Introduction
Learning how to describe people is very essential for anyone who is learning English, as descriptions are used not only in our everyday conversations but also at work and school. In this lesson, we will explore the different types of descriptions, along with the appropriate ways of describing people.
There are two things that we often focus on when we want to describe somebody, appearance, and personality. In appearance, we describe his body (form, color, height, build, etc.), but in personality, we describe his character (behavior, thinking, sociability, emotions, mood, etc.)
In describing people, we cannot do without adjectives because these words are used to give specific information about anything that we want to talk about; and particular types of adjectives are used for particular types of descriptions. Take a look at the following tables to know about these adjectives.
Adjectives used to describe the appearance
| Labels | Adjectives |
| Age | young, old, middle-aged, elderly |
| Height | tall, short, medium height |
| Build | fat, obese, stocky, well-built, plump, thin, slim, skinny, strong, overweight |
| Color | white, black, Asian, dark-skinned, sun-tanned, fair-skinned, blonde |
| Face | oval, round, hooked nose, broad nose, rosy cheeks, wrinkled, black-eyed, brown-eyed, beautiful, pretty, blue-eyed, black-eyed, good-looking |
| Hair | long, short, curly, straight, wavy, spiked, fair, thick, bald, black, brown, blonde |
Adjectives used to describe the character
| Labels | Adjectives |
| Mood | nervous, calm, peaceful, bad-tempered, even-tampered, cool, cold, mad, outraged, furious, irritated, upset, intelligent, clever, smart, stupid, silly, warm-hearted |
| Emotions and feelings | happy, suspicious, scared, embarrassed, engaged, frightened, playful, afraid, surprised, jealous, astonished, disappointed, terrified, sad, confident, worried, determined, frustrated, bored, sensible, sensitive, tired, angry, excited, confused, eager, inspired, annoyed, anxious, shy, depressed, disgusted, curious, energetic, cruel, terrible, awful, lazy, arrogant, ashamed, hard-working, amused, delighted, thoughtful, immature, mature, scary |
| Attitudes and social relations | sociable, introverted, extroverted, easy-going, outgoing, attractive, nice, friendly, loveable, respectful, intimate, sincere, faithful, humane, helpful, loyal, reliable, wonderful, humorous, funny, kind, trustworthy, boring, sympathetic, generous, mean, optimistic, pessimistic, open-minded, horrible, cordial, amicable, patient, impatient, quarrelsome, forgiving, gentle, delightful, hateful, empathetic, enthusiastic |
Describing people: appearance
| Question | Answer | Example |
| What does he look like? | – He is+adjective – He has+adjective+noun – His+noun+is/are+noun | – He is short/obese/black-skinned – He has spiky, black hair – His eyes are narrow/wide |
Image 1 (What does he look like?)
Describing people: personality
| Question | Example |
| How is he? (to ask about health/state) | – He is fine/happy/sick. |
| What is he like? (to ask about character) | – He is nice/serious/helpful. |
Image 2 (What is he like?)
Describing people: exercise
Fill the blanks with am, is, are, have, or has
- They ………….. short hair.
- Their hair ………….. short.
- His foot ………….. broken.
- He ………….. a broken foot.
- Her face …………… round.
- She ……………. a round face.
- Their eyes …………….. wide and brown..
- They ……………….. wide and brown eyes.
- My skin ………….. fair.
- I ………………. fair-skinned.
- She …………. polite and beautiful.
- They ………….. rosy cheeks.
- Their cheeks ……………. rosy.
- He ………. tall and slim. He ……….. black and straight hair.
- Edward …………. a long beard. But he …………. bald-headed.
- Margaretta ………….. an old woman with wavy hair.
- George ………….. a middle-aged man with black eyes.
- Jane and her brother, Paul ………….. green eyes.
- Jane and her brother, Paul ………….. green-eyed.
- I ……….. depressed and anxious.
