Some useful phrases for FCE part 2: Compare and contrast 2
pictures
/ similarity (which stands out) is…
is…
/ apparent similarity/ difference (for me)
between… and… is…
example…
n terms
of…
instance,…
difference between… and… is…
lot/ much/ far/ much much/ far far) … er/ more… than…
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,…”