Picture Description: How to Describe a Picture, with Examples (DET Guide)

Describe a picture in one minute

The Duolingo English Test gives you one minute to write about a photo. Try it here, then compare yours with the worked examples below.

What is a picture description?

A picture description is a short piece of writing or speech that lets someone who cannot see an image picture it for themselves. It is a standard exercise in English classes and school exams, a common speaking test task, and it appears twice in the Duolingo English Test. A good description does three things: it says what is in the picture, where things are in relation to each other, and what it suggests: what is happening, how people feel, what might happen next.

It is not a list of objects. "A pan, three women, a bottle, a door" names things but describes nothing. The skill being practised is turning what you see into connected, organised sentences.

The picture description format

Most teachers and exams expect the same five-part structure. Follow it in order and you always know what comes next.

For a written picture description, one short paragraph per part, or one paragraph in total for a short task, is enough. For a spoken one, the same order keeps you talking without long pauses.

Useful phrases for describing a picture

Comparisons add precision: "the pan in the front is bigger than the bowls behind it". The rules for forming them are in our degree of comparison guide.

Picture description examples

Two worked examples, one written and one spoken, each following the five parts. Read the description first, then look at the photo and check that every sentence is true to it, because that is exactly how a good description is judged.

Example 1, written (about 110 words). This photograph shows three women cooking together in a bright kitchen. In the foreground, a large frying pan full of colourful vegetables, such as carrots, peppers and green leaves, is sitting on a gas cooker. The woman nearest the camera, who is wearing a blue and yellow patterned shirt, is stirring the vegetables with a pair of tongs. Behind her, a smiling woman with short grey hair and a woman with curly hair and glasses are chopping food on wooden boards. There is a bottle of olive oil on the steel counter, and a glass-panelled door in the background. Everyone looks relaxed and cheerful, so this might be a cooking class or a meal with friends.

Example 2, spoken (about 60 seconds). This photo shows a very large construction site, taken from above. In the foreground there are around fifteen workers wearing bright orange safety clothing and helmets. They are standing on a huge grid of steel bars, so I think they are preparing the base of a building before the concrete is poured. Some of them are bending down, and a few seem to be talking to each other. Behind them, on the grey concrete floor, two small green forklifts are moving materials around. The whole area is surrounded by tall, dark steel walls, which tells me the site is deep underground, probably for a basement or a car park. It looks like an enormous project, and it must take months to finish.

Notice what both examples do: they never list objects, every sentence is true to the image, and the guesses are signalled with might, seem, I think, probably, must. That is the standard you are aiming for.

Common picture description mistakes

• Listing instead of describing. Nouns with no verbs and no positions show nothing; join them into sentences.
• Inventing details. Describe what is there. Guesses are fine when they are signalled ("it might be…"), but a fact that is not in the picture is simply wrong.
• Mixing tenses. Use the present continuous for what is happening ("is stirring") and the present simple for what is always true ("the kitchen has a steel counter"). Do not switch to the past for no reason.
• No order. Jumping from a detail to the background to a person makes the picture hard to imagine. Use the five parts.
• Repeating "there is". One "there is" is fine; ten in a row shows one structure. Rotate the phrases above.

Picture description on the Duolingo English Test

The Duolingo English Test asks you to describe a picture twice, in two different skills. Most people search for "describe the picture" expecting a list of vocabulary. Vocabulary is not the problem. The problem is that a photo of a market stall or a snowy mountain gives you three obvious sentences and then silence — and silence, in a timed speaking task, is what costs the marks.

This guide gives you one method that fills the time for both tasks, and shows what each task is actually scored on.

The two tasks are not the same

They share a picture and nothing else.

Write About the Photo rewards a complete, correct sentence — accuracy over length. Speak About the Photo rewards sustained, organised speech — you are penalised far more for stopping at 30 seconds than for a small grammar slip. Same picture, opposite failure modes.

The method: who, where, doing, detail

Move through the image in the same four steps every time. Each step is at least one sentence, and the last step is infinite — you can always add another guess or detail.

1. Who or what — name the main subject. "This photo shows an outdoor market stall."
2. Where — place it. "It looks like a street market in a warm country, probably in the morning."
3. Doing what — the action. "A vendor is weighing fruit for a customer while other shoppers look at the crates."
4. Detail or guess — anything you infer. "The produce looks fresh, so the stall probably restocks every day. The customer seems to be a regular, because the vendor is smiling."

Four steps, and the fourth never runs out. This is the whole trick to Speak About the Photo: when you feel the pause coming, you are simply on step four, and step four has no end — colour, weather, time of day, what happened just before, what will happen next, how the people feel. A comparison is another way to keep going ("the street looks like a river after the rain"): the figures of speech guide shows how similes work.

Sentence frames that carry the grammar marks

The graders reward range. If every sentence starts "There is / There are", you have shown one structure. Rotate these instead:

• Present continuous for the action: "A woman is carrying…"
• Prepositions of place for layout: "In the background, behind the stall, you can see…"
• Modal verbs for guesses: "It might be early morning, because the light is soft."
• Relative clauses for detail: "The man who is weighing the fruit looks experienced."
• Comparatives for contrast: "The crates on the left are fuller than the ones on the right."

Using four or five different structures in 90 seconds does more for your score than any single "advanced" word.

What loses marks

• Describing what is not there. On Write About the Photo especially, the grader checks your sentence against the image. Inventing an aurora over a plain starry sky is a task-fulfilment error, not a bonus.
• Listing objects. "A table, some fruit, a man, a bag, the sky." A list is not a description and shows no grammar.
• Stopping early on the spoken task. Thirty seconds of perfect English scores below ninety seconds of good-enough English. Keep going.
• One long run-on. Joining everything with "and… and… and" flattens your coherence score. Full stops are free.

