Master Picture Description: Unlock Your English Fluency

Leverage Topics to Uplift English Writing

Picture description for English Speaking Skills is a grossly under-tapped area. Picture description for kids is often perceived as a fun, effective methodology but gets the short shrift when it comes to being used for adults. EnglishGeni presents a series of posts on picture descriptions with multiple varied themes that are scaled for beginner, intermediate, and advanced speakers of English.

However, Duolingo and Pearson Test of English, two highly regarded overseas college entrance testing organizations, use picture description for speaking and writing evaluations. American universities at undergraduate level use picture description even for a subject like American History! So why do they use picture description? Let’s find out!

Picture Description & English Fluency

Firstly, most picture description tests are super short! You get anything like 30 seconds or under to have a look at a picture before you are asked to describe it. The themes are just things you see in regular life, nothing utterly peculiar ever! How you describe is taken as a direct reflection of your English language skills. Unsurprisingly, your score on the picture description task becomes a measure your English skills!

EnglishGeni Picture Description Posts

If you are looking for immediate practice and well-versed with how to score high on picture description, feel free to jump right ahead to the section listing all picture descriptions in English on this pillar post.

Dictionary Meaning of ‘Description’

Let’s take a cursory look at how two different dictionaries provide the meaning of ‘description’. Collins defines it as “A description of someone or something is an account which explains what they are or what they look like.” Merriam-Websters offers a more refined meaning: “discourse intended to give a mental image of something experienced”.

Picture description aims for an accurate verbal interpretation of a visual representation of the elements in an image.

We can sum up a “description” as doing a thorough job of explaining what something is. A good description is like storytelling– it brings things to life to the listener or the reader! A bad description is one that fails to do justice to the state of something.

Description Meaning in Hindi

आइए एक सरसरी नज़र डालें कि दो अलग-अलग शब्दकोष ‘description’ का अर्थ कैसे प्रदान करते हैं। कॉलिन्स इसे इस प्रकार परिभाषित करते हैं, “किसी व्यक्ति या वस्तु का description एक विवरण है जो बताता है कि वे क्या हैं या वे कैसे दिखते हैं।” मरियम-वेबस्टर्स एक अधिक परिष्कृत अर्थ प्रदान करता है: “प्रवचन का उद्देश्य किसी अनुभवी चीज़ की मानसिक छवि देना है”।

हम “विवरण” को यह समझाने के लिए संक्षेप में कह सकते हैं कि कोई चीज़ क्या है। एक अच्छा वर्णन कहानी कहने जैसा है – यह श्रोता या पाठक के लिए चीज़ों को जीवंत बना देता है! ख़राब विवरण वह है जो किसी चीज़ की स्थिति के साथ न्याय करने में विफल रहता है।

‘Picture Description ‘का हिंदी में अर्थ किसी छवि में तत्वों के दृश्य प्रतिनिधित्व की मौखिक व्याख्या है।

What is Picture Description Writing

Continuing from the consummate meaning of description, picture description writing at its basic function must cover the 5 W’s well. Here they are:

To expand out on the hints, here’s how it goes:

1. WHAT

This covers the central theme of the picture, what you immediately think of when you see the picture! It’s that 2 to 5 word thing that pops in your mind. You’d be surprised to know how many people actually miss saying the most obvious thing. Not because they missed noticing it, but they assume it’s so obvious, it’s okay to skip mentioning. NOT!

Sample 1: Basic Writing: State the Obvious

A common starter sentence for this would be: “This picture represents Diwali celebrations,” if there are multiple elements in the image like little lamps-diyas, flower and fruit prayer offerings, a festive message, a couple dressed up, some graphics of fireworks.

Sample 2: Nuanced Writing: Read the Clues

However if the image shows two people burning fire crackers, you’d say: “We can see two people, perhaps a husband and wife, (or, who seem to be good friends, or, who look like co-workers as they’re in uniforms) celebrating Diwali.

