IELTS Part 2 Question Types – Telling Linear Stories
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:
- 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
- Describing Objects – Phones, Furniture, Cameras and more
In this post, we’re going to look at Telling Linear Stories in the IELTS Speaking Test Part 2.
Why do I need to know this?
Many IELTS Part 2 questions ask you to describe holidays, trips, special occasions, long journeys that you have experienced.
For example:
- Describe a special day out
- Describe a happy experience
- Describe a trip that you went on by public transport
- Describe your perfect (or ideal) holiday
How do I answer these Part 2 Question Types?
One of the most reliable methods to answer these kinds of questions is to tell a linear story means telling the story in order, step-by-step, or day-by-day. Simply put, start the start, and end at the end!
Luckily, in English, the subject in the Past Tense can change but past tense verb doesn’t.
For example:
- I did / went / saw
- You did / went / saw
- He / She / It did / went / saw
- We did / went / saw
- They did / went / saw
This makes story-telling in the past a little bit easier than other languages. So take advantage!
Time Phrases
Time Phrases are phrases you say at the beginning of a sentence in order to help the examiner to follow your story.
– The Beginning
- “When I arrived…”
- “When I got there…”
- “The first thing I did was…”
- “Once we dropped our bags off…”
- “Once we checked in…”
– The Middle
- “After that…”
- “Later on…”
- “Afterwards…”
- “Then…”
- “The next day…”
– The End
- “In the end…”
- “On our last day…”
- “Towards the end of the trip…”
Use these phrases (in the right order) and you can create an easy-to-follow, natural-sounding story about any experience.
Here is an example IELTS Part 2 answer – applying the new techniques you saw in this post.
Putting it all together
Describe a city you visited that you liked
“I feel very grateful that I’ve been to many amazing cities all over the world, but I’d like to talk about a trip I took to Berlin last month. I went there with my girlfriend, my sister and her husband – none of us had been there before actually, so we were really excited to check Berlin out. In particular I wanted to learn more about the history of Germany, as well as sample all of the delicious food and beer I’d heard about!
So when we arrived, the first thing we did was go to a ‘Biergarten’ or Beer Garden and try some of the beer German is famous for. Of course, it was absolutely delicious, and the weather was great too, it was perfect for sitting outside, chilling out in the sun and catching-up with my sister and her husband, who I hadn’t seen for a while. After that, we decided to head to the Brandenburg Gate, which is another one of Berlin’s main tourist hotspots. We snapped a couple of photos, but there wasn’t much to do in that area, and obviously it was a bit crowded, so afterwards we grabbed some lunch and spent the day wandering around the city.
The second day, we went to the Eastside Gallery, an open gallery on a long surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall. If I remember rightly, it’s over 1 kilometre long, so we stayed there for an hour or two before we headed into the city centre to try some more of the local cuisine.
On our last day we were quite tired, so we opted to hang out in the park near our hotel and enjoy the weather. Even though we just sat there and played cards, it was actually the most enjoyable day of the whole trip – even if we got a little bit sunburnt!
Overall, I would love to go back to Berlin, or another city in Germany one day.”
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:
- 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
- Describing Objects – Phones, Furniture, Cameras and more
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