem that he had any remorse during the match, but after the match he came up to me and apologized and said that this experience is not what he generally does. But I couldn't accept it because I didn't feel it was real. But eventually later on I was able to accept it because he kept apologizing. But then later we had to move on. For more information visit www.FEMA.gov

    Band 6-7

    One incident that come to my mind immediately is when one of my close friend apologized to me during our final year of the college. It happened about 2 years ago and although it was a simple misunderstanding, it really left me impression on me. At that time we were working on together on a group project and because of some miscommunication my friend thought that I had completed my part of my work. He got quite upset and even complained about me to our professor, which was very embarrassing for me. Lately when he realized that I had actually submitted my contribution on time and that my professor had simply missed checking it, he felt extremely guilty. The next day he came to me in person and offered a very heartfelt apology. He admitted that he had jumped to the conclusion without verifying the fact that his reaction had been unfair. What impressed me most was the sincerity in his tone. He didn't make but excuses, simply acknowledged his mistake and asked for forgiveness. I accept his apology because I value our friendship more than conflicts. In fact, the moment his friends are born, it taught both of us the importance of clear communication and not making assumptions too quickly. Looking back, I feel that apology was just about saying sorry, but about taking responsibility for one's action. It reminded me that a genuine apology has the power to heal the relationship and rebuild trust.

    Band 6-7

    My friend apologized to me yesterday. When we played football, we had a lot of controversy during the match and we had a fight around 5-10 minutes. Other players went around us and stopped the fight. Then we didn't talk for around 1-2 hours. Then he came to me and realized about the issue and asked me sorry. He is my close friend. Then he accepted the fault made by him. Then I told him it's ok. It's a part of our game. But we play fairly in this game. So we don't have a lot of controversy. Play a good game that can be good for you and me. It's better for both of us.

    Band 6-7

    Well, it was a year ago and last June 2024, I think, it was my girl, he apologized to me for rejecting my proposal because I proposed to her before three years back and I didn't see her after that proposal and when we meet after so many years, she said to me that I want to apologize that I have broken your heart. I don't mean to break your heart but I don't have options like that. She is not interested in love but my opinions are very hard to reject that because her rejection was also very hard to me for accepting that she was not mine. It was a quite hard rejection for me.

    Band 6-7

    So, this was the incident when Jia, my classmate, apologized to me. It was the summer of 2025 when she apologized to me. And this was all a big misunderstanding and we later resolved it. But the incident goes like, we were having a teacher's day and on the day of the teacher's day I was recording some people with my teacher's phone. Her name was Shweta Nath and I was recording my friend Jia. During the time, she was having her lunch and maybe she found it a bit too awkward that I was recording her. So she came to me and then later she snatched the phone from my hand. I was a little bit disappointed in her because she was a good friend of mine back then and we used to have a lot of fun together and we were good classmates basically. And later, my mother called her mother to inform the incident that happened in the class and both of them talked for a while and later it was suggested by her mother that Jia should apologize to me and then when we came back together from the summer holidays, she apologized to me right away and said she was sorry about the whole misunderstanding and she told me the reason that she found it a bit awkward that I was recording her while she was having her lunch and I cleared the misunderstanding and later we became good friends.

    Band 6-7

    When I was in my school, when I was sitting really quiet, my class teacher slapped me and she yelled at me for doing nothing. There were sounds coming from the backseat. I was a front bencher in my school. There were sounds that students were making on the backseat. So she thought I was the one doing all that and she slapped me and punished me for nothing. So I asked her, what did I do so that you are punishing me? And at the end, when the class ended, she knew that I wasn't the person who was making this noise. And after the class ended, she apologized to me and I felt that without knowing any reason, she has slapped me and she's apologizing and the whole class made shame of me and they were they were laughing at me. But I felt really, I felt really bad for myself because doing nothing, doing nothing, nothing bad, nothing good, nothing bad. I was punished for nothing. That felt really bad.
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