• Useful phrases: How to describe a picture
  • HerrSauer
  • 30.06.2020
  • Mittlere Reife
  • Englisch
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Use­ful phra­ses: De­scri­bing a pic­tu­re

1 In­tro­duc­tion

Give a ge­ne­ral over­view of what the pic­tu­re is about: Where? & When?

What? (use the pre­sent pro­gres­si­ve!)

Use­ful phra­ses

This pic­tu­re was pro­ba­b­ly taken ...

It shows ...

This pic­tu­re was pro­ba­b­ly taken in the USA (where?) in the mor­ning (when?).

It shows a cow­boy who is ri­ding on a horse (what?).

Ex­am­ple
2 De­scrip­ti­on - WHAT IS WHERE?
  1. De­scri­be the most im­portant of the pic­tu­re.
  2. Move around the pic­tu­re.
Use­ful phra­ses

"The cen­tral focus of the pic­tu­re is..."

"In the fo­re­ground / back­ground ..."



Write po­si­ti­ons in pic­tures at the be­gin­ning or end of your sen­tence.

Po­si­ti­ons in pic­tures:

The cen­tral focus of the pic­tu­re is the cow­boy on his horse.

You can see another cow­boy in the back­ground on the left.

There is a big tree at the top on the right.

You can see some more peo­ple in the back­ground.

Ex­am­ple

AT the top

ON the left

AT the top

IN the midd­le

AT the top

ON the right

ON the left

IN the midd­le

ON the right

AT the bot­tom

ON the left

AT the bot­tom

in the midd­le

AT the bot­tom

ON the right

2 De­scrip­ti­on - WHO IS DOING WHAT?
  1. say what the are doing (pre­sent pro­gres­si­ve!)
  2. de­scri­be the age
  3. de­scri­be the clothes, hairst­lye, fa­cial ex­pres­si­on.
Use­ful phra­ses
  1. in­fant; todd­ler; young boy/girl; teenage boy/girl; young, middle-​aged, el­dery woman/man
  2. happy, sad, in­te­res­ted, bored, ner­vous...

The cow­boy is ra­cing with his horse. Right now, his horse is jum­ping.The cow­boy is pro­ba­b­ly middle-​aged. He is wea­ring a cowboy-​hat, a shirt, jeans and riding-​boots. His horse is black. You can­not see the cow­boy's face. The other cow­boy is also ri­ding his horse. He isn't ri­ding as fast as the cow­boy in the midd­le of the pic­tu­re.

Ex­am­ple
3 In­ter­pre­ta­ti­on

of places and ob­jec­ts.

Try to an­s­wer many ques­ti­ons:

  • What kind of place is it?
  • Why are the peo­ple there?
  • What do the ob­jec­ts & land­scape tell you?
  • What had hap­pen­ed ear­lier?
  • What will (maybe) hap­pen later?
Use­ful phra­ses
  1. The place is like a / looks like a ...
  2. The peo­ple are pro­ba­b­ly there to ...
  3. The (ob­ject/land­scape) tells me that ...
  4. ... pro­ba­b­ly hap­pen­ed be­fo­re the pic­tu­re.
  5. ... will pro­ba­b­ly hap­pen after the pic­tu­re.

The place looks like a cow­boy range. The cow­boy is pro­ba­b­ly there to win the race again­st the other cow­boys. The hor­ses pro­du­ce a lot of dust. That tells me that they are ra­cing re­al­ly quick­ly. The start of the race pro­ba­b­ly hap­pen­ed be­fo­re the pic­tu­re. The horse will pro­ba­b­ly throw the cow­boy off of his horse after the pic­tu­re.

Ex­am­ple
4 What do you think about the pic­tu­re?

Tell your opi­ni­on about the pic­tu­re.

Use­ful phra­ses
  1. It seems as if ...
  2. The lady/man/per­son/... seems to ...
  3. Maybe ...
  4. I think ...
  5. ... might be a sym­bol of ...
  6. The at­mo­sphe­re is peace­ful/de­pres­sing ...
  7. I (don't) like the pic­tu­re be­cau­se ...
  8. It makes me think of ...

It seems as if the horse of the first cow­boy does not like to race be­cau­se it is try­ing to throw the cow­boy off. I don't like this pi­cut­re be­cau­se I think that it is cruel to race ani­mals. Maybe the cow­boys could also use cars in­s­tead.

Ex­am­ple
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