Describing people: appearance - Quia

[Pages:36]Describing people: appearance

She's got straight hair and she's thin-faced (or she's got a thin face). She's got long, wavy hair and she's round-faced (or she's got a round face).

She's got curly hair and is dark-skinned (or she's got dark skin).

He's got a crew-cut. taglio (di capelli) a spazzola

He's bald and has freckles. He's got a beard and moustache and has a chubby face. He's got receding hair and a few wrinkles.

He used to have black hair but now it's gone grey, almost white. What sort of person would you find attractive? Blonde, fair, dark or ginger-haired / red-haired.

She has such beautiful auburn hair. /:bn/ [red-brown - castano chiaro con riflessi ramati]

Fair and dark can be used for hair, complexion or skin.

Height and build

a rather plump or stout robusto man

a slim woman [positive] a skinny person [rather negative]

an

obese couple [negative, very fat]

Fat may sound impolite. Instead we often say a bit overweight. If someone is broad and solid, we can say they are stocky tarchiato; tozzo. A person with good muscles can be well-built robusto, ben piantato or muscular. If someone is terribly thin and refuses to eat, they may be anorexic.

General appearance

She's a very smart and elegant woman, always well-dressed; her husband is quite the opposite, very scruffy and untidy-looking / messy-looking.

He's very good-looking, but his friend's rather unattractive.

Do you think beautiful women are always attracted to handsome men? I don't. I think personality matters most.

First impressions are always important. [your first reaction to someone]

Tip: The suffix -ish is useful for describing people. She's tallish. He has brownish hair. He must be thirtyish.

There are many ways to talk about physical appearance.

Age

My grandfather is quite old. In fact, as he has a pension, he is an old age pensioner, or a senior citizen. His daughter, my aunt, is 55, and middle-aged. She has three sons. One is a young adult, at 24 years of age, and the other two are both teenagers. They are 16 and 17. My sister also has two children ? one toddler who is a two-year old, and a baby who is 6 months old.

Build

People are built in all shapes and sizes. There are those who are fat and overweight. Some people are extremely overweight and are obese. Other people are naturally slim, but others look have absolutely no fat on them and are thin, or skinny. Personally, I am stocky ? small, but well-built. My father is tall and lean ? with very little fat. My sister is short, but wiry ? she is quite thin, but muscular. Both my brothers are athletic and well-proportioned. My mother looks like a 1940's film star. She is curvaceous, with an hour-glass figure. My grandfather is fit for his age and takes plenty of exercise. He doesn't want all his muscles to get flabby.

Colouring

My sister is an English rose ? she has fair hair and fair skin. She doesn't tan easily and has to be careful in the sun. My mother is blonde, also with a fair complexion. I am a red-head ? with red hair. Like many other people with a pale complexion, I get freckles from the sun ? small brown dots on my face and arms. In contrast, my father has dark-brown hair and he is quite dark-skinned. You are born with a colour ? white or Caucasian, black or Asian. People whose parents are of different ethnic origin are mixed-race. Southern Europeans are sometimes described as Mediterranean.

Face

Faces, like build, vary a lot. Some people have oval faces ? their foreheads are much wider than their chins. Other people have heart-shaped, square or round faces. Features also vary. My grandfather has bushy eyebrows (he has lots of hair!), a hooked nose and high cheekbones. His eyes are large and set quite far apart. My mother has a broad nose, which she hates, as she prefers narrow noses. But she is lucky to have even or regular teeth. My sister corrected her crooked teeth by wearing a brace which straightened them. She has rosy cheeks, small ears and a snub nose, which goes up at the end.

I have long, curly hair, though my sister is the opposite, with short, straight hair. Her hair is fine and doesn't weigh very much, but mine is thick and heavy. My mother's hair is wavy ? in between straight and curly. It's cut in a bob and she also has a short fringe, where it is cut horizontally across her forehead. My father is losing his hair ? in fact he is going bald, which makes him very sad. My brother looks like he is going to lose his hair too ? it is receding.

EX 1 Answer these remarks with the opposite description. EXAMPLE A: I thought you said he was the short, chubby one. B: No, no, no, not at all, he's the tall, thin-faced one.

1 A: Was that his brother, the dark-skinned, wavy-haired one? B: No, completely the opposite, his brother's ... the fair, bald / straight-/curly-haired man / guy.

2 A: She's always quite well-dressed, so I've heard. B: What! Who told you that? Every time I see her, she's scruffy and untidy-looking/messy-looking.

3 A: So Charlene's that rather plump, fair-haired woman, is she? B: No, you're looking at the wrong one. Charlene's ... that slim, dark-haired woman over there.

