Four key areas for Paper 4. Tap a card to see strategies, common mistakes, and useful expressions.
When making notes on your note card, organise your points well and write down details (reasons, examples, personal experience) to help you develop them. Sample layout:
Avoid general questions. Ask specific and relevant ones:
Due to the time limit, aim for two to four main points depending on their depth. Consider different aspects:
To fill the full minute, also consider: what your school offers that others don't, or whether you'd recommend your school to Primary 6 students.
Enrich your speech by raising specific examples — a teacher who taught you something special, or a memorable event. Use signpost words to structure your response clearly:
Sample question: "Is interest the most important element in choosing your electives?"
| Lexical items | in addition ("addiction"), lose ("loss"), robot ("Robert/rabbit"), climb ("crime"), snack ("snake"), healthy ("heavy"), tours ("towers"), raising ("rising"), soup ("soap"), choose ("choice"), lack ("lick"), diabetes ("dibetis"), habits ("hobbits"), failure ("failer"), courteous ("curtes"), traditional ("charditional"), feeling ("filling"), beneficial ("benefical"), email ("emeel"), youth ("yorkf"), tertiary ("tortury/territory"), definition ("defination"), screenwriter ("screamwriter"), raft ("redft"), daughter ("doctor"), effort ("edfot"), gadget ("getget"), game ("gam"), career ("korea"), penguin ("pengen"), job ("jog"), horizon ("horisong"), tyres ("ties") |
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| Consonant clusters & digraphs (especially /pr/, /pl/, /bl/, /br/, /cl/, /sh/) |
Confusing "pressure" with "pleasure", blog ("bog/board"), branch ("bunch"), shark ("sark"), brand ("band/ban"), clutter ("cutter"), proposal ("poposal"), published ("pubished"), friends ("fans"), classroom ("cassroom"), waterfront ("waterfont"), qualities ("kalities"), complain ("compain"), programme ("pogram/pogam"), cloned ("coned"), debts (pronounced with /b/), think ("fing"), place ("pace"), drama ("jaama"), shower ("sour"), crime ("kime"), children ("childen"), try ("chai") |
| Word stress in multi-syllabic words | luxurious, calculator, heritage, collaboration, photography, persuade, exhibition, apprenticeship, internship, tradition, brochure, character, ambassadors, economic, couponing, tourists, encounter, skateboarding, tourism, youngsters, celebrities, motivation, nowadays, subscribe, advertisement, fascinating, graffiti, infrastructure, necessity, technological, Switzerland, specific, intelligence, economy, resources, extraordinary, dinosaur, Antarctica, loyalty, astronomy, military, censorship, simulation, authority, ugliness, enthusiastic, veterinarian, compulsory, elegance, astronaut, women, packets, mature, athletes, privacy, inequality |
| Dropping final consonants | because, experience, service, besides, super-sized, clothes, nowadays, think |
| "–ed" endings | celebrated, marketed, published, adopted |
| Commonly misunderstood words / phrases | countryside, HK's heartbeat, longevity, heritage, apprenticeship, street culture, scold, urban dictionary, e-textbooks, ban, waterfront, appeal to, compulsory, advertisement, discipline, coupons, rude, upcycling, measures (n.), endless city, compulsory military service |
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| Chinese English | They are difficult/easy to…, Have someone said that…, As what you say…, widen their eye, different country people, use my eyes to see, foreign country people, There have many people, Some people are difficult to, I very enjoy it |
| Comparative | more better, more healthier, more easy, more cheaper, more harder, more easier |
| Modals | can playing, may getting, can making, they may be can do |
| Subject–verb agreement | she don't |
| Verb "be" | I am agree with you, They are lack of |
| Transitive verb | discuss about |
| To-infinitive / bare infinitive | go to shopping, Let us to do, want to doing, make them to do |
| Connectives | so/so that (confused), Although…but… |
| Singular / plural nouns | People is, many money, childrens, a children, many information, many experience |
| Parts of speech | I feel boring (should be "I feel bored") |
| Overly formal structures | Misusing: On the other hand, Nonetheless (used incorrectly or awkwardly) |
| Greeting & starting |
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| Defining the task |
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| Stating your first point |
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| Asking for opinions |
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| Agreeing |
Mild agreement
Agreement
Strong agreement
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| Disagreeing |
Showing uncertainty
Disagreeing with a reason
Disagreeing with specific opposition
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| Starting off a response |
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| Organising your response |
Sequence / order
Adding information
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| Cause and effect |
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| Comparison / contrast |
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| Filler expressions |
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| Maintaining your point |
Persuading others
Responding to interruptions
Defending your ideas politely
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| Inviting suggestions |
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| Putting forward suggestions |
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| Elaborating on suggestions |
Giving reasons
Giving details and examples
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| Offering an alternative |
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| Discussing pros and cons |
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| Stating preferences |
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| Interrupting politely |
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| Requesting clarification |
Asking for repetition
Asking for explanation
Checking understanding
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| Making clarification |
Repeating / Rephrasing
Correcting yourself
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| Suggesting a compromise |
Proposing a compromise
Partial agreement
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| Helping others express ideas |
Asking for ideas / opinions
Giving encouragement
Encouraging others to speak up
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| Keeping discussion on track |
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| Moving on |
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| Asking others for help |
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| Rephrasing |
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| Seeking agreement |
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| Going into the summary |
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