About The Family

In part one of the speaking exam it is common for you to be asked questions about your family. These questions could include things about your relationship with your family, things you like to do with you family or about your childhood.

The following ten questions will give you a good idea of the kind of questions you can expect in the exam. If you want to get the highest marks in this part of the exam then you will need to show your ability with English grammar. When talking about your family it is often possible to compare past situations or habits with the present. Showing your ability to speak naturally in a different tense to the question will help you get better marks in the exam. For example, a question might be “Do you spend much time with your family?”. You can answer this using different tenses. Take a look at a couple of examples below with the different tenses bold:

Family is very important to me and I have always spent a lot of time with my family. I see my close family almost every week and try and see my extended family at least once every couple of months.

I used to spend time a lot of time with my family, but nowadays I probably see them every two or three months. We are all living in different areas of the country now, so it’s much more difficult to meet up regularly, but it is always a great time when we do eventually get together

Practice Questions

Watch the video below and practice answering typical questions you might get in part one of your speaking paper about your family. You should try and answer each question in around 15 seconds.

You should repeat this exercise until you can confidently and naturally answer all the questions. DO NOT write down or memorise your answers. Your answers should be natural and examiners will know if you are memorising your answers.