BEST FRIEND FOR IELTS SPEAKING
When it comes to the issue of friendship, this could arise in any part of the IELTS speaking test. In part one, you might be asked an easy and general question like:
How often do you see your friends?
In part two, you could be given a cue card that says something like:
Describe your best friend.
In part three, the question would be a little more complicated, requiring more consideration in order to answer it fully:
Is it better to have friends that always agree with you or should people look for friends with different opinions?
BEST FRIEND VOCABULARY
As always, when it comes to IELTS it is important to use vocabulary accurately and that means don’t just find ridiculously obscure words from the dictionary. Use words that are appropriate to the topic and to your chosen answer.
If you look up “best friend” in a thesaurus, for example, you might find expressions like “soul mate” that do not actually have the same meaning. The phrase “bosom buddy” is also a little weird and outdated, too.
Instead, choose language that is relevant, important, and modern. Since this is the speaking test, you can be a little informal. People often say “besties” or “BFFs” now. I have a whole article on vocabulary about friendship vocabulary here.
Remember that you need to be able to talk about the nature of friendship and why people became best friends. You might want to use some of these expressions:
Vocabulary
Meaning
Example
Shared interests
To be interested in the same things
We have a lot of shared interests, so we tend to get along well.
A shoulder to cry on
Someone who is emotionally supportive or the act of providing that support
A best friend is always there for you and will offer a shoulder to cry on.
A stand-up guy
Someone reliable and generally decent
I knew when I first met him that he was a stand-up guy.
Inseparable
To be almost impossible to split up
As kids, we were inseparable.
Have (someone’s) back
To be willing to defend or support a person
I always knew she had my back.
Get along
Enjoying each other’s company
We didn’t get along well when we first met but after a while we became good friends.
GRAMMAR ABOUT FRIENDSHIP
People always seem to love learning vocabulary, but actually it is incredibly important to learn about grammar, too. If you don’t get the grammar right, the vocabulary won’t necessarily make sense.
When it comes to friendship, grammar can actually be very important because it is necessary to understand when something happened. Let’s take a few examples of different tenses to show how significant the change in meaning can be:
Example
Verb Tense
Meaning
He was my best friend.
Past simple.
He is no longer this person’s best friend – ie they fell out or he died.
He had been my best friend…
Past perfect.
He was this person’s best friend prior to some event that presumably ended their friendship.
He is my best friend.
Present simple.
This is a statement of fact. These people are best friends now.
He has been my best friend…
Present perfect.
They are friends now and have been for some period of time. This needs some statement of time added in order to make it logical.
He will be my best friend.
Future simple.
He will be this person’s friend in the future. (This is a rare and strange sentence!)
He will have been my best friend…
Future perfect.
They will be friends and then they will stop being friends. (This is even stranger and less likely.)
Of course, it is not just the statement of friendship that you need to think about when talking about a best friend. You could talk about many things, such as first meeting that person, doing things together, going through life experiences, describing their personality, and so on. All of this requires careful consideration of verb tense.
Here’s an example paragraph. Note the verb tenses used:
I first met Suzie in 1998, when we were both about twelve years old. We immediately got along well with one another and started hanging out. Of course, it’s tough being that age and so it really helped to have such a close friend as we went through those awkward teenage years together. Later, we went to different unis and then got jobs in different cities, so we weren’t so close, but we still chatted on the phone and over the internet, and we meet up regularly even now. I’d still call her my best friend even though we don’t see each other that much and I expect she will be my bestie even twenty years from now.
Note the range of verb tenses here. In the beginning, it was mostly past simple (I first met; we were both, etc) but later it switched to the present simple (we meet up; we don’t see, etc). I have even managed to incorporate the future by saying “I expect she will be…”
SAMPLE ANSWERS
Let’s look at some possible answers to the questions I posed above.
How often do you see your friends?
I guess I see them about three times a week on average. We play football once a week and have beers together maybe twice a week. Of course, it depends on things like work and family. At this age, you don’t see people as much as you’d want, but generally I’m pretty lucky.
