a picture from 5 years ago

[Arcona]

Hello,

I want to send an old picture to a friend and want to add:

To help you remember how the house looked like, here a picture from 5 years ago.

But somehow the second part of the sentence doesn't sound correct to me. Can I say "a picture from 5 years ago"?

Thank you

 

[Arkalai]

To help you remember what the house looked like, here is a picture from 5 years ago.

It's almost perfect. Some minor corrections:

• how it looks OR what it looks like, NOT how it looks like
• here it is - needs the copula

 

[Arcona]

Thank you very much for your corrections, Arkalai.

I have a question about the second mistake you pointed out. I wanted to write my comment as a text to a friend and I thought if I omitted the "is" it would sound more informal. Can I do that?

 

[Dale Texas]

No, you can't eliminate the is and leave the poor little sentence without a verb, but contractions come to the rescue: "Here's a picture from five years ago."

 

[Arcona]

Thanks a lot, Dale Texas.