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  • 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 practise your general English skills.

  • Take an interesting picture, and try to describe it in English.

  • You can practise 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.

  • What's the best 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 could 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 isor, 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.

  • Think: 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 grey.

  • 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 practise using these once more with another picture:

  • Could you make 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 canand you shouldspeculate about what you can't see, too.

  • 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 the 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 practise 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.

  • Add 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 a 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.

  • You just need to take the things you practised in each part, and then 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 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 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.

  • Alright, 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 practise as much as you can.

  • Take the other pictures from the lesson, and make longer answers about them, too.

  • Practise 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.

  • Don't forget to check out Oxford Online English.com for more of our free English lessons.

  • Thanks for watching!

  • See you next time!

HI, I'm Michael.

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A2 初級 英國腔

如何用英語描述一幅圖片 - 描述一幅圖片 - 英語口語課程 (How to Describe a Picture in English - Describe an Image - Spoken English Lesson)

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    Jenn 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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