Describe a time when you told your friend an important truth: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

Who your friend is
What the truth was
What was your friend’s reaction
And explain why it was important to tell the truth

38 unique answers with expert feedback

Show all 38 answers

Cue 1:Who your friend is

Introduce your friend by sharing their name and a bit about your relationship.
Mention how long you have known each other and the context of your friendship.

Example

My friend's name is Rahul, and we have been best friends since high school. We have shared countless experiences together, from studying for exams to enjoying weekend outings.

Cue 2:What the truth was

Clearly state the important truth you had to tell your friend.
Explain the circumstances that led you to feel it was necessary to share this truth.

Example

The important truth I had to tell Rahul was that I had overheard some classmates gossiping about him behind his back. They were making fun of his presentation skills, and I felt he deserved to know what was being said.

Cue 3:What was your friend’s reaction

Describe your friend's initial reaction to the truth you shared.
Share how he processed this information and any actions he took afterward.

Example

At first, Rahul was shocked and hurt. He appreciated my honesty but was upset that people would talk about him like that. After a moment, he decided to confront the classmates and clear the air.

Cue 4:And explain why it was important to tell the truth

Discuss the significance of honesty in friendships.
Explain how sharing the truth can strengthen trust and support in a relationship.

Example

It was important to tell the truth because I value our friendship and wanted Rahul to be aware of what was happening. Honesty builds trust, and I believed that by sharing this information, I was supporting him and helping him address the situation.

Conclusion

Example

In conclusion, telling Rahul the truth was a pivotal moment in our friendship. It reinforced our bond and showed that I would always look out for him, no matter the circumstances. This experience taught me the value of honesty and the importance of being a supportive friend.

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 unclear. It's important to provide specific details about your friend and the truth you shared to engage the listener.

Tip

Use clear examples and specific details to describe your friend and the situation. This will make your answer more relatable and interesting.

2: Don't Overlook Emotions

Neglecting to discuss your friend's reaction can weaken your response. Emotions are key to understanding the impact of the truth you shared.

Tip

Include your friend's emotional response to the truth. Describe how they felt and why their reaction was significant to the situation.

Skip the Importance of Truth

Failing to explain why telling the truth was important can leave your answer incomplete. It’s crucial to convey the significance of honesty in relationships.

Tip

Clearly articulate why the truth mattered in that moment. Discuss the potential consequences of not sharing it and how it affected your friendship.

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 8

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 6.5

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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

Well, the friend I'm going to speak about is a friend from my childhood time. His name was Anirban. The truth which I had to tell him was that before the break time period, we used to steal his tiffin from his bag from under the table and we used to eat up all his food. Well, he didn't know that. Obviously, he didn't know that. His mother used to pack him all those good sandwiches and pizzas and all that. It was very tasty. So, me and my friend, we used to go under the table. We used to steal that tiffin box silently while the class was still on and teacher was teaching. We used to open the tiffin box. We used to have it while the teacher was teaching and meticulously, we never got caught by the teacher also. So, yeah, it was fun. Well, I had to tell him the truth because after some time, I started feeling bad for him because every break time, he used to say that my mother has forgotten to give me the tiffin or where did the tiffin go. He used to panic a lot. So, I started feeling bad about him. So, on a random Thursday, me and my other friend named Shatik, we decided to tell him the truth that it was us. We are the culprits. So, we went to him, we approached him and we told him that Anirban, it was actually us who did that. And he was, at that time, he was overwhelmed. He didn't know what to do. He was flabbergasted with what we said. So, he first obviously grew angry, gave us one or two slangs like boys do and then after that, he wasn't also that angry actually. He didn't beat us or something like that. He then forgave us, obviously. We are still friends now, but now he takes it in a different way.

Band 6

Hi, I'd like to tell you something about my friend. So she is basically my childhood friend who even studied with me in school. So basically we know each other from so long and I've been there for her every time she need and vice versa. However, she always thought herself to be a person who is liked by everyone. What she do and what she think always seems to be right to her. The thing is, there are at times people got hurt on her opinions and deeds. So I thought it was hard time, I explained her what exactly she is doing and it's not giving good results. To my surprise, she didn't react badly to what I said. She accepted her mistake and promised me that she would do better, which I felt was a maturity she developed and I'm really proud of her, despite what she did or what she do. Because for me, accepting your own mistakes is heavenly.

