One of your friends invited you for a meal with his/her family in their home. You enjoyed the meal and had been happy to be introduced to his/her family. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter: - thank your friend and say that you enjoyed the meal - say what else you liked about this visit - ask your friend to meet you someday at a restaurant
Sample Response
Dear Guri,
Great to talk to you so soon. I couldn’t stop myself to write you a thank you letter for inviting me to dinner yesterday’s night. I really felt at home, and I was glad to meet your family.
To be honest, It’d been a great feast. The food was delicious, especially lentil curry and rice pudding after taking dinner proved the icing on the cake. I’d crave eating such kind of traditional food for a long time. Your mother will tantalise my taste buds with her imaginative pizzas that she promised to make on my another visit.
On top of that, the garden near the entrance of your house has a picturesque view. It compelled me to click some photos there. I was thrilled to take a luscious dinner there. The lighting on the trees and a fountain in the amid of the garden really made my day.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Wrong verb pattern Original: couldn’t stop myself to write Suggested revision: couldn’t stop myself from writing Why it matters: The expression ‘stop oneself’ takes ‘from’ followed by a gerund.
- 2. Hyphenate compound modifier Original: a thank you letter Suggested revision: a thank-you letter Why it matters: Hyphenate ‘thank-you’ when it modifies the noun ‘letter’.
- 3. Use natural time phrase Original: yesterday’s Suggested revision: last Why it matters: ‘Last night’ is the standard expression for the previous evening.
- 4. Fix tense and capital Original: To be honest, It’d been Suggested revision: To be honest, it was Why it matters: Use the simple past for the completed meal and lowercase the word after the comma.
- 5. Fix past duration Original: I’d crave eating Suggested revision: I had been craving Why it matters: The past perfect continuous correctly expresses a desire continuing up to the meal.
- 6. Fix determiner pattern Original: such Suggested revision: this Why it matters: Use ‘this kind of’ with the singular noun ‘food’.
- 7. Fix determiner choice Original: another Suggested revision: next Why it matters: ‘My’ cannot be combined with ‘another’ in this noun phrase.
- 8. Improve preposition phrase Original: of Suggested revision: to Why it matters: ‘The entrance to a house’ is the more natural collocation.
- 9. Clarify garden description Original: has a picturesque view Suggested revision: offers a picturesque setting Why it matters: A garden is more naturally described as a setting than as possessing a view.
- 10. Choose positive verb Original: compelled Suggested revision: inspired Why it matters: ‘Inspired’ better conveys a pleasant motivation to take photographs.
- 11. Use standard collocation Original: click Suggested revision: take Why it matters: Standard English uses the collocation ‘take photos’.
- 12. Fix meal collocation Original: take a luscious dinner Suggested revision: have a delicious dinner Why it matters: Use ‘have dinner’, and describe food as ‘delicious’ rather than ‘luscious’.
Suggested Rewrites
- couldn’t stop myself to write couldn’t stop myself from writing
- a thank you letter a thank-you letter
- yesterday’s last
- To be honest, It’d been To be honest, it was
- I’d crave eating I had been craving
- such this
Why this response received Band 5.5
The letter uses a warm, friendly tone and develops the meal and garden details clearly enough to make the visit feel personal. Its main limitation is the complete omission of the requested invitation to meet at a restaurant, while several strained expressions weaken naturalness; the highest priority is to add a specific restaurant invitation and then revise awkward word choices and tense forms.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response thanks the friend and describes both the meal and another enjoyable feature of the visit, but it omits the required restaurant invitation entirely.
Add a clear invitation with a suggested restaurant or time so that all three bullet points are fully addressed.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is divided into focused paragraphs and progresses clearly from appreciation of the meal to enjoyment of the garden.
Complete the letter with a final invitation paragraph and a suitable informal closing to create a fully rounded progression.
Lexical Resource
There is a noticeable range of descriptive vocabulary, but several choices such as 'luscious dinner' and 'in the amid' are unnatural or inaccurate.
Prioritise natural collocations and simpler precise wording instead of using ambitious expressions whose meaning or usage is uncertain.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of sentence structures conveys the message, although errors in verb patterns, tense, articles, and possessives recur throughout.
Review verb forms and noun phrases, especially constructions such as 'stop myself from writing,' 'last night,' and 'another visit.'
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
One of your friends invited you for a meal with his/her family in their home. You enjoyed the meal and had been happy to be introduced to his/her family. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter:
- thank your friend and say that you enjoyed the meal
- say what else you liked about this visit
- ask your friend to meet you someday at a restaurant
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.