12.3 Describing People, Places and Events; Simple Narration

Cambridge A2 Key KET

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1 Introduction & Exam Overview

1.1 What Is Cambridge A2 Key (KET)? 1.2 Exam Format: Three Papers 1.3 Who Takes A2 Key and How It Is Delivered 1.4 Study Hours and Preparation Path

2 Scoring, Grades & Results

2.1 The Cambridge English Scale 2.2 Grades A, B, C and Certificates 2.3 How Your Overall Score Is Calculated

3 Reading Parts 1–3: Understanding Texts

3.1 Reading Overview (Parts 1–5) 3.2 Reading Part 1: Short Texts and Main Message 3.3 Reading Part 2: Multiple Matching 3.4 Reading Part 3: Longer Text Detail and Gist

4 Reading Parts 4–5: Vocabulary and Grammar Cloze

4.1 Reading Part 4: Multiple-Choice Cloze 4.2 Collocations and Phrasal Verbs for Part 4 4.3 Reading Part 5: Open Cloze 4.4 Grammar Words for Open Cloze

5 Writing Part 6: Guided Message

5.1 Writing Overview (Parts 6–7) 5.2 Part 6 Guided Writing Task 5.3 Model Emails and Content-Point Checklists

6 Writing Part 7 & Assessment Criteria

6.1 Part 7 Picture Story 6.2 Narrative Language and Connectors 6.3 Writing Assessment: Content, Organisation, Language

7 Listening Parts 1–3

7.1 Listening Paper Overview 7.2 Listening Part 1: Short Dialogues and Pictures 7.3 Listening Part 2: Gap Fill Notes 7.4 Listening Part 3: Conversation Multiple Choice

8 Listening Parts 4–5 & Detail Skills

8.1 Listening Part 4: Gist and Main Message 8.2 Listening Part 5: Matching 8.3 Numbers, Times, Prices and Spelling

9 Speaking Test

9.1 Speaking Test Format 9.2 Speaking Part 1: Interview 9.3 Speaking Part 2: Discussion 9.4 Speaking Assessment Criteria

10 A2 Grammar Essentials

10.1 Present and Past Tenses 10.2 Future Forms, Modals and Obligation 10.3 Comparatives, Superlatives, Adverbs and Word Order 10.4 Questions, Negatives and There Is/Are

11 A2 Vocabulary Topics

11.1 People, Home and Daily Routines 11.2 Free Time, Hobbies, Travel and Transport 11.3 Food, Shopping, Money and Health 11.4 Places in Town, Services and Simple Technology

12 Functional Language for Exam Tasks

12.1 Requests, Offers, Invitations and Suggestions 12.2 Opinions, Agreeing, Disagreeing and Preferences 12.3 Describing People, Places and Events; Simple Narration

13 Exam Day and Test Strategy

13.1 Digital vs Paper-Based and the 2026 Change 13.2 What Happens on Exam Day 13.3 Full Practice Tests and Timing Plans

14 Results and Next Steps

14.1 Interpreting Your Statement of Results 14.2 From A2 Key to B1 Preliminary

12.3 Describing People, Places and Events; Simple Narration

Key Takeaways Explain This Topic AI

Use description frames for people (looks, personality, clothes), places (there is/are, location, adjectives), and events (what / where / when / who / how people feel).

Speaking photo or prompt talk works with a fixed order: place → people → actions → feelings → simple opinion.

Writing Part 7 needs simple narration: past simple events, sequence words (First, Then, Next, Finally), and optional short feelings or dialogue.

Link feelings to reasons (She was happy because…) to raise Language and Content quality in Speaking and Writing.

Avoid empty adjectives alone (nice, good) without detail, and avoid tense chaos when telling a story.

Last updated: July 2026

12.3 Describing People, Places and Events; Simple Narration

Quick Answer: Describe with clear order (place → people → actions → feelings). Use there is/are , look like / is wearing , and present continuous for picture talk; use past simple + sequence words for Writing Part 7 stories. Always add a reason for feelings when you can ( happy because… ).

Functional language is not only inviting and agreeing. You also need language to paint a simple picture in words and to tell what happened . Cambridge A2 Key asks for this in:

• Speaking Parts 1–2 when you talk about home, people, free-time places, or visual prompts
• Writing Part 6 when you describe a plan, place, or person briefly
• Writing Part 7 when you narrate a three-picture story (35+ words)

This section gives description frames, narration tools, feeling language, mini models, and traps. Pair it with your earlier work on narrative connectors and with opinion language from 12.2 so descriptions do not stop at It's nice .

What “describe” means at A2

At CEFR A2, a good description is organised, concrete, and accurate enough to be understood . You are not writing a novel. You are selecting 5–8 clear facts with simple grammar.

• Target Typical tools
• People age band, hair, clothes, personality, job/school role
• Places type of place, location, there is/are , adjectives, what you can do
• Events what happened, who, where, when, result, feelings
• Photos / prompts what you can see now (often present continuous)
• Stories past sequence with connectors
• Describing people
• Phrase bank: appearance and identity

Area Frames Examples

Basic ID This is… / She's a… This is my sister. She's a student.

