Some useful phrases for FCE part 2: Compare and contrast 2 pictures

Both… and…/ … and… both …, whereas… …, but… …. In contrast,… Unlike…,…. …, and so is/ does… …, and… is/ does too. …, and… is/ does as well.  A/ One difference/ similarity (which stands out) is… One thing that… and… have in common is… One of the (few) similarities/ differences between… and… is… Another/ An additional difference/ similarity (which is instantly apparent) is… The most obvious/ important/ apparent similarity/ difference (for me) between… and… is… A striking similarity/ difference is… … and… are (quite/ very/ really/ really quite) similar/ different, for example… … and…. are (quite/ very/ really/ really quite) similar/ different in terms of… … is different/ similar, in that… …, as is/ does…. … and… have a lot in common, for example… … and… don’t have much in common, but… There are more similarities than differences between… and… For instance,… The main similarity/ difference between… and… is… The only difference/ similarity between… that I can see is… In comparison to…,… Compared to…,… A/ One contrast between… and… is that… … is (slightly/ a bit/ somewhat/ quite a lot/ a great deal/ substantially/ a lot/ much/ far/ much much/ far far) … er/ more… than… … is not (nearly/ quite) as… as… …. In a similar way,… Contrasting… and…,… The most apparent difference/ similarity between… and… is… …and that is (more or less) the same for… … and… share… A more subtle difference is… … differs from… in that…

…. Likewise,… Neither… nor… One resemblance between… and… is that…

As seen in one of the example phrases above, another kind of language that candidates are likely to need is the language of speculation. For example, “This man is happier than this woman” is simply wrong, because it is impossible to know just from photos. Instead, they will need to use language like this (in approximate order of how useful it is likely to be in this part of the test):

1. …seems…2. …looks…3. …is obviously…4. …probably…5. I guess/ I imagine…6. …might/ may/ maybe/ perhaps…7. …clearly…8. I’m not sure exactly (what this is) but…9. …appears…10. …looks like…11. I reckon…12. I suppose…13. I’m fairly sure…14. I get the impression that…15. …is almost certainly…16. My initial impression is…17. …must…18. …could (possibly)…19. I’m pretty confident that…20. I expect…21. I think I’m justified in saying that…

The related phrases “some kind of…”/ “some sort of…” are also very useful.

If they finish too quickly, they might also want to say “Going back to comparing,…”