Echt peinlich. Und sowas schimpft sich lehrer!

It's not that simple. If they have to describe a picture, then they need the present continuous. If they are describing their room at home, then they need the present simple.

The photo is a snapshot of a moment in time; they are describing that moment. Just like when you describe this moment in time: I'm sitting at my desk typing. The cat is sitting on my lap and his fur is floating onto the keyboard.

When they describe their room, of course, they say what it always looks like.

(Out of interest, what is your native language, zahory?)

CM2DD, wo ich Dich hier gerade sehe - könntest Du dort helfen, bitte? Siehe auch: is being repeated - is being repeated

Thank you so much CM2DD. They had to desribe a picture and I thought so. And I think it is the same for clothes:
The women are wearing dresses?
My native language is German.

And Hugernere... I cannot agree or are you a teacher as well? After having read something wrong 3478 times you start to wonder. And it is better to check and to make sure. At least that's what I think...

The trouble is that once you start checking, you could end up doubting everything you say ... I speak as an ex-teacher :-)
Yes, the women are wearing dresses, the sun is shining and the boy is playing with a ball in the park.

#1: Deine Kommentare sind unhöflich. Wirklich peinlich war aber nicht die gestellte Frage, ob von einer Lehrerin oder nicht, sondern peinlich finde ich Deine diversen Nicks, die einfach überflüssig wie ein Kropf sind. Die Varianten von "Negerhure" könntest Du Dir wirklich sparen.

nur zur sicherstellung. #1 hab ich nicht verfasst.
ich versuche nur sinnvolle und hilfreiche beiträge zu verfassen.

dieser link kann vielleicht dem threadersteller helfen: Siehe auch: Welche Zeitform bei Beschreibung eines Bildes

Und trotzdem ist dein Nick unakzeptabel.

Außerdem bringen es solche Nicks und die daraus entstehenden Diskussionen mit sich, dass Nickkaperer auf den Plan gerufen werden. Ehrlich gesagt, habe ich da in deinem Fall schon lange darauf gewartet.

Und es führt dazu, dass dank deines Nicks deine oft hilfreichen Beiträge immer wieder gelöscht werden - was bringt dir das? Dem Fragestellenden bringt es nämlich nichts.

#1 et al.

To paraphrase someone famous:

The only real wisdom is knowing you know nothing.

Or to paraphrase someone slightly less famous:

For every complex problem there is a simple solution, which is neat, plausible, and wrong.

@zahory:

You are right to be unsure.
As someone once said: "It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull."

I suppose it is sometimes better for a teacher to be sure rather than right – but not, perhaps, when marking students' work (I am not a teacher, by the way).

It is probably unfortunate that pictures are sometimes used for practising the present progressive. This may be appropriate for questions like "What is happening in the picture?" but it may be misleading to extend this to a description of the scene. There is a difference between static and dynamic use of verbs, and between different verbs, but it is perfectly correct (and in formal English often preferable) to use the simple present with verbs of state when describing a picture, particularly when writing about spacial relationships in a picture. This is also a matter of the formal topic of each sentence (often the location) and the introduction of new facts (often the person or object at that location).

So it is correct to write:
"In the centre of the picture sits the Virgin Mary."
"To her left stands the Angel Gabriel. "
"In the background is a flock of sheep."
"To the left of the flock of sheep is a shepherd."
and even "In his right hand he holds a crook, in his left a newborn lamb."

In your example, correct formal English would be:
"On the wall hangs a clock. In front of the clock stands a table."

And correcting the above text to use only the progressive and avoid inversion would just be wrong.

Unfortunately, explaining that this is in fact the correct way to describe a picture would probably confuse German pupils, who would then start making inappropriate use of the simple present and of subject/verb inversion. But marking prefectly good English as incorrect is IMO not an option.

Ohh, just what I need. One native speaker tells me present progressive, another native speaker tells me simple present is ok as well.
@MikeE I assume you are a native speaker of English as well?

How should I mark these exams? Accept everything? A mixture as well?
At least I'm starting to feel better... If even native speakers don't agree how can I know ;-)

Sorry, but that is what I meant by my comment about simple solutions for complex problems.

CM2DD is, of course, perfectly correct, too.

It depends on the verb, and it depends on what you you are talking about.

MikeE says formal, I might say literary or elevated diction. His example of a Nativity scene, like in a painting in a museum, sounds very good for an art critic or a guidebook. However, it could sound odd for a teenager to use the same language describing a picture in a magazine or a family snapshot. Perhaps part of the difference is that a religious image is meant to convey an eternal, timeless truth; but that's probably not the case for the picture in your students' assignment.

I agree that you shouldn't mark it wrong or make a big deal out of it; that could discourage the kids. If you want to, you could give a few more examples when handing back the tests. The picture is like a moment, so if there is action in it, you use the present progressive because the action is happening right now in your mind as you look at the picture. If there isn't any action, you use 'There is/are': There is a picture on the wall.

But if they don't get it this year, don't worry about it, just move on. It will make sense later after they have read more English. Right now, just give them lots of credit for remembering their vocabulary words and 'He, she, it, das S muss mit.' (-:

The problem is not the action, the problem is the position of the pieces of furniture in this room.
So I will have to accept a text made out of sentences like:
On the wall is hanging/ hangs a picture
In front of the sofa is standing/ stands a table,
but that sound so German. And gives them a wrong idea of the normal English word order.
I wish I had chosen another picture.
But thank you.

Next time maybe write an example sentence, or tell them to describe the picture using "there is/are" and the present continuous, and writing the subject at the start? With an example, so they can see what you mean?

The "is standing a table" one really sounds odd to me, as I also wouldn't normally describe objects as "standing" unless they were taller than they were wide - upright objects.

#16
I don't think you would normally use inversion with the progressive (in sentences with normal stress). As CM2DD says, "is standing a table" is (extremely) odd.

I think, perhaps, CM2DD has hit on the main problem (and possibly one reason why hm thinks of the simple present with inversion as elevated or literary, rather than just descriptive and formal?): although one is encouraged to use appropriate verbs, there is less "compulsion" in English to use different verbs; if you wish to express existence or location, the correct verb is "to be". If the semantic content added by verbs like stand, hang, lie, sit, is unwanted, you don't have to use those verbs.

Even when the semantic content is desired, you can avoid the sense of continuous action that may be implied by the progressive and instead use the verb "to be" with a participial phrase: "There is a picture hanging on the wall" rather than "A picture is hanging on the wall".

So what is the English equivalent of "Vor dem Bett steht ein niedriger Tisch."?
In a text where the bed has just been mentioned, I think I would normally write
"In front of the bed is a low table."
I would say "In front of the bed there is a low table." is also perfectly acceptable (though I perceive a very slight change in meaning).

"There is a low table in front of the bed." is also possible, but in a text describing the furniture in a room, it might get a bit repetitive.

#13
Just to avoid any confusion: I do not disagree with anything CM2DD has written.
Use of the simple present is not normally an option when you are talking about what people are doing at a particular moment (or in a picture).

My 2¢:

Is it: A picture is hanging on the wall OR hangs on the wall?
I wouldn't use either of these; I would say "there's a picture hanging on the wall".

A table is standing in front of the clock OR stands in front of the clock?
There's a table standing in front of the clock.

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