Age (careful, approximate) about … years old He's about fifteen years old.

Hair has + adjective + hair She has long dark hair.

Height/build (simple) tall / short / slim He's tall and slim.

Clothes (picture talk) is wearing… She's wearing a red jacket and jeans.

Looks like looks + adjective He looks tired / happy / young.

Personality is + adjective She's friendly and funny.

Ability can + verb He can play the guitar.

• Useful adjectives (people)
• Appearance/clothes colours: tall, short, long, dark, fair, curly, straight, red, blue, black, white
• Personality: kind, friendly, funny, quiet, noisy, hard-working, shy, helpful
• Mini model: person description (Speaking Part 1)

Interlocutor: Tell me about your best friend.

Candidate: My best friend is called Nora. She's sixteen. She has short brown hair and she's wearing glasses at school. She's very kind and funny. We met in Year 8, and we both like music.

Structure used: name → age → appearance → personality → shared detail . That is enough for A2 extension.

Writing touch (Part 6)

My cousin Leo is coming too. He's tall and really friendly.

I'm bringing my friend Maya. She loves football.

• Describing places
• Phrase bank: places

Area Frames Examples

Type It's a… It's a small café near the station.

Location in / near / next to / opposite It's next to the library.

Existence There is / There are There are many trees in the park.

Parts It has… It has a big kitchen and two bedrooms.

Atmosphere It's quiet / busy / modern / old It's quiet in the morning.

Activities You can + verb You can swim and buy ice cream there.

Opinion I like it because… I like it because it's close to my school.

Mini model: place (Speaking)

My favourite place in town is the riverside park. It's near my house, and there are bikes and a small café. At the weekend it's busy, but in the evening it's quiet. You can walk, take photos, and meet friends. I like it because the air feels fresh.

Empty vs rich place language

Empty Richer A2

The park is nice. The park is green and quiet. There is a lake, and you can hire a boat.

My room is good. My room is small but bright. It has a desk next to the window.

The city is big. The city is big and busy. There are many buses, and the centre has a huge market.

Train yourself to replace nice/good/big with one concrete detail every time.

Describing events and occasions

Events include parties, school trips, matches, festivals, and simple accidents in stories.

Event frame: 5W + feeling

What was it?

Where was it?

When was it?

Who was there?

What happened (2–3 actions)?

How did people feel and why ?

Mini model: event (Speaking Part 1 style)

Interlocutor: Tell me about a good day you had.

Candidate: Last Saturday I went to my cousin's birthday party at his house. There were about ten people. We ate pizza and listened to music. I was happy because I saw friends I don't meet every week.

• Phrase bank: event verbs (present for habits / past for stories)
• meet, arrive, start, play, watch, eat, drink, take photos, give a present, win, lose, leave, go home
• Photo / visual prompt talk (Speaking Part 2 support)

Part 2 materials often include pictures or options you must discuss. Even when the task is “choose,” you still describe to compare.

Fixed order for a picture (about 30–40 seconds)

Place / setting: This photo shows a kitchen / a beach / a classroom.

People: There are two girls and a man.

Actions (present continuous): They are cooking / running / talking.

Details: clothes, weather, objects ( There is a big table… ).

Feelings / guess: They look happy. Maybe it's a family lunch.

• Simple opinion / link to task: I think this is a good idea for a weekend because…
• Present continuous for “now in the picture”

See Say

Action in progress She is reading a book.

Two actions He is cooking and she is washing plates.

Negative They aren't working. They're playing a game.

Do not force past tense for a static photo description unless you are inventing a story about what happened before—default is present continuous + there is/are .

Mini dialogue: describing then choosing (Part 2)

A: In this picture there is a busy market. People are buying fruit.

B: Yes, and they're wearing summer clothes. It looks hot.

A: I think the market is fun, but it might be crowded.

B: I prefer the quiet park picture because we can have a picnic.

A: OK, let's choose the park.

Description feeds opinion; opinion feeds decision—full functional chain.

Simple narration for Writing Part 7

Part 7 asks for a story based on three pictures , usually 35 words or more . Narration is the function of telling events in order .

Core narrative toolkit

• Tool Examples
• Past simple walked, saw, bought, fell, helped, went, said
• Sequence words First, Then, Next, After that, Suddenly, Finally
• Time phrases yesterday, last Saturday, in the morning, at 5 o'clock

And / but / because / so She ran for the bus but it left, so she was late.

Short dialogue (optional) “Are you OK?” he asked.

Feeling + reason Mia was worried because she lost her bag.

• Three-picture skeleton (always useful)
• Picture 1 — start: who + where + first action
• Picture 2 — problem or middle action: what goes wrong / changes
• Picture 3 — end: solution + feeling
• Model story (original, exam-length)

First , Tom waited at the bus stop in the rain. Then a car stopped, and his uncle smiled. “ Would you like a lift?” he asked. Tom got in and said thank you. Finally , they arrived at school on time, and Tom was happy because he didn't miss his exam.

