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Talking about your experiences on a number of different topics is what Speaking Part 1 is all
about. Speaking Part 2 will also be based on your personal experiences and feelings. While you
should find Part 1 questions easy to answer, one thing you shouldn’t do is start every sentence the
same way. Here are some phrases you can use to vary your language when introducing personal
experiences:
In my experience…
I remember when…
What happened was…
One time (when)…
Back when I was…
Just as with introducing personal experiences, you should vary your language when giving your
opinion on a subject, instead of only using the phrase ‘I think’ over and over. Some alternatives you
can use when giving your opinion include the following:
If you feel very strongly about the topic in question you can use the following phrases:
I suppose…
It’s possible…
I would imagine that…
I’d say…
Perhaps…
I think it’s likely/unlikely
In Speaking Part 3 you’ll have a chance to discuss the topic from Part 2 in more detail. You'll be
asked to give your opinion and will be invited to agree or disagree. This is a great opportunity to
show off your conversational skills within the context of a discussion. Let’s look at some of the
phrases you can use to agree and disagree:
Expressing agreement
I totally agree.
I couldn’t agree with you more.
You’re absolutely right.
No doubt about it.
Definitely / Absolutely / Precisely
Expressing disagreement
Throughout the IELTS Speaking exam, you will also be asked questions that will require you to
compare experiences, people, places or things. For this, it's important that you know how to use
comparative structures well (e.g. bigger than, more interesting than, worse than). If you’re
comfortable using this language and want to go one step further, try using adverbs to be more
specific in your descriptions (e.g. slightly more expensive than, much better than, significantly lower
than). There are also expressions you can use to compare and contrast:
similar to
same + noun + as
as + adjective + as
no comparison
Contrasting
in contrast to
‘Brazilians are very talkative in contrast to Germans, who are usually very quiet.’
compared to
In Part 3, you can also ask the examiner to rephrase a question if necessary: