IELTS Speaking Part 3 – Quantities and Types of People

In IELTS Speaking Part 3, when many questions ask about ‘people’ or ‘children’ or ‘businesses’, it is much easier to answer if you use expressions for quantities of people and types of people which means you can be more coherent and also speak for longer. The following article goes with this article on Sweeping Statements.

It is not very natural to make absolute statements like All people like… or Everyone in Western countries thinks… This doesn’t sound very clever and can some­ times be rude. Even in one country or one culture, many people have different ways of life and different opinions.

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It is much easier to give shorter answers for each group, rather than try to talk a group so large (people / children) that it’s almost impossible to give a good answer.

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Quantities

You can use these expressions for quantities of people:
most
the majority of
a large percentage of
nearly all
a vast amount of
few
hardly any
not many
a minority of
only some

Types of People

You can also combine them with the expressions for types of people to say which people in society usually do something or believe something.

For example:

Look at some examples of how quantities and types of people words can be combined together:
Most young people can play at least one sport.
The majority of elderly people enjoy board games.
A large percentage of the population smokes too much.
Nearly all university students get far too much homework.
A vast amount of business people don’t get enough free time.
A tremendous amount of young girls care too much about fashion.

Here are some sample answers showing ow you can use these groups:

Example 1 – Today, not many people like listening to the radio. Pretty much everyone has a television now. For most people, televisions are very appealing because…However, there are many people that don’t share the same opinion…It also depends on the lifestyle of the individual – many taxi drivers love listening to the radio because it is a very convenient way to hear news and plays without distracting them from driving.

Example 2 – In my country nearly everyone enjoys eating meat, though not in large quantities, However, some people, mainly Buddhists and young people who are members of animal rights movements, make a concerted effort not to eat meat for ethical reasons.. .Although some scientists say it is important to eat meat for health reasons…

Evaluating Opinions

When evaluating opinions, we should start by saying how many and what types of people hold those opinions.

Quantities of people
nearly everyone
almost everybody
the (vast) majority of + types of people
most + types of people
a large percentage of + types of people
some + types of people
a few + types of people
a handful of+ types of people

Types of people – ages
elderly people I retired people I the older generation
working people office workers students
adolescents/teenagers married couples

Types of people – behaviour
very active people/sporty people/energetic people religious people
animal lovers/food lovers lazy people

People with + adjective-noun combination
People with creative talent believe…
People with strong political views think…
People with a lot of energy like to…

People who have…
People who have an interest in art…
People who have lots of free time…
People who have their own pets…

More examples:
Most people with a lot of energy like to regularly play team and individual sports.
A handful of people who have lots of free time actually decide to do volunteer work.
A large percentage of teenagers have problems communicating properly with their parents and teachers.

Age Groups &Generations	Work-related Groups	Social Classes
the older generation	retired people	poor people
the elderly	office workers	rich people
younger people	white-collar workers	the working classes
school kids	unemployed people	the middle classes
the younger generation	housewives	the upper classes
adolescents	job seeker	the lower classes

It is much easier to give organised and very coherent speaking Part 3 answers, if you talk about ‘groups of people’ rather than just ‘people’. Here are some other ways to split them up. Be careful, though. Try to use only three groups at the most in an answer.

School children – pre-schoolers, kindergarten kids, primary school kids, middle school students, high school students, early developers, late developers

Income – extremely wealthy people, the well off, people in the middle-income bracket, low-wage earners, the unemployed

Class – upper class, the upper classes, middle class, the middle classes, working class, the working classes

Workplace – office workers / civil servants / manual labourers / farm workers / blue collar workers / white collar workers / military personnel, health workers / skilled professionals

Geography – people in colder countries, people in tropical countries, people from the north / south / east / west, people who live by the coast / in the mountains / on the plains / in the suburbs / in inner cities / in industrialised areas / in the countryside

Personality – more introverted, more extroverted, fun-loving, adventure seeking, couch potatoes

The ways to split them are too many to list here, but below are some more examples using some of the above.

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IELTS Part 3 Sample Answers

Q – When do people usually feel tired?

A – To answer this, I’d like to split ‘people’ into three main categories: children, adults and the elderly. Children and elderly people (I’m talking about those over 70) are pretty much the same. Excitement, new activities, especially physical activity or anything that involves mental exertion can rally tire them out. In addition to that, illness usually hits these two groups harder, and sleep is often a big part of the cure. A large percentage of adults, on the other hand are much more resilient and can drive themselves onward regardless of how tired they feel. Raising a family, having relationship problems at home or at work often give adults the feeling constantly exhausted.

Q – What are the reasons that cause people to break rules?

A – From where I stand, there are several reasons, but it really depends on who the person is. Firstly, nearly every child breaks the rules at some point to test their boundaries and find out how, or even if, they will be punished. For example, some young kids like to actually break something, such as a plate or cup to see how their parents will react. Secondly, those on lower incomes sometimes break the rules purely because they lack the money to live the life they would like. Sometimes, they can’t even get by without breaking rules. Finally, there are those who do it to gain respect or be feared by others. The vast majority of career criminals come to mind. They are often weak individuals who break the law to make money because they can’t be bothered working for it.

Q – Why do some people like to post their photos on social media?

A – Different reasons, as far as I know. The majority of school kids especially almost have to post to keep up with their peers, or they will be shunned from their group. As most people get older, they just want to entertain their friends or maybe how much they’ve changed after dieting or after an operation. And of course, a minority are more extroverted or boastful than others and are desperate to be seen to be successful and doing well in lives. Others only do it to keep in touch with family members who live far away.

Q – Should children learn to draw and paint? Why?

A – Yes, I think they all should, but it should only be compulsory in primary school. There it can help these young kids use their senses and express the feelings they can’t express any other way. When they get older though, as far as I’m concerned, only the ones who have some kind of talent and are expecting to study art after leaving school should do it. All the others should be studying subjects that are relevant to their future tertiary studies or career. If these pupils just want to experiment with painting or drawing, they can do it at home or in an extracurricular class.

How to Practice

AS ever the best way to practice natural English is with a native speaking teacher. For some students, that is difficult, so think about what you are confident in talking about. Think about the groups that you know about and answer questions using them. Once you start to become more confident, substitute other groups for the original ones.

Remember that you don’t always need to compare people from the same group as you can see from the answers above.

Conclusion

Well, try and put these into practice for your IELTS speaking, especial Part 3 and it will give you many more options and more to talk about without coming up with fantastic ideas. Good luck and remember the other article on sweeping statements which helps in a different way.