Notice functions inside narration: invitation/offer in dialogue, feeling + reason at the end, clear sequence.

Another model with a small accident

Yesterday Sara walked to the park with her dog. Suddenly the dog ran after a ball and Sara fell. A boy said, “ Are you OK? Can I help you? ” He helped her stand up. After that , they played with the dog together, and Sara felt better.

Requests/offers from 12.1 appear naturally in stories—good cross-skill recycling.

Feelings and reasons (high-value A2 upgrade)

Examiners see many scripts that only list actions. Feelings make descriptions and stories human and complete .

Phrase bank: feelings

Feeling Sentence frames

Happy She was happy because… / They look happy.

• Sad He felt sad when…
• Tired I was tired after…

Worried / nervous Mia was worried because she lost her phone.

Angry He was angry because the train was late. (keep mild)

Surprised They were surprised when they saw the gift.

Excited I was excited about the trip.

Bored He looked bored in the long meeting.

Rule: feeling + because / when / after

She was excited because it was her birthday.

He was tired after the long match.

They were surprised when the lights went off.

In Speaking, feelings also support Interactive Communication: I think they look worried. What do you think?

Linking description to Writing Part 6

Part 6 is not a full story, but light description helps content points:

Content need Descriptive line

Invite to a place Would you like to come to the new café opposite the cinema? It's small and quiet.

Suggest clothes/weather It's going to be cold, so wear a warm jacket.

Describe who is coming My brother is coming too. He's funny and he can play the guitar.

Explain preference I prefer the earlier train because it's less crowded.

Full sentences + one concrete detail beat telegraphic notes.

Common mistakes in description and narration

• Mistake Example Fix
• Only nice/good The man is nice. The place is good. Add hair/clothes/objects/actions
• Tense chaos in stories She go to park and sees a dog and ran Stay in past simple for Part 7 events
• No order random details Use First / Then / Finally or place→people→actions
• Missing people in photo talk only objects Name who is there
• Invented complex plot 120 words of drama for Part 7 Keep 35–70 clear words

Feeling without reason He was sad. He was sad because he lost his ticket.

• Copying memorised story that ignores pictures wrong actions Match each picture
• Overusing there is without actions static list Add is wearing / is playing / looked
• Register clash slang in a careful story Keep standard school English
• Grammar checklist for this section

• Structure Best use
• Present simple habits; general truths about places/people
• Present continuous picture actions happening “now”
• Past simple Part 7 narration; past events in Speaking
• there is/are place and photo description
• have got / has appearance and possessions
• can abilities and place activities

Comparatives The park is quieter than the market.

• because / so / but / and reasons and contrast
• Sequence adverbs story organisation

You do not need past perfect or long passive forms for A2 Key success.

Integrated practice: one prompt, three products

Prompt pictures in your mind: (1) girl at station, (2) she drops her ticket, (3) a guard helps her.

Speaking description (present): In the first picture a girl is standing at the station. She is wearing a blue coat. She looks nervous.

Part 2 opinion: I think stations are stressful because they are busy. I'd rather take a bus.

Part 7 narration (past): First, Lily waited at the station. Then she dropped her ticket under a seat. Finally, a guard helped her, and she was relieved because she could still travel.

Same situation, three functional modes: describe, opine, narrate.

• Timed drills
• Drill A — People (3 minutes)

Describe three people you know with name + two appearance details + one personality adjective + one activity .

Drill B — Places (3 minutes)

Describe your school or street using there is/are four times and you can twice.

Drill C — Photo order (3 minutes)

Any magazine photo: say place → people → actions → feeling → opinion in 40 seconds.

Drill D — Part 7 speed story (4 minutes)

Invent three linked sentences with First / Then / Finally and one because feeling. Count words (aim 40+).

Register notes for description and stories

Speaking photo talk: natural, present, interactive ( What can you see? ).

Part 7 story: standard narrative English; light dialogue is fine; avoid chat abbreviations ( u, thx, LOL ).

Part 6 email description: friendly full sentences.

Do not switch into poetic language ( the azure firmament wept )—keep A2 clarity.

How this chapter fits the productive papers

• Need Use from Ch.12
• Ask, invite, offer, suggest 12.1
• Agree, soft disagree, prefer 12.2
• Describe people/places; tell a story; say feelings 12.3

In a single Speaking Part 2 minute you might describe two options, say which you prefer , softly disagree , and suggest a final choice. In one Writing week you might invite in Part 6 and narrate in Part 7. Functional language is the glue between vocabulary topics and exam tasks.

Final checklist

Can I describe a person without stopping at nice ?

Can I use there is/are and is wearing for a photo?

Can I tell a three-step past story with First / Then / Finally ?

Can I add happy/worried/tired because… ?

Do my descriptions support a simple opinion when the task needs a choice?

If you can do these things, you can handle the descriptive and narrative demands of A2 Key Speaking and Writing with clear, polite, organised English—exactly the CEFR A2 standard Cambridge is looking for.