Analysis of Difference in Sample 1 & 2:

Notice the jump in complexity from saying: “Two people are burning fire crackers“: an obvious statement! In sample 2, your writing is more nuanced where you are attempting to ‘read‘ the image for its clues rather than just state the obvious, bringing in your ability to analyze, guess, be reasonable, and getting to the ‘depth of information hidden in the image’.

So, when you approach a picture description, you scan for details, you scan the ambience, the wealth of information that might be available there. The more you notice, the more advanced and analytical your writing will seem.

2. WHERE & 3. WHEN

The setting in the images for picture description may not always be obvious. Try taking a reasonable guess, or there might actually be a little ‘2022’ written at one corner of the image that tells you that the picture was clicked in 2022!

Snow outside the window will tell you how the weather was or that it was not taken in India maybe! A clock in the picture might give away the time or a desk or wall calender even, give away the month and/or year. An air conditioner on a low setting tells you it’s a hot day.

Here again, it’s your ability to ‘read’ the picture beyond just ‘seeing’ the obvious.

4. WHY & 5. HOW

The picture of an accident scene can reveal some clues about why it happened (vehicle is in the ditch off the road! Careless driving? A motorbike is flung to the slide: He caused it maybe?) Or, a big pothole in the road can be seen and you guess that is how the accident happened!

Links to All Posts on Picture Descriptions

For your convenience, this pillar page presents you with easy navigation to all the posts on picture descriptions in English for adults.

Uplift Picture Writing Beyond the 5 W’s

While these 5 W’s are the main and obvious components, do include comments about objects, colors, textures, symmetry or order of placement as in a store shelf, merchandize, parking lots, emotional cues, and lastly, better vocabulary surely uplifts your writing!

Make connections or guesses when possible, and reasonable analysis from elements in the fore and background. Events at a shopping mall can be distinctly different from that on a ship yard. Be attentive and analytical. Your presence of mind and observation will reflect in your score. With this, a complete breakdown of the picture description writing process has been presented!

EnglishGeni’s Picture Descriptions English Level

While our “Picture Composition” series focuses on school children from class 1 and above, this pillar post enlists picture description posts tailored to scale up to Intermediate to Advanced Speakers of English. Also, these posts cater to picture description for adults.

However, beginners are helped with instructions, word meanings and sample sentences in Hindi and skill enhancing drills to quickly power up to the Intermediate level for the task.

Here is how to go about with picture composition task. Firstly, the tasks for intermediate speakers, thematically speaking, are nothing like those at A1-A2 level. So, get ready for some intense English language practice.

Picture Description Enabled for All English Levels

Here’s how EnglishGeni’s description tasks work commonly for all levels:

• Each picture description task will serve you an image or a sequence of images.
• Each image has a suggested vocabulary set consisting between 10 and 20 words, depending on the level.

While the image itself serves the vocabulary in most instances in English, the section below will provide help for English vocabulary with Hindi meanings. Like so!

Sections in Each Picture Description Lesson

These are the sections that you are highly likely to find across all picture description lessons. However the slant, theme, associated English language drills and exercises can vary widely. Yet, it’s safe to say that each post has all these core areas well-covered.

Firstly, all images are carefully chosen to be the right fit as picture description images. Many have elements we leave for the learners to explore and find out their own.

EXAMPLE VOCABULARY SET:

smartphone	Styrofoam cup	strangers	friends	out of view
स्मार्टफोन	स्टायरोफोम कप	अजनबी	दोस्त	दृश्य से बाहर
checkered	denims	serious	engrossed	blurred
चेकर	डेनिम	गंभीर	तल्लीन	धुंधला
texting	checking emails	messaging	playing a game	addictive
टेक्स्ट संदेश भेजना	ईमेल जाँचना	मैसेजिंग	एक खेल खेलना	लत लगाने का गुण

• You may take a look at the vocabulary set and decide to either first review the vocabulary or practice right away.
• The vocabulary set will feature the meanings of words along with a sample sentence or two.

