How to describe a person
How to describe a person
How to Describe a Person in English: Tips and Examples
When you need to describe things, ideas, or people in English, finding the right words isn’t always easy. Even native English speakers struggle to find the right descriptive words at times. It is especially hard when you need to describe a person, as people can have very distinctive looks, personalities, and behavior.
Nonetheless, learning how to describe a person is vital to becoming fluent in English. In this guide, we will cover some of the best phrases to describe a person, as well as useful tips to help keep your descriptions positive and friendly!
How to Describe Someone’s Appearance
Talking about how someone looks is complicated for a couple of reasons. First of all, describing someone’s appearance can seem a little rude, even if you’re trying to say something nice. People don’t like to feel objectified (made to feel like an object instead of a person), so it’s important to always keep physical descriptions very positive.
However, if you’re talking with people that you don’t know very well, it’s probably best to avoid describing a person’s appearance entirely.
In any case, here are a few general tips to keep in mind when describing people’s appearance:
Now let’s look at a few positive appearance adjectives to help get you started!
Adjectives for Appearance: Positive
As a rule of thumb, using positive adjectives to describe a person typically steers the conversation in a better direction. If you’d like to see some more ways to describe people in a positive way, check out the ultimate list of positive adjectives!
Adjectives for Appearance: Neutral and Negative
Example Sentences
Here are a few example phrases to describe a person in English:
*Important Note: When you speak to someone directly about their appearance, it’s polite to preface (begin) your statement with one of the underlined phrases above. This is especially true if you’re discussing negative traits. These phrases will let the other person know that you’re not trying to be rude or unpleasant. However, this doesn’t guarantee that they will like what you have to say!
How to Describe a Person’s Personality
It’s important to learn how to describe someone’s physical features, but it’s even more important to learn how to describe someone’s personality. Personalities are complex, making them difficult to put into words. Nonetheless, there are plenty of great ways to describe someone’s personality and character traits.
When you’re describing someone’s personality, you should take some of the same precautions that you would when describing their appearance. It’s always best to keep things positive and avoid hurting anyone’s feelings. That’s why positive adjectives are so useful!
Now let’s look at some positive personality adjectives to get you started.
Adjectives for Personality: Positive
Adjectives for Personality: Neutral and Negative
Example Sentences
Here are a few more phrases to describe a person in English:
*Important note: Remember, when talking to someone directly about their personality, don’t forget to include one of the underlined phrases above to help “soften” your words. This will help you sound more friendly and less critical, especially if you want to discuss someone’s negative character traits!
What’s next?
Real-life conversations are far more nuanced than a word list and definitions. For example, did you know that depending on the tone and the context, a positive adjective could sometimes be used as an insult? Let’s hear what our lead instructor, Anita, has to say about that.
Ultimately, the only way to master these words is to practice using them in live conversations and getting effective feedback. That’s exactly why we built SpeakUp. Join an engaging live conversation today and get critical feedback on your English, all for free for 1 week.
Vocabulary
Being able to describe a person is “a must have” skill. Not only you can be asked this type of question (“describe someone”) during IELTS Speaking Part 2, but also you will definitely will have numerous real-life situatuations where you need to describe someone’s appearance or character. This is something we often do in our dayly interactions with friiends, family, colleagues etc.
To be honest, I am not very good at describing people. I also know that most of IELTS candidates look for useful vocabulary to improove this part. I hope this article will be useful both for me and my readers. I tried to list several qestions asking you to describe someone and find some good real-life examples of phrases and words. On top of that, I’m sure, you will find some useful examples to brainstorm your own ideas when giving answer.
If you need complete resource with sample answers, topic vocabulary and useful links to prepare this topic, feel free to check all topics page.
Describing a Person: IELTS Speaking Part 1 Sample Questions
Describing a Person: IELTS Speaking Part 2 Sample Questions
Describe someone in your family who you really admire
and explain why you really admire this person.
Describe a teacher you once had who you enjoyed being taught by. You should say
and describe what it was about their character that you liked.
Talk about a person who has a great influence in your life
and explain why this person has had such an influence on you.
Describe a friend who you really like to spend time with
and say why you like to spend time with this particular friend.
Words And Phrases to Describe a Person | Quora | What are some words that describe your best friend perfectly?