4 A: So, tell us about the new boss; good looking? B: No, I'm afraid not; rather ... unattractive, in fact. he/she is neither attractive nor unattractive he/she is 'rather plain' / 'rather ordinary'

'Ugly' is a very strong word indeed, and could be offensive.

5 A: I don't know why, but I expected the tour-guide to be middle-aged or elderly anziana; attempata. B: No, apparently she's only ... a teenager / in her twenties. she's a youngster. ragazza; ragazzotta

EX 2 Write one sentence to describe each of these people, giving information about their hair and face, their height and build and general appearance.

1 you yourself

2 your best friend

3 a neighbour

4 your ideal of a handsome man / a beautiful woman

Now, in the same way, describe somebody very famous, give some extra clues about them,

e.g. He's/She's a pop star/politician. Can someone else guess who you are describing?

The author who wrote this exercise is tall, with brown hair which is going grey; he's white, in his early fifties and thinks he's good-looking! What about you?

EX 3 From these jumbled words, find combinations for describing people, as in the example. Not all of the words are on the left-hand page. Some of the combinations are hyphenated. Use a dictionary if necessary. You can use the words more than once.

EXAMPLE good-looking looking middle stocky long over round haired well faced good mixed complexion aged red build dressed weight race legged tanned

stocky build (*) overweight middle-aged round-faced long-haired long-legged well-dressed mixed-race tanned complexion (tanned = brown from the sun) red-haired red-faced

(*) BUILD [singular, uncountable] = the shape and size of someone's body COLLOCATIONS slim/slender build slight build (=a body shape that looks thin) stocky/sturdy build (=a body shape that looks broad and heavy) muscular build medium/average build strong build athletic build She's a woman of slim build He was of medium build and about my height. You're a surprisingly strong swimmer for one of such a slight build. I wanted a more athletic and muscular build.

EX 4 WANTED! MISSING! Complete the gaps in these police posters.

WANTED FOR MURDER Ian Prowse White, height 6ft, (1 feet = cm 30,48) ........thin-faced, ....... dark, curly hair, ........fair skin

Wanted for Armed Robbery Sandra King White, height 5ft 4, ........ dark, wavy hair, ........ stocky build, .......... round-faced

Missing Louise Fox age 7, Asian appearance straight, dark hair.

Wanted dead or alive Jack `Dagger' Flagstone 6ft, bald, with beard and moustache; ...... muscular build.

Follow-up:

Make a collection of descriptions of people from newspapers and magazines. Court/crime reports, celebrity and gossip pages of magazines, and the personal columns where people are seeking partners are good places to start.

If your student is an EXTRAVERT, it is likely that he or she: 1. chooses to work with others, with large groups 2. plunges into new experiences 3. is relaxed and confident 4. readily talks over events and ideas with others 5. is interested in other people and their doings 6. readily offers opinions 7. shares personal experiences 8. wants to experience things so as to understand them 9. is enthusiastic about activities involving action 10.has a relatively short attention span 11.dislikes complicated procedures and gets impatient with slow jobs 12.is interested in the results of the job, in getting it done, and in how other people do it 13.acts quickly, sometimes without thinking 14.likes to work by trial and error municates well and greets people easily

If your student is an INTROVERT, it is likely that he or she: 1. chooses to work alone or with one person 2. holds back from new experiences 3. chooses written assignments over oral presentations 4. performs better in written work than in oral presentations 5. pauses before answering, and shows discomfort with spontaneous questioning 6. is quiet and shy; seems "deep" 7. is intense, bottling up emotions 8. spends time in thought, before and after actions 9. has a small number of carefully selected friends 10.likes quiet space to work 11.works on one thing for a long time 12.prefers jobs that can be done "inside the head" 13.dislikes interruptions 14.may spend too much time in thought and neglect to get into action

If your student prefers SENSING, it is likely that he or she: 1. is realistic and practical 2. is more observant than imaginative 3. wants to have senses fully engaged and satisfied 4. prefers memorizing to finding reasons

5. is aware of environment and changes moods as physical surroundings change 6. learns best from an orderly sequence of details 7. interested in facts and what is really true 8. keeps accurate track of details, makes lists 9. is patient 10.is good at checking, inspecting, and precise work 11.likes to know the "right way" to solve problems 12.likes an established routine 13.enjoys using skills already learned more than learning new ones 14.works steadily, not in fits and starts 15.is impatient or frustrated with complicated situations

