Page 95 - English Vocabulary in Use (Pre & Intermediate)

4.4. Describing character

Opposites

Many positive words describing character have clear opposites with a negative meaning.
Positive Negative
warm and friendly cold and unfriendly
kind unkind
_
nice, pleasant horrible, unpleasant
generous (= happy to give/share) mean (= never gives to others)
optimistic (= thinks positively) pessimistic (= thinks negatively)
cheerful (= happy and smiling) — miserable (= always seems unhappy)
relaxed and easy-going tense (= nervaus; worries a lot; not calm)
strong weak
sensitive insensitive (= does not think about others’ feelings)
honest (= always tells the truth) dishonest
Jane is very tense at the moment because of her exams, but she’s usually quite relaxed and
easy-going about most things.
I think the weather influences me a lot: when it’s sunny I feel more cheerful and optimistic;
but when it’s cold and raining I get very miserable.
He seemed a bit unfriendly at first, but now I’ve got to know him I realise he’s very warm
and kind.
The shop assistant told me that the dress I tried on looked better on people younger than
me. I thought that was very insensitive of her, but at least she was being honest, I
suppose.

Character in action
People often talk about qualities of character that you may need in a work situation. Again,
some of these words come in pairs of opposites: one positive and one negative.
Positive Negative
hard-working lazy (= never does any work)
punctual (=always on time) not very punctual; always late
reliable unreliable (= you cannot trust / depend on someone like this)
clever, bright (infml) stupid, thick (infml)
flexible inflexible (= a very fixed way of thinking; unable to change)
ambitious unambitious (= no desire to be successful and get a better job)
Some pairs of opposites do not have a particularly positive or negative meaning:
He is very shy when you first meet him because he finds it difficult to talk to people and
make conversation; but when he knows people quite well he’s much more self-confident,
People often say the British are very reserved (= do not show their feelings), but when you
get to know them they can be very emotional like anyone else.

Using nouns
Some important qualites are expressed through nouns.
One of her great qualities is that she uses her initiative. (= she can think for herself and take
the necessary action; she does not need to wait for orders all the time)
That boy has got no common sense (= he does stupid things and doesn’t think what he is
doing). His sister, on the other hand, is very sensible. (= has lots of common sense)

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