IELTS Speaking Part 2: Describe Your Best Friend (Band 9 Sample)
This Part 2 cue card asks you to describe your best friend and to explain why you are close. A band-9 answer brings the person to life with specific detail and lands one clear, developed reason for the friendship, rather than just listing adjectives. Below is a model long-turn of about 235 words in a natural spoken register, followed by a breakdown of why it earns a 9 on all four speaking criteria and the collocations worth stealing.
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01 · The cue card
- who your best friend is
- how and when you met
- what this person is like
- and explain why you get on so well
02 · Band 9 sample answer
The person I'd like to talk about is my best friend, Nam, whom I've known since we were about twelve. We met on our very first day of secondary school, when we were seated next to each other, and we just clicked straight away. Nearly twenty years later, he's still the first person I call with any good or bad news.
Nam is one of those genuinely warm, easy-going people that everyone seems to like. He's incredibly loyal — the kind of friend who'll drop everything to help you out — and he has a brilliant, slightly ridiculous sense of humour that can lift my mood no matter how bad my day has been. He's also a very good listener, which is rarer than you'd think.
As for why we get on so well, I think it's because we can be completely ourselves around each other. We've been through so much together — school, university, all the ups and downs of our twenties — that there's a level of trust you just can't fake. We can go weeks without speaking and then pick up exactly where we left off, which to me is the real mark of a close friendship. Honestly, I don't know what I'd do without him.
03 · Why this scores Band 9
The answer moves through the cue-card points in order — who, how they met, what he's like, why they're close — with natural linking ("Nearly twenty years later...", "As for why we get on so well..."). It builds to a warm, clear conclusion and sustains a full two-minute turn without stalling.
Friendship vocabulary is precise and idiomatic — "we just clicked", "easy-going", "drop everything to help you out", "the ups and downs", "pick up where we left off" — and character is shown through behaviour rather than a flat list of adjectives.
A wide range is controlled accurately: a non-defining relative clause ("Nam, whom I've known since we were about twelve"), a "so... that" structure ("We've been through so much together... that there's a level of trust you can't fake"), and a comparative ("rarer than you'd think"). No error interrupts the flow.
The script is built from speakable, stress-timed phrases with natural chunking, and the warm content invites genuine intonation, so the recording lands clear sentence stress without tongue-twisting clusters.
04 · Useful phrases for this topic
Tap a phrase to see what it means and how to use it. Natural phrases like these lift your Lexical Resource score.
05 · Frequently asked questions
Should I describe a real friend?
Yes — a real friend is far easier, because the details come naturally and you won't contradict yourself over two minutes. Specific, true detail ("we met on our first day of school") is exactly what makes the answer vivid and believable.
How do I describe someone's personality well?
Show their character through behaviour rather than listing adjectives. "He'll drop everything to help you out" tells the examiner far more than "he's kind". Concrete examples of what someone does score higher under Lexical Resource.
How do I fill two minutes describing a person?
Cover who they are and how you met, then spend most of your time on what they're like and why you're close, with specific examples. The "why we get on" part is where you can develop a genuine, personal reason at length.
How important is the final "why" part?
It's the heart of the task. The examiner is really listening for a developed reason. This answer lands on trust built over years and being able to "pick up where we left off", rather than just saying "he's a great friend".
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