Speaking | ILT | Compare and contrast | Useful phrases

DESCRIBING A PICTURE

• in the picture (on the picture)
• The picture shows/depicts/illustrates…. /
• When looking at the first picture, one immediately sees/notices…
• The picture was taken in/at/near/during….
• at the bottom/at the top/in the middle
• in the background/in the foreground/in the centre
• on the left-hand side/on the right-hand side/on the left/on the right

INTERPRETING

• The characters look as if…
• The picture inspires the viewer/me to think about…
• The picture makes the viewer/me feel
• The viewer has/I have the impression that….
• It seems like…/They might have…/It could be that…/
• This probably stands for/represents…/This can be interpreted as…/This serves to illustrate….
• What seems very interesting/strikes me as very odd is…

COMPARISON

• If you compare X to Y, you can see that ….
• In contrast to the first picture, the second one…
• The two are quite alike but…
• What differentiates the second picture from the first is….
• X is exactly/virtually/almost/more or less the same as Y.
• X is considerably/somewhat/slightly/ (smaller) than Y.
• There is no difference between
• Both, picture 1 and 2, show …
• Whereas/While picture 1 depicts …, picture 2 features …
• X is far less (beautiful/interesting) than Y.
• There are fewer items in the second picture.
• Picture 1 shows a scene outside. The same is true of picture 2.
• to be similar to
• to be like sth. else