IELTS Part 2 Questions Types -Describing objects
Just like the others parts of the exam, Part 2 of the IELTS Speaking Test features consistent question types. This means you can improve your preparation by familiarising yourself with the IELTS Part 2 question types:
- Telling linear stories – Experiences, Holidays, Trips and more
- Describing places – Cities, Parks, Countries, Buildings and more
- Describing people – Friends, Family, Celebrities and more
- Describing future plans and wishes – Jobs, Goals, Ambitions and more
In this post, we’re going to look at how to Describe Objects in the IELTS Speaking Test Part 2.
Why do I need to know this?
Many IELTS Part 2 questions ask you to describe objects or items you own, such as electronic gadgets, clothes, presents or even vehicles.
For example:
- Describe a magazine that you like to read
- Describe a piece of furniture in your home
- Describe a useful piece of electrical equipment (besides a computer) that you use
- Describe a thing you own that you want to replace
How do I answer these Part 2 Question Types?
Here is a list of useful sentence patterns, grammar points and vocabulary ideas you can use to describe people in IELTS Part 2 questions.
Use Causative Verbs
Causative verbs include helps – makes – lets – gives – keeps. Causative verbs are used to describe how one ‘agent’ is affecting, or causing an action in another ‘agent’.
Causative verbs can be used for everything, from food to phones, so they are a great choice no matter what the question is.
It’s easy to include them in sentences. Here is a common and flexible sentence structure:
Subject + helps / makes / lets / gives / keeps+ object + bare infinitive verb
For example:
- My DSLR camera lets me take amazing pictures of my friends and family when we go on holiday together.
- My new smartphone helps me keep in touch with my friends no matter where I am in the world.
- The website gives me useful exercises and useful tips about English.
- The pull-out sofa makes it really easy to for me to host friends and guests.
!!! – Grammar Point: You can only use adjectives with ‘make’ and ‘keep’. “It helps / gives / lets it easy to host my friends.” is incorrect.
Use Specific Vocabulary
This question type definitely allows you to show off your vocabulary skills. Doing some research about some items, gadgets or objects you own will help you a lot in the real speaking test. One great source of technical and specific vocabulary is Amazon.com. Find a product (or a similar one) you own, scroll down and you will see plenty of specific details and words.
Here are some screenshots I have taken as an example:
For a smartphone:
“My phone comes with an almost 6-inch screen, so it’s quite big and perfect for videos and games….There are two cameras, one is 13 megapixels, while the selfie camera is about half the strength, but it’s still really clear and powerful….the design is rounded-edge and elegant, so it’s quite comfortable too….it can also connect to two bluetooth devices at the same time.
For a TV:
“My TV has an awesome ultra HD 4K display, so it looks great from every angle and the quality is fantastic….It also has a feature called ThinQ AI, which apparently listens and give me answer if I ask it questions with my voice….the sound quality is also very high, because it can create 7 virtual channels, so it’s like watching a movie in the cinema….and the screen lets me see every image in vivid, rich and life-like colours.”
For a sofa:
“My sofa is an L-shaped piece of furniture, so it fits perfectly in my living room because it’s quite small….the materials is chunky linen style fabric which is very comfortable and easy to clean….it came in a flat-pack, but it was quick and easy to assemble with myself and my husband.
Get Physical
A final, simple tip: What do you physically do with these objects? This means you should try to use a lot of verbs to describe exactly what you can accomplish with a camera, a phone, a piece of furniture, a book or a website. This also allows you to demonstrate your knowledge of correct collocations (e.g. ‘take photos’ / ‘check Facebook’ / ‘open a magazine’).
For example:
- I love taking pictures with my Nikon camera and showing them to my friends on social media. They all say the quality is amazing.
- I really like sitting on my sofa after a long day at work to relax and watch TV with my wife and kids.”
- My friends like coming over and having movie-parties, where we watch films on the big TV screen, eat snacks and enjoy the film.
- I’m always reading articles about politics and news on that website. I think the journalists write excellent stories about current events and highlight important social issues.
Putting it all together
Here is an example IELTS Part 2 answer – applying the new techniques you saw in this post.
Describe a piece of furniture in your home. You should say:
- what it is
- how this piece of furniture is used
- who bought it
and say how you feel about it.
“My wife and I moved into a new apartment a couple of months ago, and the place was actually completely unfurnished, so we headed to IKEA to find some furniture for our new place, and I’m going to talk about something we bought there, which is a fold-out coffee table.
The coffee tables comes in ‘white gloss’, which matches the rest of the room and makes our living room look quite bright and clean. The frame of the legs are made of steel, while the top is made of fibreboard. (*I googled these details from an IKEA website). Size-wise, it’s fairly ordinary for an coffee table – we deliberately chose something fairly small to it wouldn’t take up too much room.
It’s a nice piece because it gives us somewhere to relax and have coffee in the morning. It lets me watch TV and put my feet up at the same time, which is also quite nice. It also gives us a place to put our drinks if we have guests over.
We eat on the table sometimes if we are watching TV at the same time. We also try to keep it clean – since it’s white, dirt shows up on it quite quickly. When my young nephews come over to play, we put the table away actually because it has some sharp edges which could be quie dangerous. That’s all I can think of to say about it to be perfectly honest!”
Don’t forget! There are more posts, just like this one, loaded with flexible, realible techniques you can use in your IELTS Speaking Test. Check out the other posts on IELTS Part 2 question types:
- Telling Linear Stories – Experiences, Holidays, Trips and more
- Describing places – Cities, Parks, Countries, Buildings and more
- Describing people – Friends, Family, Celebrities and more
- Describing future plans and wishes – Jobs, Goals, Ambitions and more
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