In this A2 Key writing task you read a short email from a friend and write a reply of about thirty-five words. The email you read contains two or three questions, and your job is to answer all of them. This page shows you how to find the questions, answer each one in a sentence and close the email naturally.
Read the email once and circle every question mark. Those are the marks on offer. Most emails contain two or three.
Taking the questions in order keeps your reply organised and makes it easy for you to check nothing is missing.
‘Yes’ is not an answer. ‘Yes, I’d love to come on Saturday’ is. Each answer needs a subject and a verb.
A reason, a time or an opinion turns a bare answer into real writing and gets you to thirty-five words without padding.
‘Thanks for your email’ or ‘Great news!’ makes the reply sound like a real message and costs four words.
‘What did you do?’ needs the past. ‘What are you doing on Sunday?’ needs the future or present continuous.
‘Write soon’, ‘Let me know what you think’ or ‘See you on Saturday’ ends the email properly.
Put your finger on each circled question mark and find the sentence in your reply that answers it. Anything without a partner is a lost mark.
Not thisAnswering only the first question because it was the easiest.
ThisAnswering all the questions in the email.
Each question is a content point. Two good answers out of three cannot reach the top marks.
Not thisQ: Do you want to come? A: Yes.
ThisYes, I’d love to come.
One-word answers give the examiner no language to mark and no content to credit.
Not thisWhat you did at the weekend?
ThisWhat did you do at the weekend?
Questions in the past need did plus the base verb, and candidates often keep normal word order when they ask a question back.
Not thisWriting a reply that mentions nothing from the original email.
ThisReferring to what your friend wrote.
A reply must sound like a reply; a general message about your life does not answer anything.
Not thisI am agree with you.
ThisI agree with you.
Agree is a verb on its own in English and never takes be before it.
Not thisFinishing without any ending at all.
ThisFinishing with a short line and your name.
Organisation is marked, and an email that stops in the middle looks unfinished even if the content is complete.
40 original questions. The first 10 are open to everyone. Answers are checked in your browser and never sent to us, so you can share this page with a class as it is.
1Complete the sentence.
3Complete the sentence.
5Complete the sentence.
8Complete the sentence.
9Your friend writes: ‘I’m coming to your town next month. Where should we go? What is the weather like?’ Write a reply of about 35 words.
One good answer
Hi Leo, great news! We can go to the old market and the park by the river. The weather is warm now, but bring a jacket for the evenings. See you soon, Ana
11Complete the sentence.
13Complete the sentence.
15Complete the sentence.
16Complete the sentence.
18Explain in one or two sentences why you should circle the question marks before writing.
One good answer
The questions are the content points, so circling them shows me exactly how many things I must answer and lets me check each one against a sentence in my reply.
19Complete the sentence.
21Complete the sentence.
22Complete the sentence.
25Complete the sentence.
27Complete the sentence.
28Complete the sentence.
29Your friend writes: ‘How was your holiday? What did you eat?’ Write a reply of about 35 words.
One good answer
Hi Nina, my holiday was wonderful. We stayed near the sea and walked every morning. The food was amazing, especially the fish and the fresh bread. I’ll send you some photos soon. Love, Pia
31Complete the sentence.
32Complete the sentence.
34Complete the sentence.
36Complete the sentence.
38Complete the sentence.
39Complete the sentence.
40Explain in one or two sentences how you check an email reply in the last minute.
One good answer
I point at each question mark in the original email and find the sentence in my reply that answers it, then I check the verbs and the capital letters.
Note
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Two or three. Circle every question mark as you read and treat each one as a content point you must answer.
No. Start with a greeting such as ‘Hi Tom,’ and finish with a short closing line and your name.
Yes, and you should. Nobody checks whether your holiday really happened; invented details are the easiest way to make each answer a full sentence.
A few words over is fine. Much longer usually means extra mistakes and less time for checking.
Answer the ones you do understand fully, then write something sensible about the topic of the third. A reasonable attempt can still earn content.