Describe a street market in your city

In the IELTS speaking section, you will get a cue card with a topic to speak about for a few minutes. For example, you will get a topic like Describe a street market in your city and you have to answer the question accordingly.

IELTS Speaking Part 2: Cue Card

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The IELTS speaking section has 3 parts. The second part is called cue card or task card. Here you will talk about the given topic for at least 2 minutes and then the examiner will ask you to stop. Before you start speaking you will get 1 minute to prepare for your test. See below how you can Describe a street market in your city in the Cue card IELTS (Speaking).

How should I talk about my topic?

In the preparation time, frame your answers well. Answer specifically to the question without generalising it. We have explained how you can Describe a street market in your city with some samples and follow up questions for practice.

Talk about these topics:

Where is it?
What can you buy there?
What is it famous for?
How do you feel about it?

You will be marked based on 4 criterias - Fluency and Coherence (FC) Lexical Resources (LR) Grammatical Range and Accuracy (GRA) and Pronunciation (P). If you prepare well this section can easily fetch you a good band score.

Sample Answers for the topic - Describe a street market in your city

There are 3 sample answers provided here to help you with Describe a street market in your city cue card question. 

Sample 1 - Describe a street market in your city

Introduction

Many people go to the streets as the price of commodities are very cheap there. There is a street market in my town where I go regularly to buy things.

Where is it?

I live in Ahmedabad and the street market is located very close to the city centre. It is one the famous cities in India and there are several street markets in Ahmedabad and is a famous destination for street shopping. I have to walk nearly 1 km to reach the nearest street market from my house.

What can you buy there?

I go there to buy groceries and other necessary items for my house. They sell fruits, flowers, vegetables, nuts, fish, meat, oils, curry powders etc. I get all the things needed in the kitchen from that street market. There are also few shops that sell utensils like spoons, vessels and pans. 

What is it famous for?

This street market is famous for the variety of fruits they sell. They bring fruits from all parts of India. We get apples from Kashmir and Jackfruit that come from Kerala. We can see many exotic fruits in this market that we don't usually see in Ahmedabad. I go to this street market during evenings to buy fruits.

How do you feel about it? And Conclusion

This street market is lively during mornings and evenings. People can come here to buy supplies for their kitchen. The things are sold at a much cheaper price than we get in supermarkets and malls. For me this is a daily go-to place for grocery shopping. 

Sample 2 - Describe a street market in your city

Introduction

In India the streets are the main place for shopping mainly in cities and towns as they attract a huge crowd. I live in a big city called Chennai, and there are plenty of street markets in every place. I often go to these markets to shop. 

Where is it?

The street market is situated in Guindy which is a place in Chennai. This is a heavily crowded part of Chennai where a lot of people come to work. So people have easy access to this part of the city. This area is really crowded on working days and during evenings the streets are filled with people returning home after work. So people buy a lot of things from here before they take their train or bus home.

What can you buy there?

Each shop in the street sells different kinds of things. There are shops that sell toys, dresses, accessories and household items. There are other shops that sell snacks and sweets and stalls that make food. Even during weekends the streets become lively during evenings as many people come shopping.

What is it famous for?

There is a shop that sells ice cream for Rs.2 which became very popular among people of all age groups. Parents with their kids and school children are the main customers in that shop. People enjoy the multiple flavours of ice cream as everything is so affordable there.

How do you feel about it? And Conclusion

This street market is located in a very good place which is safe for everyone even after sunset. People come with their friends and family to spend their weekends and free time here. Such places should be maintained and more such streets should be opened for public use in more parts of the city.

Sample 3 - Describe a street market in your city

Introduction

People in my town going to street shopping has reduced over the years as malls and online shopping came and people started looking for comfortable options. But still there are people, especially old people who go to the street market for shopping. 

Where is it?

I live in a town in Tamil Nadu where most people used to rely on the street market for buying things. After the recent infrastructure developments many street markets were removed and new malls came. There were also online shopping companies that took over the market. So the nearby street market had to be relocated to a faraway place and the new street market doesn't have many shops as many shops lost business as it is far for people to reach there.

What can you buy there?

I usually go there to buy my clothes. I can get good shirts and trousers at very cheap prices from the street market and during festivals they give more discounts too. There are plenty of choices as we can go from one shop to another easily if we didn't like the dresses in one shop.

What is it famous for?

This street market is famous for its colourful dresses that you can buy at affordable prices. Even though the dresses are cheap it lasts long without any damages. You can get more discounts if you have the bargaining skills. The type of dresses available are plenty and is a haven for shoppers. The womens clothing choices are stunning and can get a good deal in any season.

How do you feel about it? And Conclusion

These street markets encourage local businesses to flourish and contribute a lot to the economy. These are also good for people who are looking for products at low prices. Such markets should be encouraged and more such markets should be brought in instead of only shoppings malls.

IELTS Speaking Part 3: Follow Up questions

After the cue card, you will get some follow up questions from the examiner based on the same topic. See the follow up-questions based on Describe a street market in your city given below.

1. Do you like shopping online or going out shopping?

I like going out shopping. This is because we can get the fit and feel of the product when we buy it. There are so many cases where false and damaged products are delivered in online shopping.

2. What is the difference between shopping with friends and shopping alone?

Shopping with friends is fun because we have someone to tell us their opinions on what we buy. We can get their feedback and decide whether to buy something or not. 

3. What are the disadvantages of shopping in a big mall?

In malls the prices are much higher than the actual price. Also there are so many shops which tempts people to buy more and ends up in a situation where we spend more than what we actually decided. 

4. Why do people like to buy branded products?

Branded products give people a sense of self-esteem and pride. DIfferent brands portray different stories and people get connected with those stories and buy their products. Most branded clothes also have quality, last long and look nice.

5. In your opinion are big discounts real or just an advertisement?

Many shops give discounts after increasing their prices so people feel like they are getting the products at low prices. But there are also shops that give their customers huge discounts for the purpose of promotions.

6. Do you think people spend more money through the usage of online payments?

After the introduction of digital payment systems it has been convenient for people to buy things especially on e-commerce websites. It is easy to pay and people dont feel the guilt of spending when spreading online. This has led to more digital transactions in recent years.

Related IELTS cue card topics

• Describe A Person Who Wears Unusual Clothes
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• Describe An Art Exhibition That You Visited IELTS Cue Card
• Describe a creative person whose work you admire
• Describe a dinner you really enjoyed

Conclusion

For more practice, we have given links to more cue cards above. Hope the article on “Describe a street market in your city” helped you get more familiar with the IELTS speaking part 2.