Letter to a Friend About Moving House

  • Housing
  • Notification
  • Invitation

You have recently moved to a different house. Write a letter to an English-speaking friend. In your letter • explain why you have moved • describe the new house • invite your friend to come and visit Dear.............,

Annotated response

2 correction notes

Dear Amber,

I hope this letter finds you and your family all well. I’m writing to tell you that I’ve just moved to a new apartment.

As you know, my old apartment needed to be renovated, but the landlord refused several times to allocate money for its renovation. Also, quite small for my family to live in as it has one bedroom only. At present, I have 2 children, who need 2 more bedrooms, a study room, and a wider area to play in.

My new apartment consists of 3 bedrooms, a comfortable living room, and a wonderful terrace, where my children can play safely. I’ve a suitable study room, where I can work in a quiet environment. All the interior, the paint on the walls and ceramic floors , so no more maintenance is needed.

It’d be a great idea if you come with your family next weekend to see it. Let’s spend some exciting moments together and enjoy watching new movies in the living room. Think of it and let me know as soon as you can.

Please pass on my best wishes to your family.

All the best,

Maria.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.5

The letter clearly covers the reason for moving, the new apartment and the invitation, with relevant detail and a warm tone. Its main limitation is occasional awkward tense and preposition use, including "it becomes currently quite small" and "of a marvelous condition". The study-room description using "where I can work in a quiet environment" is grammatically valid.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Achievement

7.5

The letter clearly covers all three prompt bullets—reason for moving, description of the new apartment, and a friendly invitation—with suitable informal register and well-developed relevant detail.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.5

Ideas progress logically across well-organised paragraphs with natural linking and a clear, smooth overall progression from opening to closing.

Lexical Resource

7.0

Vocabulary is flexible and largely precise, with effective items like 'terrace', 'renovation', and 'marvelous condition', though a few awkward collocations such as 'it becomes currently quite small' slightly reduce naturalness.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0

Relative clauses, conditionals and varied sentence forms are generally controlled well. The tense and placement in "it becomes currently quite small" are awkward. In contrast, "where I can work in a quiet environment" is grammatical because in belongs to the phrase in a quiet environment.

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