Podcast: Describing People Vocabulary |
Who’s the best superhero?
(teacherluke.co.uk)
Listen to this episode to learn valuable vocabulary that you can use to describe both physical appearance and character. Although this episode is quite long (about 75 min), I’ m sure you will like it and not be bored.
Despite Luke and His guest discuss superheroes, there are a lot of useful words and expressions to describe normal people. Here is short list of some of the words and phrases that can be found in this audio:
Podcast: Describing People Vocabulary |
Susan Boyle
(teacherluke.co.uk)
Think of someone you may be asked to describe in speaking part 2 task. Maybe it is your best friend, your teacher or famous artist. Can you use words and phrases that can be found in this episode of Luke’s podcast? I’m sure you can. At least couple of phrases will be oh great help and match your need in this task.
Take note that when describing Susan Boyle, Luke covers various aspects: her physical appearance, her biography, the impression she makes and even some personal details about her. All these things together form complete and easy to visualize snapshot of a person described:
Video: Describing People Vocabulary |
4 Phrases to Describe Personality
Nice video from Gabrielle Wallace that I’ve came across trying to find podcasts for this topic. What I like about her video is that she explains the meaning of each of the words that she suggests to use when describing yourself. What’s more she talks about situations in which these words will be a good fit and gives a lot of examples and synonyms. Here are the words from the video
What your personality like?
Have Something Interesting To Share?
To tell the truth, I haven’t managed to find several both useful and interesting videos for this topic. That’s why I’m asking for your help.
If you remember interesting podcast or video that can offer good range of vocabulary to describe personality and physical appearance, please, let me know!
Free English Lessons
In this lesson, you can learn how to describe people in English. Think about someone you know well. It could be someone in your family, a close friend, someone you work with, or someone else. How would you describe this person? What does this person look like? What kind of personality does this person have?
Describing people in English is useful in many situations, including speaking exams like the IELTS speaking test or the FCE speaking exam. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to describe a person in detail using clear, natural English.
During this lesson, you’re going to practice, so you need to think of someone you’re going to describe. It can be anyone you know well. Got someone? Great! Let’s begin.
QUIZ: How to Describe People in English
Test how well you know the vocabulary and ideas you saw in this lesson! This quiz has 20 questions, and you can press ‘Hint’ for extra help for some of them.
After the last question, click on ‘Finish Quiz’ to see your score. Then, you can choose ‘View Questions’ to review all the questions and correct answers, or ‘Restart Quiz’ to have another go.
When you’re happy with your score, don’t forget to share it with other learners on the leaderboard.
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| Pos. | Name | Entered on | Points | Result |
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“My sister’s quiet slim.”
The highlighted word has been spelt incorrectly. Write the word correctly in the answer space below.
Use the same five letters, but not in the same order.
“She has _________ hair.”
Which word cannot go in the gap?
You should say ‘long’ instead of the word that doesn’t fit the gap.
Put the words in order to create a question.
Write four letters to complete the missing word. The first letter is written already.
The word you need to complete is the past participle of build.
“My boss is really __________.”
Which is the correct word?
Write a five-letter word in the gap.
“He has a really good of humour.”
You need to use the letter S twice and the letter E twice.
“Why are you being so _________? Think about someone else for a change!”
Which word doesn’t go in the gap?
The answer you should choose – i.e. the word that doesn’t fit – is a type of customer experience where you do things yourself instead of being helped by a member of staff. The other three options are all negative characteristics.
Put the words in order to create a question.
Look at these pairs of positive and negative adjectives. One of the negative adjectives is wrong.
kind → unkind
considerate → inconsiderate
honest → inhonest
reliable → unreliable
Write the incorrect word correctly in the space below.
“She’s such a _________ person. She always makes other people feel good.”
Which word goes in the gap?
One incorrect answer might fit the meaning, but you’d have to say ‘an’ not ‘a’ before the gap. The other two incorrect answers mean the wrong thing.
“I wouldn’t speak to Graham in the mornings. He’s always so _________!”
Which word goes in the gap?
Write the missing verb in both gaps.
“I don’t on very well with my partner’s parents, but she on fine with mine.”
