Improve Your Vocabulary: 25 English adjectives to describe people

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TRANSCRIPT

Hi, there, and welcome back to engVid. Today we are looking at 25 words that can be used to describe people. This video is mainly for those at the beginning of their journey learning English; but, of course, you may just pick up a few new words if you're an intermediate, too.

So, these are predominantly adjectives. Okay? And what we are going to be doing is seeing whether they say a good thing about someone or a bad thing about someone. Okay. So, if it says a good thing about someone, we'll put a smiley face; if it puts a bad impression about someone, we'll put an unhappy face.

First word: "huge". Now, do you think it would be good to be called "huge"? If you're a guy? If you're a girl? It probably depends. Most guys want to go to the gym and get really big; but many girls, the sort of stereotypical perceived body perfection is slightly smaller. So, I will put... Say it to a guy; not a girl.

"Agile". "Agile" means that you are graceful. If you think of the animal, the deer, it moves very gracefully. So, "agile", I think that's a positive thing to say to someone.

"Feeble". "Feeble" means weak; pathetic. No one wants to be called "feeble". If I was going to describe someone as feeble, I would say: "The Liverpool football player was feeble in their effort to stop the goal."

"Tasteful". "Full" means full of; you have a lot of it. "Taste" means being able to choose good things; having good taste in art, in music, in food, in clothes. Okay? If you're tasteful, it means you make good decisions. Obviously we want to be described as being tasteful.

"Slight" means small. Okay? So, "slight" sounds like we're not very important; we're just sort of a bit small. We don't want to be called "slight".

"Dishevelled". "Dishevelled". This means messy. Okay? Unorganized; a bit chaotic. We don't want to be called "dishevelled".

"Grubby". "Grubby" is another word for dirty. Generally, people don't want to be described as being dirty.

"Unkempt". "Unkempt", so the prefix "un" means not; "kempt" means looked after. So, if you are unkempt, we get the idea that maybe the person has not washed for some time, they haven't brushed their teeth, their clothes are falling apart. So, we don't want to be unkempt.

Grease. "Greasy", "greasy". Maybe you have seen "Greased Lightning", the song from the hit Grease. So, "Greased Lightning", the car is really slick and it's all kind of new, and it's going to impress everyone. But if we're applying grease to a person, it's not such a good thing. We don't want kind of petrol and things in our... In our hair. We don't want our skin to be greasy. So, this has two meanings: "Greasy" in terms of sort of hair and skin, but also "greasy" means we don't really trust that person; they're a little bit suspicious.

"Bonny". "Bonny" generally is applied to a baby. You would say: "That's a bonny baby." It means: Good-looking; looks healthy.

"Attractive". Okay? If we're attracted to something, we want to go towards it. Yeah? We want people to like us, we want to... We want to be attract-... Attractive.

"Exquisite" - one of my favourite words. "Exquisite" means sort of near perfection, just absolutely fantastic. Of course, we all want to be exquisite.

"Youthful". Again, the suffix: "ful" meaning full of; "youth", young, full of young energy, lots of... You know, really playful. Thing of Tigger from Winnie-the-Pooh who goes boinging over trees and things. "Youthful" is fun. You want to be fun. […]

[CambridgeEnglishTeacherRory]

There are some really useful words here! I would say a lot of these would be useful for intermediate and even advanced students. I’m sure a lot of my advanced exam students will not know all of these words and it’s really important to show a range of vocabulary in the exams I teach, so I’ll make sure to point them towards this video!

[lambertmarc]

Hey again Benjamin,
Really interesting, as far as I am concerned, I think so these words of vocabulary are very complicated to use for young learner like me !!!
But I will try to practice them
Keep up your great work

[ahmedealiuh]

Thank you so much 💓 you are an exquisite teacher 💖

[apositiveperson]

Thank you so much
Keep teaching us 😊😍

[Xyz]

You are giving good study materials. I like your teaching style.

[abdulrehmanafsal]

I think his videos deserve more appreciation from people because he is sharing knowledge that could be useful for anyone!!

[raghad]

Excuse me Teacher, in the next time may you write the vocabulary in vertical way?
Thank you for teaching us.

[talombo]

LOL, a lot of these words are definitely not for beginners.

[andreavelasquez]

What is his accent? I like it. I'm learning english for my own, without spending anything.

[togabayeva]

exuse me, what accent he has? i like it)

[bope]

But these adjectives are all spoken in America?