Describe a family member you spend a lot of time with

How to approach this cue card

This card is checking whether you can talk naturally about everyday, ongoing routines rather than a single memorable event — a different skill from the “describe a time you…” style of card. The examiner wants concrete detail about a regular pattern: how often, doing what, and why that pattern exists, so present simple and present continuous tend to carry more of this answer than the past tenses often needed elsewhere.

The easiest angle is almost always whoever you actually live with or see most regularly right now, since the “how much time” bullet becomes trivial to answer honestly and specifically. If you live away from your family, describing how contact has changed since moving out is a natural and easy way to add depth rather than a weakness to hide.

For pacing, spend a reasonable chunk on “what you usually do together,” since specific shared activities are the easiest source of natural vocabulary and detail, then use the final bullet to give one honest, simple reason for why the closeness exists — shared routine, similar interests, or simply living under the same roof.

Vocabulary that lifts this answer

A one-minute plan

• Who: relationship, age, where they live
• Time together: daily/weekly, roughly how much, since when
• What we do: one or two specific regular activities
• Why: shared routine/interest, honest simple reason

Sample answer

This is an example of how the ideas above can be turned into a full answer, not a fixed script — your own version should reflect your own family situation.

I’d like to talk about my younger sister, Malika, who I currently share an apartment with while we’re both studying in the same city. We probably spend more time together than most siblings our age simply because of that living arrangement — realistically, we see each other every single day, and most evenings we end up in the same room even when we’re doing completely different things, just because it’s more comfortable than sitting alone. What we usually do together varies quite a lot: sometimes it’s genuinely mundane, like taking it in turns to cook dinner or doing the weekly shopping, and other times it’s things we actually choose to do together, like watching a series or going for a walk on the weekend when neither of us has much on. What’s kept us this close, I think, isn’t so much a shared hobby as just the daily routine itself — we’ve naturally fallen into a habit of catching up on the day over dinner most nights, which sounds small, but it means we’re aware of what’s going on in each other’s lives almost constantly rather than only during big events. Before we moved in together for university, I don’t think we were nearly this close; we got on fine, but there was a five-year age gap that meant we didn’t really share much day to day. Living together has genuinely changed that, and now she’s probably the person I talk to most honestly about anything, which I don’t think would have happened without simply spending this much ordinary time in the same space.

Common mistakes on this card

• Only listing what the relative is like as a person, without describing the actual time spent together or what happens during it.
• Ignoring the “how much time” bullet entirely, which is often the easiest one to answer specifically and quickly.
• Assuming the answer must describe a dramatic or unusually close relationship, when an honest, ordinary one is just as strong if described specifically.
• Speaking only in the present tense with no reflection at all on why the closeness exists, leaving the final instruction unanswered.