The verb is part of a phrasal verb that means ‘have a good relationship with someone’. You need to write three letters in the first gap and four in the second.
Match the adjectives with the definitions.
Sort elements
“The thing about John is he’s so _________. You always know what he thinks.”
Which word goes in the gap?
The three incorrect answers are words that don’t really exist.
Write the missing word.
“We’ve known each other ten years.”
The missing word is a preposition which has three letters.
“She has really __________ __________.”
Which is the correct combination of words?
“I find it hard to get on with Sarah. She’s so humourless!”
Write a four-letter word that could replace the highlighted word.
The word means ‘boring’ or ‘serious’ as well as ‘humourless’. It contains the letter L twice.
Here you can see the two questions that you should have put in order earlier in the quiz. Now match them with what they mean.
Sort elements
“We met _________.”
Which option cannot go in the gap?
Write the four-letter word, beginning with S.
“He has a on his left leg from where he had a bad accident as a child and had to have an operation.”
You could also say ‘mark’ but there’s a more specific word for a mark that’s left after surgery.
Read the Full Script
1. Describing Appearance
First question when talking about describing people: what does he or she look like?
What can you say when describing a person’s appearance? You can talk about the person’s height and build:
Do you know what well-built means? Someone who is well-built is broad and strong, with big muscles.
You can also add adverbs to make your sentences more precise:
Then, maybe add something about the person’s hair:
What does fair mean here? It’s the opposite of dark, and you can use it to describe someone’s hair or skin.
Finally, what else can you say about the person’s appearance? Imagine you’re describing the person to me, and you want me to be able to recognise this person from your description. What could you say?
There are many possibilities, of course, but here are a few suggestions:
Do you know what striking features means? In this context, features refers to someone’s face. Striking means that you can’t help noticing something. So if someone has striking features, it means he or she has a very unusual and attractive face.
What about scar? Scars are left over when you get a deep cut or have an operation.
Okay, so now you should be able to make three sentences about the person you’re describing, like this:
Your turn: pause the video and make three sentences about the person you’re describing. Remember: height/build, then hair, then general appearance.
Could you do this? If so, great job—we’ve only done one part, and you’ve already got the start of a good description.
But of course, there’s more we can add to describe people in English.
2. Describing Positive Characteristics
Another question: what’s this person like?
Do you know what this question means? It means I want you to tell me about the person’s personality.
Let’s start with positive words you can use to talk about someone’s character. Think about the person you’re describing. What good things can you say about him or her?
You could describe someone as kind, but it’s better to be more specific if you can. Better words to use are considerate—meaning someone who always thinks about other people and their needs—or warm—meaning someone who shows positive feelings to others and makes other people feel good.
Or, maybe this person is good at making other people laugh. You could say they are funny or that they have a good sense of humour. More generally, you can describe someone as fun or entertaining if people enjoy spending time with them.
What else? Well, for a friend, it’s very important that a person is reliable—that you can depend on them to keep their promises and be there for you when you need them. Similarly, you could describe people as honest or straightforward. If someone is straightforward, they’re honest, easy to understand and easy to spend time with.
Straightforward people say what they think, but not in a rude way, and they don’t keep secrets or gossip about other people.
Let’s look at three more. Most of us like spending time with people who are cheerful—people who smile a lot and are usually in a good mood. Cheerful people are often positive and optimistic—they expect good things to happen.
So now you have twelve positive adjectives you can use to describe someone’s personality:
| kind | funny | reliable | cheerful |
| considerate | fun | honest | positive |
| warm | entertaining | straightforward | optimistic |
Can you use any of these adjectives to talk about the person you’re describing?
When you use these adjectives, always try to add an example or a reason. For example, don’t just say:
Add some details or examples to make your answer more interesting, like this:
If possible, you could even add a story to really illustrate the person’s character.
Adding stories like this can really bring a description to life.
You’ve also seen some good ways to use these adjectives:
Of course, you can change these and use them in your answer.
What about you? Pause the video, and try to use some of these adjectives about the person you’re describing. Don’t forget to add details and examples to your description, or you can even add a story if possible!
Next, let’s look at:
3. Describing Negative Characteristics
No one’s perfect, right? We all have our flaws, so let’s look at how to describe the bad side of someone’s personality.
