Hi friends in this lesson we're going to talk about the right about a photo question type on the Duolingo
English test, it looks something like this.
And in this video, we're going to talk about the key points of this question type so you can understand what
it's about. Then I'm going to give you some writing tips. And lastly, I prepared seven sample photos with
seven sample answers for you. I think this will be great practice for you. So watch this video all the way
to the end. Okay, just very quickly, before we start this lesson, I want to say that if you're new to this
channel, Hi, I'm teacher Luke from DETREADY.COM. V sit our website to get more information about the D
olingo English test. We have some online courses and a very useful practice platform. Our practice platform a
lows you to practice all of the different question t pes on the Duolingo English test, and you can see y
ur answers immediately. I think this is really good p actice and there is a free version. You can find l
nks to it below in the description. Okay, then well, l t's start this lesson. We'll firstly take a look at t
e key points of this right about a photo question t pe.
Okay, so here are some of the key points you need to know, your job is simple, you have to describe the
photo that's on the screen through writing. And the instructions say that you need to write at least one
sentence, but if you can, you should write more. Okay, so that one's important. The rules are that you need to
write at least one full sentence, but I recommend you try to write more if possible. If you're able to write
more and keep your sentences grammatically accurate, then you will get a better school.
Okay, this is important, you actually only have one minute to write your answer and has no preparation
time. So having only one minute to write your answer without any preparation time is really tough. One
minute is very short. For a writing task like this. As soon as your photo comes up on the screen, the clock
starts ticking. So you don't have any preparation time, you have to be able to quickly look at the photo and
start writing. And like I mentioned earlier, you have to write one complete sentence. This is quite tough.
And actually I've made a full writing course on this question type. And in this course, I will give a very
useful structure you can use which can help you write one sentence easily very quickly. And then give you
lots of ideas on how to write your second and maybe your third sentence. And in this course, we also look
at things like how to describe using adjectives, adverbs, prepositions of place, all of which will be
very helpful to write a good description. So if you're interested in taking this course, there is a link to it
below in the description. And anyway, In this video, I will give you some brief tips as well. Okay, back to
the key points. Luckily, you are able to see the image as you're writing. So that makes it a little bit
easier. And you need to remember that spelling, grammar and punctuation are important. Even though this is a
quick and short writing task, you still have to follow all of the rules of English writing. So pay attention
to your spelling, your grammar and your punctuation. Those three things are of course important for this
question type, and any other writing you do on the Duolingo English test. So make sure you pay attention
to those three things. Okay, almost done with the key points just to left, you actually get this question
type of three times on the test, and it contributes to your production and literacy sub scores. So yeah, you
get this question type three times on the test, which means it's quite an important question. So you need to
be able to do this well, if you want to get a really good score in production or literacy. So I highly
recommend you practice this question type a lot before you take the Duolingo test. And of course, my YouTube
videos, and my courses can be helpful for you. So let's talk about some tips. Now I'll give you some ideas here
of what you can actually write about keeping in mind that you only have one minute, so you can't write a
very, very long answer. But still preparing with different ideas of what you could write will be very
helpful. So let me show you some ideas here.
Okay, so before I give you ideas, I want to say that it's very important that you don't just label the
photo, you should try to describe it. So use descriptive language, full sentences, anything in order
to describe the photo well. Okay, so what to write. So firstly, I think it's important to write a general
statement first, basically, what's the photo of what's in the photo? So let me give you an example. Let's say
this was your photo, a general statement would look like this. This picture shows two young women holding
hands in a green field. So in my opinion, being able to write a general statement like the one I just showed
you very quickly and easily about any photo is key to doing well on this question type. If you can write
these general statements, well, it means you could probably do it in 20 to 30 seconds, and then you'll
have 30 more seconds to write another sentence which
can go into more detail in my course I mentioned earlier, I go into a lot of detail on how to write
general statements for lots of different photos. But some quick and easy ways you can write something like
this photo shows, blah, blah, blah, or this is an image of, and then write something general about what you see
in the photo. If you can do that, then your next sentence can go into a lot of detail. And you can say
something like this. So in your second sentence, you could describe the actions of the people or subjects in
more detail. So for example, the woman on the right is taking a photo with her camera and laughing loudly.
Describing the actions of people or the main subjects in the photo is an easy way to go into more detail. For
this, you should use action verbs like taking a photo, and you can use the present continuous tense, which
overall is quite an easy tends to use. This is one way to go into more detail. And in my opinion, could be
quite good for your second sentence after your general statement. But this might not work for all photos. So
let me show you something else you can do. So you could also describe the location of the things in the photo.
So again, this photo has people so I might want to describe where they are in the photo, and what is near
them, or what is behind them. So I could write a sentence like this, they are in a grassy field. And
there are some trees in the background. Of course, here I'm describing the location of everything in the photo,
the people and the trees, you can use prepositional phrases like in the background, above, next to to the
right of these type of phrases to help you with this. So describing the actions or describing the location is
a good way to go into detail. But you could also do one more thing, which is to speculate. Now you don't have
to do this. But if you have time and have a good idea, then you can. So let me show you what I mean.
So to speculate, speculate, basically means guess. So you can use modal verbs like might may must, or it
seems it looks like anything like that. So here's the same photo. And here are three different examples where
I have speculated, number one, they must be best friends. Number two, they look like they are sisters.
Number three, it seems as if they're having a really good time together.
So that is how you can speculate. When you speculate you can make a guess or tell a little bit of a story
about the photo. But remember that your speculation needs to be closely related to what's happening in the
photo. If you say something completely off topic, then you will lose points for task relevance. So don't do
that. Make sure your speculation or your guest is closely related to the photograph. And you don't need
to do this. This is just one example of something you can do if you have time to write more sentences, but
it's definitely not necessary. Another thing you can do to add more detail is use descriptive language.
So descriptive language things like adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, all of which will help describe
your photo in a nice way. So here's a full example I wrote. The words in green are descriptive. So we have
young women young is an adjective, green fields. Green of course, is an adjective. On the right, that's a
prepositional phrase, and loudly is an adverb. Alright, then. So we've looked at the key points, and I've given
you some tips on what to write about. Now let's do seven practice photos with sample answers. So I will
show you seven photos give you one minute to describe them. You can write your answers below in the comments.
And then after the minute is up, I'll show you a sample answer. I recommend that you look at my sample answer
and analyze it to get more ideas for what you can write when you do the Duolingo English test. Okay, well,
let's get to this practice and good luck.
Alright seven photos done. Did you find that easy or difficult? Let me know below in the comments. And if
you want to study more with me, I recommend you watch this video here or this one here. Okay, that's it for
me. Thank you very much and I'll see you next week. Bye