hi I'm Michael welcome to Oxford online
English in this lesson you can learn how
to describe a picture in English
describing a picture is useful in many
English exams you need to describe a
picture in English for exams like FCE
TOEIC or Pte it's also a good way to
practice your general English skills
take an interesting picture and try to
describe it in English you can practice
your speaking and learn some new English
vocabulary in this lesson you can learn
how to describe a picture in English in
clear detailed language we'll show you
how to build an answer step by step
way to start your description start with
a summary giving a general description
of what's in the picture and what you
can see it's useful to imagine that the
person you're talking to can't see the
picture
think what does the other person need to
know what do you need to say so that
other people can understand what's in
the picture let's do an example you want
to summarize what you see in one or two
simple sentences how could you do that
you could say there are several small
boats next to a beach or the picture
shows a beach with many small boats in
the water nearby simple summaries like
this make it easy to understand the
general contents of the picture let's do
one more
what can you say here here are some
possible answers there are three people
cooking in a kitchen or the picture
shows three young friends cooking
together okay
now it's your turn here's another
picture you need to make a summary of
what you see you can use these phrases
there is or there are the picture shows
pause the video and make one or two
sentences you can write down your
answers if you want okay
after your summary you can start giving
more detail about what you see in the
picture
to start giving detail you can talk
about where things are in the picture
here's some useful language to help you
do this let's do an example you could
say 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 when talking about photos you
might also need the phrases in the
background in the foreground for example
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 let's put all
of this language together in another
example think first what could you say
about this picture okay let's look at
what you could say on the left there's a
cat sitting on a table on the right
there's a man standing though we can't
see his face in the background we can
see blue sky and snowy mountains now
it's your turn
here's a picture pause the video and
make at least three sentences use the
useful language you saw in this section
again you can write your sentences down
if you want to okay what's next
now the person you're talking to should
have a good general idea about what's in
the picture you're describing and where
things are next you should start
describing your picture in more detail
let's look at a picture you've seen
before when adding detail
don't try to describe everything in the
picture it's not necessary or useful you
should add details to the most important
parts of the picture so for this picture
what do you think the most important
parts are probably the person who took
this photo took it because of the people
so you should focus your description on
the two people Figg what do they look
like and what are they doing you could
say 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 that's just three
sentences but they add a lot of detail
to your description let's try one more
in this picture what do you think you
should focus on in your description
fairly obviously you should talk about
the horses let's try the horses are
running through the grass two of them
are black but the one in the middle is
white and gray they don't have saddles
or anything so they could be wild horses
again you can see that you can do a lot
with just a few sentences alright now
it's your turn let's take a picture
you've already seen pause the video and
make at least three sentences to
describe the picture in detail try to
include as much information as you can
how was that if you want more practice
you can do the same exercise with other
pictures from this lesson or you could
use your own pictures at this point
you've described the picture in detail
so what else can you do
speculating what does that mean
speculating means talking about
possibilities for example look at this
picture think about some questions why
are the umbrellas there who put them
there by trying to answer questions like
this you are speculating you're talking
about possibilities and giving your
opinion about the picture speculating
can help you to make a longer more
detailed answer when talking about a
picture let's do an example 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 let's look at one more picture
think if you wanted to speculate about
this picture what could you say another
way to think about it what questions
could you ask yourself about this
picture possible ideas are who made the
footprints and why where were they going
where is the person who made the
footprints now there are other
possibilities of course so feel free to
use your own ideas too okay so what
could you say to speculate about this
picture here are some examples 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 in our examples
you've seen some useful language which
you can use to speculate about a picture
do you remember you can use language
like I suppose maybe it must he might
let's practice using these once more
with another picture could you
four sentences using the useful language
we just saw let's do an example together
I suppose the guy is a climber or he's
on an adventure holiday maybe he climbed
something and now he's on the way down
he must have a lot of experience because
his body language is quite relaxed he
might be focusing on what he's doing but
he might just be enjoying the view okay
now it's your turn can you make four
sentences to speculate about this
picture using the language you've
learned in this section pause the video
and think about your answers now you
have one more thing to do
when you speculate you can speculate
about what you can see in the picture
however you can and you should
speculate about what you can't see -
how's this possible well think about
this picture you can think about
questions like where and when was the
picture taken who took the picture
what was the photographer doing there
for example I think this could be in the
USA or maybe Russia it's a good photo so
perhaps it was taken by a professional
nature photographer you see talking
about what you can't see in the picture
can be very useful and can help to add
details to your answer let's do one more
example
what could you say about this picture
let's do this one together you could say
this must be somewhere tropical like the
Caribbean or the Maldives perhaps it was
taken by a tourist who came to the beach
on one of those boats okay one more this
time you have to do it yourself here's
your picture make at least two sentences
to speculate about the context of the
picture think about where and when it
was taken who took it
and what photographer was doing there
how was that hopefully you feel more
confident describing pictures in English
now let's put everything you've learned
together and practice making longer
fluent descriptions
when you describe a picture you should
give a summary of what you see talk
about where things are in the picture
and details speculate about what's in
the picture and speculate about the
context of the picture let's make a
longer answer together we'll start with
the picture we've used already here's a
possible longer answer in the picture
there are two people sitting at a table
looking unhappy there's 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 fight 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 do you think you could make an
answer like this remember all the
language you need is in this lesson we
just need to take the things you
practice in each part and put them
together let's do one more example
together the picture shows 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 colors
mostly bright colors 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 you might also be a festival
or tradition that people decorate the
streets with colorful umbrellas like
this
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 all right now it's your turn
we'll give you a new picture pause the
video and try to make a longer answer
like we just did follow the same
structure finished I don't think so
you should practice as much as you can
take the other pictures from the lesson
and make longer answers about them to
practice your answers several times
until you can do it fluently and
comfortably if you want you can leave
one of your answers in the comments and
we'll give you feedback on your English
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thanks for watching see you next time