Page 93 - English Vocabulary in Use (Pre & Intermediate)

Describing people’s appearance

General

Positive: beautiful is generally used to describe women; handsome is used to describe men;
good-looking is used for both; pretty is another positive word to describe a woman (often a
girl) meaning ‘attractive and nice to look at’.
Negative: ugly is the most negative word to describe someone; plain is more polite.
Height and build

tall and slim medium height and build short and fat = medium height and
very muscular
Note: Another word for slim is thin, but slim has a more positive meaning, e.g. John is
lovely and slim, but his brother is terribly thin. Skinny also has the same meaning but is
very negative. It is not very polite to say someone is fat; overweight is more neutral and
polite.

Hair

a \
Ka Z i fair dark
Wes,
straight ‘wavy curly blond(e) light brown dark brown black

Special features
The man on the left has got
very pale skin (= white skin).
He also has broad shoulders,
with a small scar at the top of
his left arm. The other man has
dark skin. He also has a beard
and moustache and quite a
hairy. chest and a tattoo.

Asking questions about a person’s appearance
Q: What does she look like? A: She’s quite tall, with short fair hair.
Q: How tall is she? A: About 1 metre 65.
Q: How much does she weigh? A: I don’t know and it may be rude to ask. Probably
about 45 kilos.

English Vocabulary in Use (pre-intermediate & intermediate)