IELTS Speaking Part 1: Friends
A topic that invites comparison — old friends against new, close friends against acquaintances — which is where the grammar marks are.
It pairs with family and gives the examiner a second relationship topic with a different vocabulary set. It also invites natural comparatives without asking for them.
Questions you can expect
Asked quickly, one after another, with no comment on your answers. Read them aloud and answer each in two or three sentences before you look at the approach below.
- Do you have many friends?
- How did you meet your closest friend?
- Do you prefer a large group of friends or a few close ones?
- How often do you see your friends?
- What do you usually do together?
- Is it easy to make friends in your country?
- Are your friends mostly your age?
- Do you keep in touch with friends from school?
- Is it important to have friends at work?
- Have your friendships changed as you've got older?
How to answer this topic
- Use the small-versus-large question to set up a comparison you can then reuse. It is the strongest question in the topic.
- Answer 'how did you meet' as a mini-story with a place and a time. Thirty seconds, no more.
- Distinguish between friends and people you know. That distinction alone is a band-7 kind of nuance.
- The 'changed as you got older' question wants present perfect. Use it.
Vocabulary this topic invites
a handful of close friends
precise quantity, natural phrasing
we hit it off
for an immediate connection
an acquaintance
the word that shows you can grade friendship
keep in touch
and 'lose touch' — both essential here
we go back years
for long friendships
catch up
the exact verb for meeting after a gap
What costs people marks here
Calling everyone you know a friend, which flattens the whole topic.
Grade it: close friends, friends, people from work, acquaintances. The grading gives you both vocabulary and something to compare.
Three of these, answered at band 8
Read these for the shape, not the words — two or three sentences with a reason or an example attached. The details are invented and yours should be your own; an examiner can hear a recited answer, and it costs you more than the answer gains.
Do you have many friends?
Not many, in the sense that I could count them, but the ones I have I've had a long time. I'm not very good at the wide social circle thing — I'd rather see three people properly than fifteen briefly. Most of them I met either at university or through climbing.
Why it worksReframes the question before answering it, which is more sophisticated than a number.
How do you usually meet new people?
Almost entirely through doing something rather than through socialising directly. I climb twice a week and you end up in conversation with strangers about a particular route without either of you having decided to be sociable. I find that much easier than a party, where the only thing to do is talk.
Why it worksExplains a preference with a mechanism, and the contrast with parties gives it shape.
Is it easy to make friends in your country?
Reasonably, when you're young and in institutions — school, university, a first job. Much harder afterwards, I think, and that's not specific to here. Once everyone's schedules are fixed, friendship requires actual effort rather than proximity, and a lot of people including me are bad at that.
Why it worksQualifies by life stage, generalises carefully, and includes itself in the criticism.
Other Part 1 topics
Free time
The topic most likely to produce 'I watch Netflix and sleep', which is honest and scores nothing.
Food
Rich in specific vocabulary and the easiest topic in Part 1 to sound fluent on, if you name actual dishes.
Weather
A pure comparison topic — it exists to hear whether you can contrast seasons without saying 'hot' four times.
Travel
Past, present and future in one topic, which is precisely why examiners like it early.
Transport
A practical topic with its own precise vocabulary, and one where a real complaint makes a better answer than a neutral description.
Music
Everyone has an answer and almost everyone gives the same one — the genre name and nothing else.
Answer these at speaking speed
Oliver asks Part 1 questions the way the real examiner does — quickly, with no reaction, moving on before you have finished deciding what you think. Reading them is not the same exercise. The first test is free.
This guide is written from the published IELTS Speaking band descriptors, in our own words. For the official wording, see the British Council's band descriptors. MockLive AI is an independent practice tool and is not affiliated with IELTS, the British Council, IDP or Cambridge University Press & Assessment.