[0:10]Hello everyone and welcome back to English with Lucy. Today I've got a slightly longer video lesson for you. We're going to be talking about vocabulary and more specifically, how to describe people's appearances. Now, this is a really, really important topic. It's normally one of the first things that you learn when you start to learn English. Um, but I want to go a bit more in depth. Normally people are able to describe basic appearances, I want to teach you slightly more advanced vocabulary, so that you can really give an accurate description of people's appearances. If you find understanding me slightly difficult, you can switch on subtitles, and so you'll be able to see the words at the bottom of the screen. Quickly, before we get started, this video will help you with your speaking and your writing and your vocabulary. It will also help you with your listening, because you'll be listening to me and learning more vocabulary. But if you want to take your listening and your pronunciation to the next level, why not try audible.com? Audible is a website where you can download and listen to audiobooks. They've got thousands of titles. I listen to them myself when I go on my long runs. It takes me about a marathon to finish a book, but I really enjoy it. If you download books in English, it's an excellent way of improving your listening and your pronunciation. They are giving you a free audiobook, all you have to do is click on the link in the description box and sign up. And if after one month you don't want to pay, you can cancel it, it's completely free. I've recommended some books in the description box with British accents. Let's get started with the lesson. So, firstly, we're going to talk about people's bodies and I think I'm going to start by talking about height. How tall somebody is. So, you might already know these basic terms, short and tall. Short and tall. But what about if somebody is a normal height? Well, there are a couple of ways that you can express this. You can say they are of average height. They are of medium height. If you want to be more precise and say their actual height in centimeters or feet and inches, you can say around. So I would say I am around 5'6". I'm actually 5'5" and a half, but sometimes I say I'm 5'6". Um, other words that you can include are very or quite. So, he is very tall or she is quite short. Next, we have body type and weight. Now, you have to be a little bit careful when describing somebody's body type or their weight because you can hurt their feelings. So, firstly, I'm going to give you some positive adjectives to describe somebody's weight, and then afterwards, I'll give you the more negative ones so that you can understand when or when not to use them. But I will warn you, weight in the UK especially and many other places in the world is a very sensitive subject. So, if you think you might insult somebody, it's often best not to say anything at all. Um, but that's not my role here, I'm teaching you words, so let's get started. So we have thin and fat. These are generally considered to be negative words. So let's talk about some positive alternatives. For thin, you can describe somebody as slender or slim. They are really nice words. If somebody called me slender or slim, I'd be flattered. Another word is lean, and this means that they're just skin and muscle. It's a positive word because it means they're in shape, they're muscly, there's no fat on them, they're lean. You can also call somebody petite, and this is when somebody has a small build. It's normally used to describe females who have small shoulders. They're quite short, they're just like a woman, only smaller, they're petite. If somebody is very thin, you can call them slight. They're very slight. And another one is lanky. This means that somebody is tall and very thin. It means they've got long limbs, lanky. If somebody has got a bit of meat on them, you don't want to call them fat, but some nice words you can use are curvy. This means that a woman has curves, curvaceous as well, womanly, voluptuous. This means normally that they've got quite a big bum and big boobs. They're normally flattering when used in a non-creepy way. For a man, stocky, well-built, muscly. Okay, now to touch on the negative words. Some quite soft ones for somebody who is larger are plump, chubby, round. This doesn't mean fat or big, it just means that they've got a little bit extra on them. You can also say overweight, large, big, heavy. And if somebody is very thin, you can call them underweight, skinny, bony if you can see their bones. One word that's often used to describe very thin people that shouldn't really be used is anorexic. It's a medical term, it's not actually an adjective to describe somebody's physical appearance. Um, so try to avoid that one. Okay, let's move on to hair. Now, there are two ways in which you can talk about somebody's hair color. You can say to have adjective hair, or to be adjective-haired. For example, I have blonde hair, I am blonde-haired. The second one's a bit of a mouthful actually, to be blonde-haired, I am blonde-haired. You can also just say, I am blonde. But that's better to use for colors that are very specific to hair colors, like blonde and ginger and brunette. So I am blonde, I am ginger, I am brunette, that's fine, but if you say I am white or I am black, it could be confused with skin color. So, it's best to say I am black-haired, I have white hair. So, we've got a huge spectrum of colors that you can be. I'm going to talk about the most common ones, but they are quite specific and you might not have heard of them all before. So let's start with the lightest and move to the darkest. So we have white. Then we have gray. Then we have platinum blonde, and this is white blonde hair. It's normally not a natural color, but some people are lucky enough to have naturally white blonde or platinum