Many of the words you saw for describing people in part two have direct opposites which you can use. For example:
Of course, there are other words you can use, too.
Some people can be selfish or self-centered—they think about themselves too much, and don’t think about the needs of others. These two words have a similar meaning.
Even more extreme, you can describe someone as self-obsessed. A self-obsessed person only thinks about themselves, and doesn’t seem to realise that other people exist at all!
Not everyone can be funny, but you don’t want to be seen as humourless or dull. Dull is similar to boring, while humourless means that someone has no sense of humour and is too serious.
If someone doesn’t do what they say or doesn’t keep their promises, you’ve already seen two words you can use: dishonest or unreliable. Similarly, you could describe someone as insincere—meaning that someone says things without meaning them.
For example, if someone is always friendly on the surface, but they don’t really feel anything inside, you could describe that person as insincere. Their friendliness doesn’t mean anything.
Finally, cheerful people are always in a good mood, but what’s the opposite? You could describe someone as moody or grumpy. Moody people’s moods change very easily, and they are often in a bad mood. Grumpy people never seem to be in a good mood and are always unhappy and negative.
So now, you have twelve negative adjectives to describe people in English to go with your twelve positive adjectives!
| moody | selfish | unreliable | dull |
| grumpy | self-centered | dishonest | humourless |
| inconsiderate | self-obsessed | insincere | unkind |
As before, when you use these adjectives to describe someone, try to add details or examples.
You can see how we often use slightly more indirect language to talk about someone’s negative characteristics:
Of course, if you really want to be direct, you can be:
Now, pause the video and try to use these words and phrases. Make 2-3 sentences, and don’t forget to add examples and details!
4. Talking About Your Relationship
Finally, let’s add some details about how you know this person and your relationship. Look at three sentences:
Do you know what get on means here? By itself, it means to have a good relationship with someone.
You can add adverbs after ‘get on’ to give it different meanings. For example:
Or you can make it negative:
Okay, look at the sentences again:
How could you complete them?
Of course, there are many possibilities:
Depending on who you’re talking about, it might not make sense to use all of these sentences. For example, if you’re talking about your brother or another relative, it doesn’t make sense to talk about how long you’ve known each other or where you met.
However, you can still talk about how well you get on and why. You could also add how often you see each other, or what you like to do together.
Either way, try to make three sentences about the person you’re describing, like this:
Now you try! Pause the video and make three sentences about your relationship with the person you’re talking about. Use the words and phrases from this section.
Alright? Now, we have one more thing to do:
5. Making a Longer Answer
In this lesson, you’ve learned how to describe a person by:
Now, let’s put everything we’ve done together into a longer answer.
This answer uses examples you’ve already seen. Let’s do one more longer answer with original examples:
Okay, now it’s your turn! Make a longer answer to describe someone you know. Use the examples and language from this lesson to help you.
If you want, you can post your answer describing people in English in the video comments and we’ll give you feedback.
Get more vocabulary about people with this Oxford Online English lesson on describing appearance.
You will often be asked to describe a person in the IELTS exam. This could be a family member, a friend, a historical figure, or even a celebrity. The question will require you to talk about the person’s personality, character, or both. So, to prepare for it, it’s essential to know some vocabulary words used to describe people and to practice using them. In this blog post, I will cover some vocabulary you can use in the exam and then demonstrate it in use with an IELTS Speaking Part 2 sample answer.
