Photo Card Practice: Festivals and Celebrations

The photo card

You are shown a photo and asked to describe it. The examiner is not checking whether you can name the festival: they are checking whether you can keep going in Spanish. So aim for **four ordinary sentences** rather than one clever one. Say what you see, add a detail, give an opinion, and justify it. Four simple accurate sentences beat one ambitious sentence that runs out halfway.

Phrases to start with

Whole chunks, learned as chunks. They give you a running start on any image:

Which celebration is which?

Choose the label that fits each scene.

• un desfile / a parade
• una boda / a wedding
• un partido / a match

Match the festival words

Ser or estar?

Both mean "to be", and choosing wrongly is the fastest way to sound wrong on a photo card. The specification tags them exhaustively, and the split is simpler than it looks:

Which verb?

You want to say "the people are happy" about the parade photo. Which is right, and why?

• **La gente está contenta.** Being happy is a state right now rather than a permanent trait, so it takes estar. Note also that gente is singular in Spanish, so it is está and not están
• **La gente es contenta.** Happiness describes what the people are like, so it takes ser
• **La gente están contentos.** People is plural, so the verb and adjective are plural too
• **Hay contenta la gente.** Use hay, since you are describing what is in the photo

Complete the description

Complete this photo-card opening: "En la foto, _____ un desfile. _____ mucha gente y muchos disfraces. La gente _____ contenta. En mi opinión, la fiesta _____ muy tradicional."

Three ways to lose it

**Going quiet while you hunt for a word.** If **disfraz** will not come, say **hay mucha gente con ropa especial** and keep going. The mark is for continuing, not for the perfect noun. **Describing what is not in the photo.** You are marked on the image in front of you, so inventing a detail carries risk and earns nothing. **An opinion with nothing attached.** *Es bonito* on its own is almost free. **Porque** is the most valuable word on this card, and **lo bueno es que** and **sin embargo**, both from the specification's own phrase list, will lift a plain answer further. An opinion plus a reason is worth more than two more nouns.

Which would score?

Select the THREE sentences that would earn credit on a photo card about the parade.

• En la foto, veo un desfile con mucha gente.
• Hay muchos disfraces de muchos colores.
• En mi opinión, lo bueno es que toda la gente lo pasa bien.
• Es bonito.
• La novia lleva un vestido blanco.
• Quisiera una entrada, por favor.

Build the answer

Put the four sentences of a strong photo-card answer into the order you would say them.

• En la foto, veo un desfile en la calle.
• Hay mucha gente y muchos disfraces de colores.
• La gente está muy contenta.
• En mi opinión, es una tradición importante porque toda la familia lo pasa bien.

In the exam room

You are shown the wedding photo. Three moments.

• You want to open, but the word for wedding has gone. What do you say?
• You want to say the couple are outside the church. Which is right?
• You have described the photo and there is still time. What adds the most?

Prepare your answer

Write out what you would SAY about this photo, as if the examiner had just shown it to you. Four sentences is a full answer.

• Open with En la foto, veo...
• Add a second detail with Hay...
• Use estar at least once for a state, and ser at least once for a trait
• Give an opinion and justify it with porque
• Use at least two words from this topic: desfile, disfraz, boda, regalo, celebrar, tradición