If your student prefers INTUITION it is likely that he or she: 1. seems to like something new all the time 2. is more imaginative than observant 3. attends more to the whole concept than to details 4. is aware only of events that relate to current interests 5. becomes restless, impatient with routines 6. is an initiator, promoter, inventor of ideas 7. sees possibilities that others miss 8. is quick with finding solutions 9. likes to have and do things differently from others 10.likes problems that require new ways of being solved 11.dislikes precise work with many details 12.enjoys learning a new skill more than using it 13.finds reading easy 14.readily grasps meanings of words and symbols

If your student prefers THINKING, it is likely that he or she: 1. wants logical reasons before accepting new ideas 2. tries to be fair; is impersonal, impartial 3. finds ideas and things more interesting than people 4. is more truthful than tactful, if forced to choose 5. is brief and businesslike 6. takes very seriously facts, theories, and the discovery of truth 7. takes seriously the solution of objective problems 8. treats emotional relationships and ideals quite casually 9. contributes intellectual criticism 10.is offended by illogic in others 11.holds firmly to a policy or conviction 12.hurts other people's feelings without knowing it 13.is upset by injustice 14.seems not to know how his or her own actions affect other people's feelings

If your student prefers FEELING, it is likely that he or she: 1. likes warm personal relationships 2. is more interested in people than things or ideas

3. is more tactful than truthful, if forced to choose 4. is likely to agree with others in the group 5. thinks as others think, believing them probably right 6. finds it difficult to be brief and businesslike 7. takes emotional relationships and ideals very seriously 8. may comply or conform to avoid disharmony 9. permits feelings to override logic 10.forecasts how others will feel 11.arouses enthusiasm 12.is upset by conflicts; values harmony; is sympathetic 13.dislikes telling people unpleasant things 14.relates well to most people

If your student is a JUDGING type, it is likely that he or she: 1. likes to have things decided and settled 2. likes assignments to be clear and definite 3. is more decisive than curious 4. lives according to plans (is uneasy with unplanned happenings) 5. tries to make situations conform to his or her own standards, "the way they ought to be." 6. bases friendship upon beliefs, standards and tastes which are assumed to be shared 7. has enduring friendships 8. sets up "shoulds" and "oughts" and regularly judges self against these 9. aims to be right 10.is self-regimented, purposeful and exacting 11.is orderly, organized and systematic 12.has settled opinions 13.may be tolerant of routine procedures

If your student is a PERCEPTIVE type, it is likely that he or she: 1. is more curious than decisive 2. lives according to the situation of the moment 3. may not plan things, acts spontaneously 4. is comfortable in handling the unplanned, unexpected, or incidental 5. looks for new experiences, expects to be interested 6. takes a "live and let live" attitude 7. bases friendships on propinquity and shared experience 8. takes on friendships easily; may also neglect, drop, and resume them easily 9. aims to miss nothing 10.is flexible, adaptable and tolerant 11.leaves things open 12.has trouble making decisions 13.starts too many projects and has difficulty in finishing them 14.postpones unpleasant jobs

Human resource department - This is a real test given by the human relations department at many of the major corporations today.

1. When do you feel your best? a. In the morning b. During the afternoon and early evening c. Late at night 2. You usually walk a. Fairly fast, with long steps b. Fairly fast, with short, quick steps c. Less fast, head up, looking the world in the face d. Less fast, head down e. Very slowly 3. When talking to people you a. Stand with your arms folded b. Have your hands clasped c. Have one or both your hands on your hips d. Touch or push the person to whom you are talking e. Play with your ear, touch your chin, or smooth your hair 4. When relaxing, you sit with a. Your knees bent with your legs neatly side by side b. Your legs crossed c. Your legs stretched out or straight d. One leg curled under you 5. When something really amuses you, you react with a. A big, appreciative laugh b. A laugh, but not a loud one c. A quiet chuckle d. A sheepish smile 6. When you go to a party or social gathering you a. Make a loud entrance so everyone notices you b. Make a quiet entrance, looking around for someone you know c. Make the quietest entrance, trying to stay unnoticed 7. You're working very hard, concentrating hard, and you're interrupted. Do you.. a. Welcome the break b. Feel extremely irritated c. Vary between these two extremes 8. Which of the following colours do you like most? a. Red or orange b. Black c. Yellow or light blue d. Green e. Dark blue or purple f. White g. Brown or grey 9. When you are in bed at night, in those last few moments before going to sleep, you lie a. Stretched out on your back b. Stretched out face down on your stomach c. On your side, slightly curled d. With your head on one arm e. With your head under the covers 10. You often dream that you are a. Falling b. Fighting or struggling c. Searching for something or somebody d. Flying or floating e. You usually have dreamless sleep f. Your dreams are always pleasant

Add up your points using the table below:

ABCDE FG

1 2 4 6

2 6 4 7 2 1

3 4 2 5 7 6

4 4 6 2 1

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