A worked example, both tasks

The image: a snow-covered mountain range at night under a sky full of stars, with a dark treeline in the foreground.

Write About the Photo (one strong sentence beats three weak ones): "This photograph shows a snow-covered mountain range at night, with a dark line of trees in the foreground and a sky full of bright stars above the peaks." — one sentence, three prepositional details, accurate to the image.

Speak About the Photo (fill the time with the four steps): "This is a night-time photo of a mountain range. The mountains are covered in snow, and in front of them there is a dark line of trees. Above the peaks, the sky is full of stars, so it must be a very clear night far from any city. It looks extremely cold and quiet. I think this could be a national park, and the photographer probably had to wait a long time for a night this clear."

Notice the second answer never states anything untrue — it just keeps reaching for the next reasonable detail.

For more spoken examples, the Speak About the Photo sample answers take three real photos — a family kitchen, a rainy street at night and a crowded park — and answer the first one at three levels, so you can see what separates a basic description from a top one.

How to practise it

Open any photo — your camera roll works — set a 90-second timer, and speak through the four steps out loud without stopping. The skill you are building is not vocabulary; it is never running dry. Do it ten times and the pause disappears.

Then run the real task under real conditions. Our practice tests serve the actual Write About the Photo and Speak About the Photo formats with a live timer, record your answer, and grade it against the same rubric dimensions the DET uses — so you find out whether your description holds up before it counts.

Questions people ask

How do you start a picture description?

Start with one sentence that names the kind of picture and its main subject: “This photograph shows three women cooking together in a kitchen.” It tells the reader or listener what to imagine before any detail arrives. Then move through the picture in order: foreground and background, people and actions, details, and your interpretation.

Which tense should I use to describe a picture?

Mainly the present continuous for what is happening (“a man is carrying a box”) and the present simple for things that are permanently true (“the room has two windows”). Use modal verbs for guesses (“it might be winter”). Switching to the past tense without a reason is one of the most common errors.

How long should a picture description be?

It depends on the task. A school exercise often asks for 80–150 words; a spoken task usually lasts 30 seconds to two minutes. On the Duolingo English Test, one accurate sentence can score well in Write About the Photo, while Speak About the Photo rewards using most of the 90 seconds.

Does my accent lower my score on Speak About the Photo?

No. The automated grader rewards how clearly and intelligibly you speak, not how native your accent sounds. Pronounce words clearly and keep a steady pace; a strong regional accent does not cost you marks.

Do pauses and hesitation hurt my speaking score?

Short thinking pauses barely register, but frequent long hesitations read as low fluency and eat into your limited time. Aim for a steady, unhurried flow — smooth delivery of simpler sentences scores better than stop-start attempts at complex ones.

Does spelling count in Write About the Photo?

Yes — it is graded writing, so a misspelled word pulls down the same accuracy dimension your grammar does. Type at a pace that lets you spell correctly rather than racing to add more, because the grader reads exactly what you wrote.

How many sentences should I write for Write About the Photo?

One complete, correct sentence is enough to score well, but two or three add range if they stay accurate. Length matters less than getting the grammar right and describing only what is actually in the image.

How should I pace the 90 seconds in Speak About the Photo?

You get a short preparation window (around 20 seconds) and then about 90 seconds to speak. Use the full time — the main scene first, then the details, then what might be happening — because stopping early costs more than a small mistake does.

What if I cannot name something in the photo while writing?

Describe it instead of naming it — "a tool for cutting" is fine if you cannot recall "knife". The graders reward communication, and working around a missing word is a real language skill in Write About the Photo just as in the spoken task.

Is it bad to guess what is happening in the photo?

No — guessing is how you fill the time and show modal grammar. "It might be…", "They could be…", "This is probably…" are exactly what a strong answer uses. Just keep guesses reasonable and tied to the image.

Do the two photo tasks use the same picture?

Not necessarily. Write About the Photo and Speak About the Photo are separate items and usually show different images. The method for describing them is the same.

Does describing the picture accurately actually matter for the score?

Yes, especially in writing. Task fulfilment is one of the graded dimensions, and inventing elements that are not in the image lowers it even if your grammar is perfect.

What is the single most common mistake?

Running out of things to say and stopping early on the spoken task. The four-step method — who or what, where, doing what, detail or guess — exists to make sure you always have a next sentence.

Can I prepare set phrases in advance?

Frames, yes; scripts, no. Memorising sentence starters like "In the background you can see…" helps. Memorising a full answer does not, because it will not fit the image you are given and can read as off-topic.

Can I use "There is" and "There are" to describe the photo?

You can, but do not rely on them. If every sentence starts that way you show one structure. Mix in present continuous for actions, prepositions for layout and modal verbs for guesses to show range.

Does handwriting or typing speed matter for Write About the Photo?

You type your answer, and the window is about a minute, so a very slow typist has less time. Practising typing helps, but one accurate sentence typed calmly beats three rushed ones with errors.

Should I describe the people or the objects first?

Start with the main subject, whatever it is, then place it, then describe the action. People doing something usually make a stronger opening than a static object because they let you use action verbs immediately.

How is describing a picture different in speaking versus writing?

Writing rewards one complete, accurate sentence — quality over quantity. Speaking rewards filling the full ~90 seconds with organised speech — quantity of good-enough language matters, and stopping early costs the most.

Quick reference: Picture Description at a glance

Walk into the DET already knowing the room.

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