Title: Phrases you should use
Course: Rs 9/10, E, Responding to Visual Prompts > Section: Preparing for the Speaking Task

A list of useful phrases that you should use.

Useful phrases for describing a picture

GIVE A GENERAL INTRODUCTION (the scene)

- The picture shows ... (place, person, scene) from a distance.
- This is a picture of ...
- In this picture I can see
- The picture was taken in ... (place).
- The photo was taken at ... (party).
- The picture describes ... (scene).

TALK ABOUT PLACES

- They’re driving in the country/in a city/in the mountains
- I can see a street market/old building/square/street/restaurant/beach ....
- She’s sitting inside/outside a cafè

DESCRIBE PEOPLE’S AGE

- He’s about 50 years old.
- She’s a teenager/a young child/a middle-aged woman
- They’re in their twenties

DESCRIBE PEOPLE’S CLOTHES

- She’s wearing a pair of shorts and a red T-shirt
- He’s wearing a uniform shirt
- They’re wearing quite casual/smart clothes

DESCRIBE PEOPLE’S ACTIONS

- He’s sitting at a desk
- They’re having a meal
- She’s standing in a queue
- Some people are sunbathing and others are swimming in the sea

DESCRIBE PEOPLE’S ROLES IN A PICTURE

- He’s probably a shop assistant and she’s a customer
- The man serving the drinks is a waiter
- This person on the left seems to be a tourist guide he’s pointing to a building

DESCRIBE PEOPLE’S FEELINGS IN A PICTURE

- You can tell they are enjoying themselves because they are smiling.
- She looks very interested in this activity – she’s concentrating very hard.
- He seems a bit frightened. Maybe this is the first time he’s tried this.

PARAPHRASE (use these phrases to describe words you don’t know)

- It’s something you fry food in (frying pan)
- It’s a cupboard for keeping clothes in (a wardrobe)
- It’s a kind of container for flowers (a vase)

MAKE GUESSES

- It might be summer because some people are wearing sunglasses
- This picture could be in Northern Europe because of the buildings
- It’s probably in the country, because ...
- I think / believe / am sure that ...
- It seems / appears to me that ...
- Perhaps they are celebrating something because ...
- Maybe the reason they look so serious is because ...
- She might be a busy working mother ...

DESCRIBE POSITION

- In the middle of the picture there is a group of people, probably tourists because ...
- There’s a bookshelf next to/near/behind/ in front of the door.
- In the background there is a church.