hair. It's a really interesting color. Then we have blonde, if it's a bit darker, it could be called golden. And then, if it's a bit darker than blonde, there are two ways you can describe it. If it's blonde, almost brown, you can say dirty blonde. If it's blonde, almost ginger, you can say strawberry blonde. Then we have ginger, which is more orange, and red, which is like a darker red color, obviously. After that, you have mousy brown, which is a light brown color. Then brown, then brunette as well, which is another way of saying brown hair. It's normally a bit darker. Then dark brown and then black. Now, if you don't want to specify a color of hair or skin or eyes and you just want to say light or dark, you can say fair for light, or dark for the darker colors. So, I am fair. I have fair eyes, fair hair and fair skin, this means I'm just light. Somebody else might have dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin, so we normally use fair or dark. So, what about hair length? Well, if you have no hair, then you are bald. I am bald. In a video that I did on Allie's channel, Poppy Teach Me English, I was bald. If you would like to see me with no hair and well, no feminine makeup, different makeup, then you can click up there. See if you recognize me. I look slightly different. Um, then you have short hair, long hair. But then in between, you can have a bob. I have a bob haircut. In my first videos, I had very short hair and a bob haircut. I didn't ask for that haircut, it was a surprise, shoulder-length hair, medium-length, long. If you want to say how long your hair is, you can say, my hair goes down to my, so my hair goes down to my armpit, my hair goes down to my waist. As far as hair texture, you can have straight hair, wavy hair, curly hair, afro hair, which is really, really dense curls. The quality of your hair can also be described. If your hair is very soft, it can be silky or shiny. If it's not soft, if it's quite damaged, you can say you have dry hair or you can say it's straw-like. So let's move on to the subject of skin. This again is a more difficult one. So, we have the spectrum of white and black. But different people like to be called different things. So I would call myself white. I have a lot of friends with darker skin, who are often called black, but they would actually prefer to be called brown. Um, I would say when in doubt, use fair or dark to describe somebody's skin tone. Now, in the middle, we have tanned and this means that you've been blessed by the sun. You've caught a suntan, you've gone brown in the sun, and in British English, we say tanned, and in American English, they say tan. If you're not tanned, then you are pale, and that is what I am all of the time. I am always pale, even when I go on holiday.
[12:39]Now let's move on to eye color. Again, you can use fair or dark, fair eyes, light eyes, dark eyes. So you can say to have adjective eyes or to be adjective-eyed. So, I have gray eyes, I am gray-eyed, I am dark-eyed. Most of the colors are pretty simple, blue, brown, green, black, gray, brown again. But one color that's used quite frequently is hazel. If you have a sort of brownie green eye, it can be called hazel. So they have hazel eyes. Now, lips. Um, you can have thin lips. Uh, but if you want to talk about somebody with big lips, you can say they have full lips. So somebody has big, kissy, pouty lips, you can say they have very full lips. If somebody has really sticky-out lips and speaks like this, you can call them pouty lips. But yes, full or thin really. Next, you can talk about noses, so big or small, obviously, are the basics. If somebody has a bend in their nose, it can be called a crooked nose, a crooked nose. If they haven't got a bend in their nose, it can be a straight nose. If somebody has a small nose, you can call it a button nose. Um, if they've got a hook, a hooked nose. If somebody's nose is like this, it's a turned-up nose or an upturned nose. Face shape. I looked online and apparently there are nine different face shapes. But we're going to talk about four today. You have oval, round, heart-shaped, and square. If somebody has a square jaw.
[15:04]What about general appearance? I did do a video with Anna from English Like a Native about compliments and we discussed some of the ways in which you can compliment people. So that's the positive adjectives, I will cover them in this lesson, but if you'd like to see that, you can click up there. But it's quite good to separate them into male and female because one adjective that might be really, really flattering and positive for a male, might actually be quite insulting for a female. Adjectives that can be used for both, the positive ones, attractive, beautiful, stunning, which means somebody is just amazingly beautiful. But then just for men, there's handsome, and just for women, there is pretty. Now, if you described a woman as handsome, you might be insinuating that she has manly features. Um, in the same way that if you described a man as pretty, you might be saying he has quite feminine features, which is not always something that somebody wants. Negative ones, you can have ugly or plain. Other ways of describing people, you can describe them as masculine or feminine, boyish, manly, girly, womanly. Right, your homework is to describe yourself in as much detail as possible. Put it in the comments and I can't wait to see your descriptions. Also, if you can add any more vocabulary, then definitely include that in your description as well. That's it for today's lesson, don't forget to check out audible.com. All of the information is in the description box. I hope you enjoyed this lesson. I really hope you learned something. I've given you a lot of information. Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media. I've got my Facebook, my Instagram and my Twitter, and I will see you soon for another lesson.