Take a look at these words being introduced with the parts of speech, the meaning, and a sample sentence explained in Hindi too. So each word is introduced with:

1. word
2. parts of speech
3. dictionary meaning
4. Sample sentence in English
5. Hindi translation of English sentence

The table below demonstrates this procedure:

EXAMPLE VOCABULARY TRAINING MODEL:

Social media

Parts of Speech: Noun (compound noun)

Meaning: Online platforms and websites that facilitate social interactions and content sharing.

Sample Sentence: Many people stay connected through various social media platforms.

बहुत से लोग विभिन्न सोशल मीडिया प्लेटफार्मों के माध्यम से जुड़े रहते हैं।

Cameras

Parts of Speech: Noun (plural form)

Meaning: Devices used for capturing and recording visual images or videos.

Sample Sentence: Modern smartphones often have high-quality cameras.

आधुनिक स्मार्टफोन में अक्सर उच्च गुणवत्ता वाले कैमरे होते हैं।

Addicted

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: Physically or mentally dependent on a particular substance, activity, or behavior.

Sample Sentence: Some people become addicted to video games due to their immersive nature.

कुछ लोग अपने तल्लीन स्वभाव के कारण वीडियो गेम के आदी हो जाते हैं।

Convenience

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: The state of being able to proceed with something with little effort or difficulty.

Sample Sentence: Online shopping offers the convenience of shopping from home.

ऑनलाइन शॉपिंग घर से खरीदारी की सुविधा प्रदान करती है।

• Intermediate Level users who are comfortable with the suggested words are prompted to use all or as many words in the vocabulary set as possible to describe the image.
• For Beginner Level users, there is a testing picture description worksheets on the vocabulary set to ensure they grasp the right meanings and usage of the vocabulary set.

SAMPLE PICTURE DESCRIPTION WORKSHEETS

There are multiple formats for picture description worksheets that we employ. Here’s one of them, in part. Answers are provided but not before the learner has had to employ some thinking in English!

FIBs	Choose right answers
1. He is a lazy person; he was never ___	1. pull the drapes closed
2. After a long day, it is good to ___ with some snacks.	2. flicking through channels
3. Their house is small but feels very ___.	3. catch my interest
4. Could you please clear up the ___?	4. into sports
5. The child is too old to still ___ in her mother’s arms.	5. about an hour
6. You should be in bed; it’s___ your bed-time.	6. piled-up laundry

Now, a model speech is served to assist all levels of users. Each set mentions the total words in the speech and the total time it takes to deliver it. Like this:

A SAMPLE PICTURE DESCRIPTION MODEL SPEECH

Refer and Improve Further!

Speaking Time: 45 seconds
Total Words: 137

We can see three people in this picture, all of whom seem to be glued to their smartphones. The third person is actually hidden from our view. We can see three Styrofoam cups on the table in front of them. Maybe they are friends, or just strangers waiting at a lounge. I really can’t tell from the picture. ….[Continues till end of topic]

• Once the learners practice on their own (if capable of doing so), next learners check the sample script and work on their language skills. They can refer back to the Hindi translation if required. It is always provided. Picture description with answers provided ensure that every learner can scale up from even the most basic level of English.

Bonus Tips on English Skills

Most lessons also carry critical bonus tips to build better English skills! The tips also have their grounding practice exercises. This is how each picture description lesson concludes.

FAQs on Picture Composition

Conclusion

This concludes our post on providing you complete insight into what picture description in English is, how it works, what is expected out of a learner or test taker, and how to do it the effective way. EnglishGeni gives you lessons to provide you with intense practice to make your newly acquired vocabulary stay in your memory long-term! it’s about time you benefitted from these lesson!

EnglishGeni picture description writing lessons are well scoped out and prepare you in measured steps till you gain the proficiency required for a language task. We would certainly value your feedback on the picture description in English exercises. Happy English Learning!

For your convenience, the set of picture description post links are presented here as well.

Or, try some other posts to continue your English learning!

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