How To Describe People In English | Describing People’s Appearance, Character, Personality

How To Describe People In English: Have you ever felt the need to describe someone? Forget someone else; how would you describe yourself? This sure seems like a difficult question to answer. Even people fluent in English have trouble talking about what they are like and forget someone, not a native English speaker. You can talk about your physical appearance, your personality, and many other things. There are so many things you can talk about. Whether you have to describe yourself or someone else, it would be better to know the proper way to do it. In this article, we will discuss how to describe people in English easily.

What Is The Need To Describe Someone?

Describing a person is something that we do daily: telling your best friend about the creep you met on the bus or your boss who makes you work overtime.

Description of people is done even outside of the normal conversation. Remember how we feel connected to a character while reading a book. This is because the author has described them so that we feel we know them. Knowing how to tell someone also helps at your work while conversing or giving a presentation.

Different Ways You Can Describe Someone

Suppose you have to describe how your friend looks like to someone you work with. How would you do that? There is different information that you can use to describe someone.

• You can talk about how they look, their physical appearance.
• You can talk about their character, their personality.
• You can talk about their manner, how they behave with others.
• Another thing that you can talk about is their emotional state.

Now, you must be wondering what words you can use to describe this information about someone. Worry not. We will discuss each one of these ways in detail and discuss essential vocabulary that you can use.

but first, there is a general rule that applies while describing someone, and that is to be polite. If you use positive words to describe someone, that will create a better impression of you. Before you describe someone using any particular word, always think how you would feel if someone used that same word for you.

How to Describe People’s Appearance?

Describing someone’s appearance is often considered rude, even if you try to say nice things about them. People don’t like that someone is objectifying them. So be mindful while describing someone’s appearance and always choose positive words.

Words used to describe a noun in a better way are known as adjectives. We use adjectives to describe someone’s appearance.

Features that you can talk about while describing someone’s appearance.

• Height
• Body structure
• Hair Color and Type
• Eye Color
• Complexion
• Other features like beard, mustache, hair cut, lips, eyebrows.
• You can also talk about scar marks or aging signs.

Height

You can use someone’s height to describe them. You can choose adjectives like tall, short, or average to describe a person’s height. You can also add the modifiers like very, really, or quite to change or modify the adjectives. For example:

• If someone’s height is less, you can say- he/she is really short.
• For someone with average height, you can say- he/she has an average/medium height.
• For someone tall, you can go with- he/she is quite tall.

You can also combine two different physical traits and use an adjective to describe both as one. If someone’s thin and tall, you can use the term ‘lanky’ to define them. If someone is thin and short heightened, then the word ‘petite’ will describe them better.

Body Structure

Body type or someone’s build is another way to describe their physical appearance. To tell someone’s body structure, you can choose adjectives like heavy, well-built, overweight, skinny, slender, or slim.

Describing someone’s body type is what people always take negatively, even if you don’t mean it that way. So be cautious of the adjective that you chose and stick to words that are positive or neutral. Avoid using any negative adjectives. For example:

• If someone has a heavier build than average, you can say they are well built, or you can use curvy for women. These adjectives are positive and won’t have a negative impact on your conversation. Avoid using terms like fat, overweight, and those are considered negative.
• If someone has a less than average build, you can say they are slim or slender. Do not use terms like thin and underweight as they are negative adjectives.

Hair Color and Type

Another physical trait that you can use to describe people would be their hair color and hair type. The hair color can be a lighter shade like pale yellow or blonde, grey or darker shades like brown, red, or black. People with specific hair types can be called certain adjectives. For example:

• If someone has a blonde shade of hair, you can call them ‘blonde.’
• If someone has brown hair, you can call them ‘ a brunette.’
• For someone with red hair, they are known as ‘a a redhead’.

Apart from the color of hair, people have distinct hair types. You can also use hair type to describe someone. For example:

• You can use the length of someone’s hair to tell them. You can say they have short or long hair.
• You can use adjectives like wavy, straight, or curly to describe someone’s hair type.
• If someone has no hair on their head, you can say they are bald.

Eye Color

You can also use eye color to describe people. People can have blue, green, brown, grey, or black eyes.

Complexion

Skin color is another way to describe a person. The skin color of people can range from pale white to dark chocolate brown. Asians often have a brown skin tone, while a dark skin tone is much common in people from African countries. However, skin color is diverse in every country, with people migrating from different places.

Other Features

There are several other physical traits that you can use to describe a person. For example:

• If someone has a beard or a mustache, you can use that information to describe them.
• You can use the hair cut like bangs or fringes to describe someone.
• Lips and eyebrow shapes also help describe someone.
• Many times healed wounds leave a scar behind, or aged people have wrinkles. You can use these to describe someone. But be mindful, these descriptions may feel rude to some people.

Some Positive Adjectives That You Can Use

• Stunning
• Beautiful
• Pretty
• Gorgeous
• Handsome
• Attractive

Character

Someone’s character or what they are like as a person is another way to describe a person.

Describing someone’s personality is difficult as we are complex creatures. We might be kind to someone and mean to someone else. Before describing someone’s character means you have to know that person well.

People who are helpful to others are kind-hearted and nice to everyone. At the same time, some people are mean and nasty and don’t behave well with others. People can be shy and introverts, which means they are not comfortable with other people, or they can be easygoing and extroverts and like other people’s company.

Some Positive Adjectives For The Character Of A Person

• Happy
• Affectionate
• Friendly
• Reliable
• Sincere
• Honest
• Polite

Some Negative Adjectives For The Character Of A Person

• Aggressive
• Cruel
• Rude
• Boring
• Mean
• Greedy

Manners

How someone speaks or acts defines their manners. You can use this trait to describe a person. Manners are actions that people do when they are feeling a particular emotion or doing a specific thing. You can use verbs to describe someone’s mannerisms. For example:

• If someone is not serious about something or annoyed, they will roll their eyes.
• Sometimes people tend to tilt their heads to the sides while thinking about something.
• Clenching of fists or sighing often means a person is frustrated.
• Feeling nervous often makes people bite their fingernails or crack their knuckles.

Emotional State

The emotional state of a person is another thing you can talk about. But before describing someone’s emotional state, you need to be aware of it. You can not go assuming something about someone and even talking about it with another person.

If you are not sure about a person’s emotional state, you can say that he/she may be feeling something. You can use several words to describe the emotional state of a person. For example:

• If someone is feeling happy, You can use words like joyful, cheerful, or ecstatic.
• If someone is sad, you can use terms like miserable, dejected, or unhappy.
• When someone is angry, you can use furious, mad, or livid words to describe their emotional state.
• If someone’s dealing with a lot in his life, that can make him/her anxious or stressed.

Conclusion on How To Describe People In English

While having a conversation with someone, we often have to describe a specific person, and not knowing a proper way to do that might lead to confusion. Describing someone is something most of us have trouble with and don’t know the appropriate way to do it. You also need to be aware that specific terms or adjectives negatively impact the person you are talking to, and you should never use those words to describe someone. Always choose positive words to describe a person and be polite.

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