In the IELTS General Training Writing Task 1, you’ll be asked to write a letter in response to a practical, everyday situation. This could be a complaint, a request, or — as in today’s example — a piece of personal news for a close friend. The tone can range from formal to informal depending on the situation, and this one sits firmly at the informal end: warm, chatty, and written the way you’d actually write to someone you’ve known for years.
Retirement and relocation is a topic IELTS returns to often, because it touches on ageing, cost of living and moving abroad all at once. In this post we’ll look at a model letter announcing a move overseas, followed by a breakdown of why it works using the IELTS marking criteria, plus a glossary and quiz on the language it uses.
Task Type: Informal Letter Situation: Telling a friend you are moving abroad after retiring Timing: 20 minutes Word Count: At least 150 words
The Question
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. Write at least 150 words.
You have recently retired and have decided to move to another country.
Write a letter to a friend. In your letter:
- explain why you have decided to move abroad
- describe where you are going to live
- invite your friend to come and visit
Write at least 150 words.
You do NOT need to write any addresses.
Begin your letter as follows:
Dear ………… ,
How to Structure Your Answer
A clear structure will help your writing feel natural and easy to follow. Here is a suggested outline:
Opening: Greeting and the News Start with a warm greeting — a line asking after your friend is enough. Then announce the move straight away. Do not save the news for the end; the examiner wants the purpose of the letter to be obvious from the first few lines.
Paragraph Two: Why You’re Going Give two reasons rather than one, and make them personal. Climate, cost of living, health, family and the simple freedom of no longer needing to live near a workplace all work well here. Concrete detail scores better than general statements.
Paragraph Three: Where You’ll Be Living Name the country and describe the actual home — its size, its setting, one or two details that bring it to life. A specific place with a lemon tree in the courtyard reads as genuine; “a nice house in a nice area” does not.
Paragraph Four: The Invitation Invite your friend properly. Say when they should come, mention how easy it is to get there, and make it feel like a real offer rather than a polite formality.
Closing: End with something that invites a reply, then sign off with Best wishes, All the best or Love — never Yours faithfully.
Key Tips for an Informal Letter
1. Use contractions freely. I’ve, you’re, we’re, there’s. Writing out I have and we are in a letter to an old friend sounds stiff and pushes the tone towards semi-formal, which costs you marks for register.
2. Let some personality through. A touch of humour or exaggeration is welcome in informal letters and shows real command of English. It has to sound natural, though — an inserted joke that doesn’t fit the flow is worse than none at all.
3. Cover all three bullet points properly. Two to four sentences each. Dealing with any bullet in a single sentence caps your Task Achievement at around band 5.0, no matter how good the rest of the letter is.
4. Stay consistent. Do not slip into formal phrasing halfway through. I am writing to inform you of my relocation has no place in a letter to a friend, even if it sounds impressive.
Model Answer
Dear Ruth,
I hope you’re keeping well. I’ve got some big news — after all those years of talking about it, Tom and I have finally decided to sell up and move to Portugal in the spring.
Honestly, the deciding factor was the winters. My knees have been complaining since about 2019, and now that neither of us has to be anywhere on a Monday morning, there’s no real reason to keep putting up with the damp. Our pensions will also go a good deal further out there, which certainly didn’t hurt.
We’ve found a small house in a village near Tavira, about twenty minutes from the coast. It’s nothing grand, but there’s a courtyard with a lemon tree and room for guests.
You must come and stay once we’re settled — I’m already picturing us with a glass of wine in that courtyard. Flights from Manchester are surprisingly cheap, and there’s a spare room with your name on it. Come for a fortnight, not a weekend!
Let me know what you think.
Best wishes,
Helen
[170 words]
Why This Letter Works
✅ Task Achievement
All three bullet points are addressed in full, each with its own paragraph and its own supporting detail. The reasons for moving are two distinct ones — health and cost of living — rather than a single point stretched thin. The description of the new home is specific enough to picture, and the invitation is genuine, with practical detail about flights and length of stay rather than a vague “you should visit sometime”. The register is informal throughout and never wobbles.
✅ Coherence and Cohesion
Each paragraph does one job: news, reasons, home, invitation. The writer links ideas with light, natural connectors — after all those years, now that, which certainly didn’t hurt, once we’re settled — rather than the heavy signposting of an essay. The dash before “which brings me to” style of transition is avoided in favour of the smoother “there’s room for guests”, which sets up the invitation in the following paragraph without announcing it.
✅ Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is idiomatic and precisely informal. Phrases such as sell up, put up with, nothing grand, a spare room with your name on it and our pensions will go further are exactly what a fluent native speaker would reach for in this situation. My knees have been complaining is a small piece of personification that lifts the letter above the ordinary. Nothing sounds inserted for display.
✅ Grammatical Range and Accuracy
There is a genuine mix of structures: a subordinate clause with now that, a non-defining relative clause (which certainly didn’t hurt), a present perfect continuous (have been complaining), and an imperative closing (Come for a fortnight, not a weekend!). Contractions are used consistently, punctuation is clean, and the dashes and exclamation mark are used sparingly enough to feel deliberate rather than careless.
Glossary of Useful Vocabulary
These sixteen items all appear in the model letter. Learn them as whole phrases where possible — collocation is worth as much as the individual word.
| Word / Phrase | Meaning (in simple terms) |
|---|---|
| to keep well | to stay in good health |
| I’ve got some big news | a natural way to introduce an important announcement |
| to sell up | to sell your house and possessions, usually before moving |
| the deciding factor | the reason that finally settled the matter |
| my knees have been complaining | a humorous way of saying a part of your body has been painful |
| to put up with something | to tolerate something unpleasant |
| damp | unpleasant wetness in the air or in a building |
| there’s no real reason to | a natural way of saying something is no longer necessary |
| a pension goes further | a retirement income buys more than it did before |
| it didn’t hurt | it was an added advantage |
| nothing grand | modest, not impressive — used approvingly |
| a courtyard | an open space enclosed by the walls of a house |
| room for guests | space for visitors to stay |
| to be settled | to have finished moving in and become comfortable |
| a fortnight | two weeks (British English) |
| a spare room with your name on it | a warm way of saying a guest is always welcome |
Vocabulary Quiz
Multiple Choice (choose the best answer)
1. If a couple have decided to sell up, they have:
A. put their house and belongings up for sale
B. reduced the price of something they were selling
C. bought a second property
2. Someone who has put up with a noisy neighbour for years has:
A. complained about the neighbour repeatedly
B. tolerated the situation without doing much about it
C. moved away to escape the noise
3. If your pension goes further in another country, it means:
A. the payments continue for a longer number of years
B. it buys more there than it would at home
C. it is transferred abroad automatically
4. A house described as nothing grand is:
A. modest, but the speaker is happy with it
B. badly built and in poor condition
C. large and expensive
5. If a friend says there’s a spare room with your name on it, they are:
A. asking you to pay towards the rent
B. telling you they are redecorating
C. making it clear you are welcome to stay any time
Answer Key
- A
- B
- B
- A
- C
Practice Makes Perfect
Writing formal letters can be challenging, but with regular practice, you’ll improve your ability to stay on topic and meet the IELTS requirements. Try writing your own response to this question, then compare it to the model answer above.
If you’d like feedback on your writing, book a lesson with us today.
How to Continue Your IELTS Study
If you would like to get some IELTS practice, answer the same question and purchase one of our Writing Correction Packages
to get feedback.
If you would like to watch a video about how to write IELTS General Task 1 letters, visit this page.