Band 5-6

I revealed my truth with my friend, she is Shailu, and I said Shailu to the biggest truth in my life, I revealed that is, I said to Shailu, Shailu, I wanna tell you something that is the biggest truth in my life, I never revealed that only for you, and she interested and okay I say, and I will say, I cheated in the exam hall, she was shocked, she was in shock and what is going on, is it really truth, yes, is it really truth I said, and she was really in shock and surprised, so I tell her the truth, what is it, I don't know the one line for the chemistry exam, and I wrote the letters in my hall ticket, and I went to the exam hall, and I start thinking and looking at those numbers, and I start writing, the little cheating I done, so I tell them the truth, she was literally crazy, and Shailu is like crazy fellow, she can't believe that I cheated on that exam, so it's fine for me, and I am the one who cheated that exam, and it's important for my friend to reveal my truth, because I wanna share my truth and my feelings, the only person I can share everything is my friend, so I can tell her the truth, I cheated on that exam, so I get a better marks in that exam.

Band 5-6

So, I told this important truth to my best friend, and because I told, it's because we never believe a person says whatever the person says. It's important to believe in yourself first, analyze with someone else. Analyze yourself, you know, probably with your partner, whatever it is. It's good to have a half bit of truth or half, you know, believe the half of it, because never believe everything. It's a thing where we are lacking. And it's important to know that in your future life, it's important to have naked truth. This naked truth and never believe whatever people say. It may fall you, it may take you a lot of time, and it's important in our life that we are aware of the people around us. If they're taunting us or making us fall for it or making us aware of it or like, you know, where the situation where we should be aware. And I felt, and because she was my best friend, I wanted to give a naked truth of why the truth is very important. Because one of her friend called Betrayer, and she was telling everybody that she cheated on her, and was amazed to hear that. And she was telling all secret about her. So I told my friend, never tell any secret to anyone.

Band 5-6

Okay, the friend which to whom I said the truth was my intermediate friend and the truth is about hiding her marks in the entrance exam, well of course after so many years probably when we have started working both of us become professionals and both of us were in our own life journey wherein I got an opportunity to met her once though I had a continuous relation with her but we don't meet oftenly so one fine day when I met her in a restaurant I made sure to get her relax and explain the truth which I hid it from her that I hide it the marks and the reason behind it she was quite surprised and she immediately asked me what is the reason behind hiding the marks and all and I clearly explained her in case if I would have shared this marks which is a failure marks for you you will not get that encouragement or concentration which I gave you at that point of time so definitely based on this particular false information which I gave you you planned yourself in a better way you organized the way of concentrating on studies so which made you stand up with a good percentage and later you were able to get a good job after graduation immediately so that's the reason why and I think of course at the end of the day she excused me and we become good friends

Band 5-6

My friend was my college friend and the truth about NEET preparation I was telling to him that during NEET preparation there is a lot of problems comes and many doubts comes in our mind about ourselves and only during that time they comes and they never come after the exam so never be serious on each and every point and also only working hard is not sufficient we should study very smartly because I had given NEET for 2 times and study for around 8 to 9 hours per day and I was unable to get good scores in my NEET examination so it must be in mind that the work which we are doing should also be an efficient work

Band 5-6

Actually, my friend's name is Reena. She is not my childhood friend. She is my college mate. When her engagement day, I reveal one important truth because she is my just college mate friend, but her bridegroom is my brother. But she didn't know before he is my brother because it's too surprised for her. My brother and we know, we planned a surprise. So I want to know her love. I mean, I want to know her love. I want to know her experience because what much she loves him, what much she wanted to love him. So we didn't say before he is my brother. When her engagement day, I said her, your partner is my brother. She was so much surprised and started to cry because she didn't believe and I said her, it is salient future, salient thing. I'm sorry. I also said, I'm sorry. It was, we plan to surprise you so that we didn't tell before. But her reaction is too extremely cried and she was very much surprised because he loves him more. Finally they got engaged. Now they live very happily, but she didn't forget me. And every time nowadays, every time she said, you are, you are kidding me. You are getting, you are getting me. And why you are not telling

Band 5

I do remember a time when I told my friend Once upon a time in a promised land There sat there, who was a boy I do remember a time when I told my friend an important truth I believe I was in class twelfth I once met a friend on Instagram She was a female The truth was about my personal life That I lied about in the beginning When I told her about the truth She was very disappointed and was very angry I was also feeling very guilty inside Because I was not able to keep the lies inside Hence I need to tell the truth to her Thank you for watching!

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