[Part 1] Home/Where you live

About this topic: IELTS Speaking Part 1 Home/Where you live

This is one of the most common topics in Part 1 of the IELTS Speaking test as it is a core topic along with “work/study“. There is a high chance you might be asked about where you live. If you are, then you should expect to be asked questions about your residence too (what type of accommodation you live in) afterwards.

Answering these questions well will give the examiner a good impression of your English speaking ability. Remember, first impressions go a long way when first meeting someone, especially with the examiner.

Try your best to know exactly what you would say for all 15 of these questions without sounding like you’re repeating answers. Use some good expressions too, do you live in ‘the heart of the city’ or in a ‘prime location’? If you live in an apartment, is it a ‘studio apartment’ in a ‘tower block’? If you live in a house, is it a ‘2 bedroom semi-detached house’ or a ‘3 bedroom detached house’? Maybe it’s a ‘townhouse’. Are you renting or do you own it?

Are there many amenities nearby? “Just a stone’s throw away”.
Remember, do not list all the amenities nearby such as; Shops, Malls, Parks, Restaurants, Schools, Services, Gyms, etc.
Just say amenities so that you can use more language than a bunch of nouns.

Please see below for 15 common questions about this core topic. I provide great samples & advice for each of your answers so read carefully.

Also, I recommend that you join our community and speak with other IELTS 123 users FOR FREE any time you like. We are a small group of dedicated IELTS students who want to practice speaking, to help each other improve our ability, learn from each other and use quality materials- plus, did I mention IT’S FREE? Practice this topic: IELTS Speaking Part 1 Home/Where you live, now!

Possible questions:

1. Where do you live?
   -The examiner might use the continuous tense:
   “Where are you living at the moment?”
2. Who do you live with? / Do you live alone? / Do you live with your family?
3. What do you like about it?
   -“What do you like about living there?”
4. How long have you lived there for?
   -“Have you lived there for long?”
5. Is it a good place to live? Why?
   -Possible: “Would you recommend living there to others?”
6. How would you improve it?
7. Do you like it when people come to visit?
8. Do you prefer friends or relatives visiting your home?
9. How often do you invite people to come to visit your home?
10. What can people do for fun there?
    -“Is there anything to do or see there?”
    -“If I visited, what would you recommend for me to do?”
11. Is it a busy town/city?
12. What kind of place is it?
13. Would you prefer to live in an apartment or a house?
14. In the future, will you move to live somewhere else?
15. If you could live in any country in the world, where would it be?

These are the typical questions you will be asked about your home. Undoubtedly this is one of the topics you should speak freely about with little effort. You can practice speaking your answers to these questions more than the subtopics as it is a higher chance you will be asked to talk about your home than Tea/Coffee.

By the end of this topic, the examiner will have a good idea of your level moving on to the subtopics in Part 1.

Things to remember:

Remember to respond naturally, don’t give rehearsed or memorized answers as the examiner will always know if you’re repeating an answer you wrote down and practised.

Besides, do not repeat the language used in the questions too often.
“Do you like your house?” – “Yeah, it’s great, I’m very happy here.”
Yes, I like my house because...

Confident speakers will never do this, our recommended structure for Part 1 of the IELTS Speaking test is as follows:

1. Natural response. (Respond naturally & provide an answer – paraphrase if possible.)

2. Give some details/reasons/examples. (Occasionally your opinion if needed.)

3. Stop.

Examples:

“In the future will you move to live somewhere else?”

1. Yeah, I’m planning to move abroad so I can do my post-graduate studies.
2. Actually, it has always been a dream of mine to live in Canada since graduating here in Vietnam. I feel like I need a change of scenery and a bit more life experience away from my family to really find myself y’know.
3. Stop. (18 seconds)

“Where do you live?”

1. At the moment I’m living in Hanoi, Vietnam.
2. I have been living here for the past 5 years and I’m very happy with where I am. It took me a while to get used to living here as it’s so different from life back home in the U.K, and I’m just a stone’s throw away from the city centre too which is nice.
3. Stop. (20 seconds)

Continued:

“Who do you live with?”

1. I’m staying with my in-laws in their family home.
2. My wife and I have just about enough space to ourselves but saying that some days it’s quite stressful living with such a big family. We need to pay our way with some money every month to help pay for the bills and food etc.
3. Stop (15 seconds).

“What do you like about it?”

1. Well, there are so many things I love about living here.
2. Two things that come to mind are how chaotic the hustle and bustle is in the city, there is never a dull moment living in such a small city with over 9million people living here. The other thing I love about it is the sense of local community everyone shares, we don’t experience anything like it back home in England.
3. Stop (20 seconds).

“How would you improve it?”

1. I’d change a lot of things for the better if I could.
2. The main improvement I would have to make is the roads here because they are way too small for so many people to use each day. For example, during the rush hour, sometimes you can be stuck in a traffic jam for ages, it’s as if the people who designed the city never expected it to be so busy with cars and motorbikes in the future.
3. Stop (20 seconds).

Well… Hope this helps you get more ideas on what to speak in this topic. Let’s join our private community and practice with other students.