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    How To Describe A Picture in English

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    Vi Wie
    The document provides guidance on how to describe the key elements of a picture in 3 to 4 sentences. It recommends identifying what can be seen and where things are located in the picture. It also suggests adding descriptive details and speculating about the context or story behind the picture. The steps include summarizing the main subjects, their placement, extra details, and potential meanings or situations depicted in the photo. Examples are provided to demonstrate effectively summarizing and analyzing the key visual elements in an image.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    How To Describe A Picture in English

    Uploaded by

    Vi Wie
    82 views5 pages
    The document provides guidance on how to describe the key elements of a picture in 3 to 4 sentences. It recommends identifying what can be seen and where things are located in the picture. It also suggests adding descriptive details and speculating about the context or story behind the picture. The steps include summarizing the main subjects, their placement, extra details, and potential meanings or situations depicted in the photo. Examples are provided to demonstrate effectively summarizing and analyzing the key visual elements in an image.

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    How to describe a picture in English

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    The document provides guidance on how to describe the key elements of a picture in 3 to 4 sentences. It recommends identifying what can be seen and where things are located in the picture. It also suggests adding descriptive details and speculating about the context or story behind the picture. The steps include summarizing the main subjects, their placement, extra details, and potential meanings or situations depicted in the photo. Examples are provided to demonstrate effectively summarizing and analyzing the key visual elements in an image.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    82 views5 pages

    How To Describe A Picture in English

    Uploaded by

    Vi Wie
    The document provides guidance on how to describe the key elements of a picture in 3 to 4 sentences. It recommends identifying what can be seen and where things are located in the picture. It also suggests adding descriptive details and speculating about the context or story behind the picture. The steps include summarizing the main subjects, their placement, extra details, and potential meanings or situations depicted in the photo. Examples are provided to demonstrate effectively summarizing and analyzing the key visual elements in an image.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 5

    How to describe a picture in English

    1. Part One (How to summarise what you see)

    There is …
    There are …
    The picture shows …
    In the picture I can see …
    We can see … (in the picture)
    *Lots of; a few - There are 

    *A lot of - there is; there are (there is a lot of money; there are a lot of chairs)

    Examples:
    There are several small boats next to the beach.
    The picture shows a beach, with many small boats in the water nearby.

    There are three people cooking in a kitchen.


    The picture shows three young friends cooking together.

    2. Part Two (How to describe where things are)

    In the top left At the top In the top right

    On the left. In the centre/ On the right


    (middle)
    In the bottom At the bottom In the bottom right
    left
    Examples:
    On the left, there’s a girl with dark, curly hair. She’s holding half a cauliflower.
    In the middle, there’s a man who’s chopping vegetables.
    At the bottom. We can see a counter with many different vegetables on it.

    In the background…
    In the foreground…

    Examples:
    In the foreground, there’s a sandy beach with three metal anchors on it.
    In the middle, there are several small boats, which are close to the beach.
    In the background, we can see the blue sea stretching to the horizon.

    3. Part three (adding detail to your description)


    Don’t try to describe everything in the picture! It’s not necessary or useful.

    Examples:
    The two people both look unhappy or irritated.
    They’re sitting at the kitchen table together, but they aren’t talking to each other
    The man is staring down at the table, while the woman is stirring her tea with a
    spoon.

    4. Part four (speculating about the picture)


    Speculating - talking about possibilities.
    I suppose…
    Maybe…
    It must…
    He/She might …
    Perhaps…

    Examples:
    I suppose it might be some kind of art project.
    Maybe one person put an umbrella up there as a joke, and then other people
    started doing it, too.
    The footprints must have been made by a climber or a mountaineer.
    The person who made the footprints might be standing on top of the mountain
    now.
    I think this could be in the USA, or maybe in Russia.
    It’s a good photo, perhaps it was taken by a professional nature photographer

    Steps:
    1. Give a summary of what you see.
    2. Talk about where things in the picture.
    3. Add details.
    4. Speculate about what’s in the picture.
    5. Speculate about the context of the picture.
    6. ( + Find the problem)

    Example 1.
    In the picture, there are two people sitting at a table, looking unhappy. There is
    a woman on the left and a man on the right. In the middle of the picture, we can
    see some things on the table, like cups of tea, biscuits, milk and so on. The two
    people look sad or irritated, and they aren’t speaking to each other. They’re both
    looking down at the table. I suppose they had a flight and now they aren’t
    talking to each other, or they might just be bored and not have anything to talk
    about, I guess it’s a stock photo because otherwise, why would the photographer
    be in the kitchen with them!?

    Example 2.
    The pictures show umbrellas hanging in the air. In the foreground, we can see a
    streetlight, and the umbrellas fill the picture from left to right. The umbrellas are
    of many different colours, mostly bright colours like pink, yellow or green.
    They’re hanging from wires. I can see at least four lines of umbrellas hanging
    down in this way, but there could be even more. Maybe this is some sort of art
    project. It might also be a festival or tradition, that people decorate the street
    with colourful umbrellas. I suppose the picture was taken in a city or town,
    though I can’t tell where exactly. Perhaps the photographer was a tourist, and
    was just walking around the city when he saw this amazing and strange scene.

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