Ielts speaking Strategies: The Ultimate Guide With Tips, Tricks, And Practice On How To Get a target Band Score Of 0+ In 10 Minutes a day

1.
To be honest/ I’m afraid/ honestly
: these are what we call softening
phrases. We use these phrases to be more polite when we get a negative
answer, or to signal that we are going to give a negative answer or you are not
proud of what you will say .
Examples: 
Do you enjoy reading?
·
To be honest
, I don’t really like reading.
·
Honestly
, I don’t like reading very much.
·
I’m afraid
, I don’t like it very much.

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You are Japanese. How do you feel if you ask someone 
“do you like Japanese
food?”
and they say 
“I don’t like it”
Does that sound a bit rude ? Yes, it
sounds quite harsh. So you need to be more gentle with your negative answers
or when you are not proud of something.
So it will sound better if you say 
“honestly, I don’t like Japanese food very
much”
However, what if I ask you 
“do you smoke cigarettes?”
Can you say 
“To be honest, I don’t smoke”
. Is it something you should feel
ashamed of? 
No
, you should be proud that you are not a smoker. Something
like that, even though the answer is no, you don’t really need to get the
fluency marker 
“To be honest/ I’m afraid/ honestly”
in this case.
2.
Fortunately/ unfortunately:
these are really great and easy-to-use words
that students don’t practice enough. They don’t use them enough. These
words are powerful and easy. We use these words to signal a positive or
negative situation or condition, and we can use them in a combination. You
can talk about the negative, and then, fortunately, a positive; or a positive,
unfortunately, a negative.