Describe a person’s character
Let’s first take a look at describing a person’s character. Generally, you can talk about a person’s character using either positive or negative adjectives. Here are some examples:
| Positive | Definition |
| Supportive | To provide or offer assistance when necessary. |
| Cheerful | Having a happy or pleasant personality. |
| Ambitious | Having a strong desire for success. |
| Outgoing | Having a sociable and friendly personality. |
| Considerate | Having a kind and thoughtful personality. |
| Confident | Being sure of oneself. |
| Adventurous | Someone who likes to try new and daring things |
| Negative | Definition |
| Pessimistic | Someone who often thinks negatively about life. |
| Rude | Impolite |
| Insensitive | Unfeeling or uncaring about other people’s feelings. |
| Stingy | Someone who doesn’t like to share. |
| Deceitful | A dishonest person who tries to hide the truth. |
| Arrogant | Someone who believes they are better than others. |
| Bad-tempered | A person who has an angry, irritable personality. |
Describe Physical Characteristics
Now, let’s take a look at describing a person’s physical characteristics. English has a variety of words and ways to describe physical appearances. The following are some useful ways you should learn if you don’t already know them:
| Physical | Vocabulary |
| Height | Tall, slender, short, medium height |
| Build | Chubby, petite, thin, stocky, small, large, muscular |
| Hair | Long, short, medium length, red, black, brown, gray, brunette, bald, straight, curly, wavy, thin |
| Eyes | Blue, brown, dark brown, gray, green |
| Men’s facial features | Clean-shaven, mustache, beard |
| Complexion | olive, fair, pale, dark, light |
The above are relatively common ways to describe people in English. If there are any words that you’re not sure about, be sure to look them up in the dictionary so you can add them to your knowledge base. Now, let’s take a look at some of the ways you can use this vocabulary to describe a person in the IELTS Speaking exam.
Sample IELTS Answer
Part 2
Describe a historical person you admire. You should say:
-who this person is
-describe some things they’ve done
-say why you like this person
Describe your childhood friend. You should say:
-how you felt about this friend
STUDY TIP! While it is always better to base your answers on real-life experience, remember that you don’t need to tell the truth in the IELTS exam. Learn some key vocabulary to describe people and use words to the exam, regardless of whether you are describing a friend, family member, historical figure or celebrity!
USE A STRUCTURE! Using the correct structure for your question provides you with a framework with which you can really show the examiner your full range of English ability. Find out about part 2 structures by reading THIS PJC English blog post!
Describe your childhood friend. You should say:
-how you felt about this friend
Band 8 or above sample answer
I’m blessed to have an extensive network of friends who are unbelievably supportive, considerate, and adventurous. And I more than anyone, never take my friends for granted. This is why I always make a special effort to keep in touch with my childhood friends, especially one in particular, my friend Tom.
Today, Tom is the owner of an IT firm with over a dozen employees. He and I have worked together on a few projects when he hired me to build his website for him. He’s still a very confident person, but I also found him to be very helpful, and we’ve had endless conversations where we talk about family, career, and difficulties in life. He always tries to encourage people to do their best, which is one of the things I admire about him. Even though we don’t see each other as much as we used to, I really appreciate our wonderful friendship.
As you can see, the above answer uses several adjectives throughout to not only describe physical characteristics but also to describe personality too. Now that you know how to describe a person in the IELTS exam, get practicing!!
Conclusion
While preparing for the IELTS exam, it’s vital that you know that 25% of your score depends on your lexical resource. Therefore, whether you’re describing someone or giving your opinion about a particular topic, having a strong vocabulary is vitally important to your success on the test
Do you need help with IELTS or The Cambridge Exams? Do you use English at work and want to feel more confident? Contact PJC English today and BOOK A FREE TRIAL LESSON!
Adjectives to Describe a Person | Useful Appearance & Personality Adjectives
Adjectives to describe a person! Following is a list of useful adjectives to describe a person you can use to describe someone’s appearance and personality in English
Table of Contents
Adjectives to Describe a Person | Appearance
How to Describe a Person | Appearance Adjectives
Describing General Appearance
You are still young and beautiful in my calendar and the extra year seems indeed to have improved your looks!
The girl was pretty and slender.
He was ugly and monstrously fat.
He looks so funny he always makes me laugh.
His mother was an elegant, cultivated woman.
You look very smart in your new suit.
He was fantastically handsome— I just fell for him right away.
She’s gorgeous! I wouldn’t mind looking like that!
He looks very polite and gentle.
There was this girl, and I thought she was really cute.
She looked attractive and beautifully dressed.
Just that she was a very simple, ordinary girl. Very gentle, full of fun.
His scruffy appearance does not reflect his character.
The girl was pretty and slender.
Describing HEIGHT
Describing AGE
Describing BUILD
Describing FACE
Describing EYES
Describing MOUTH
Describing NOSE
Describing HAIR
Adjectives to Describe a Person | Infographic 1
Adjectives to Describe a Person | Personality
How to Describe a Person | Personality Adjectives
Common adjectives to describe someone’s personality in English.