People's appearance

By Nayla Schenka

This post focuses on words used to describe people’s appearance, and to identify people as well.

Learn a lot of adjectives, verbs and adverbs related to this topic.
Pay special attention to:

• Prepositions used in this context;

• Verbs to talk about looks, ages, heights, weights;

• Adjectives do describe people and their appearance;

• Adverbs that modify the strength of different descriptions.

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Be + adjective to talk about looks. 

Find + noun/pronoun to show opinion.

Paul is handsome/good-looking/attractive. He is a very *fashionable man.
*refers to fashion = stylish 

I find him very/fairly/pretty/rather/quite physically fit.

He is in great shape (He is not out of shape).

Susie is beautiful/good-looking/pretty/gorgeous. She is an elegant woman.

I find her very attractive/charming.

She has an excellent figure.

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Be + adjective to talk about ages/heights/weights

They are ten.

They are 173 cm (5 feet 8).

They are very tall, but (they) are quite thin.

She is in her twenties.

She is short and heavy set*.

(* someone who has a large, wide, strong body)

She weighs about 60 kg (= 133 lb)

He is in his teens. He is pretty young to be chubby* (* a polite way of describing someone who is a bit overweight).

His twin brother is totally plump* (*a tactful way of describing someone who is overweight).

Mr. and Mrs. Smith are old (in their seventies).

They are fairly short and slim.

Special notes to:

• Describe people’s height

Some countries use feet and inches or the metric system to talk about height:

1 foot equals about 30 centimeters, and 1 inch equals about 2.5 centimeters. There are 12 inches in 1 foot.

Para altura eles utilizam pés. Se você tem 170cm.
Se 1ft = 30,48cm
Então Xft = 178cm
Resultado Xft = 178/30,48 = sua altura é aproximadamente 5,84 ft

• Talk about weight

Units of weight

1 ounce (oz) = 1 onça

1 pound (lb) = 1 libra

*Escreve-se lbs, mas fala-se "pounds"

1 lb = 453 gramas

1kg = aproximadamente 2,2 libras

Para peso, nos Estados Unidos utilizam libras, então se você tem 60kg
Se 1lb = 0,45kg
Então Xlb = 60kg
resultado Xlb = 60/0,45 = seu peso é aproximadamente 133 lb.

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Have + noun to talk about hair

She has shoulder lenght hair.
He has a spiked hair.
They wear their hair in a ponytail.
She's got (has) bleached hair. (She bleached her hair blonde).

Special verbs to talk about hair: 
People wear different hairstyles according to their ages.
They comb their hair into unusual styles in different decades.
They grow their hair long and full.
Some men wear moutashe, beard, sideburns.
Some women wear braids.
Some people change the color of their hair or add highlights.

 cornrows are made of braids

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Questions and responses to talk about what people look like:

 Yes-No question: 

Do the twin sisters look alike? I mean, are they identical twins?

No, they look totally/ rather/ quite/ very different. One is taller and thinner and takes after her father.

Does she have curly hair?
No, she has straight hair

* "Have you got or Has she got brown hair?"
These questions forms are not very common in American English.

Wh-Questions (information questions):

What does your father look like? He is tall and thin and wears glasses.

Who do you look like? I look like my mother.

How tall is your brother? He is medium height.

How long is Salwa’s hair? It is fairly long.

What color is Nicole’s hair? She has curly brown hair/ It is blond/ She's got black hair.

How much does Ahmed weigh? He is quite slim / He is rather thin. 

That's all for now. I hope you  improve your English conversation with this post.
All the best.

Images: from the web