Description is one of the most common speaking tasks in exams and one of the easiest places to accidentally cause offence.
Appearance: height and build
- tall, short, of average height
- slim, well-built, heavy-set
Be careful here. Skinny and fat are blunt and often unkind. Slim and large are the neutral choices, and in most professional settings, body description is best avoided altogether.
Hair and face
- "She has short curly hair."
- "He's going grey."
- "He's got a beard."
- "She wears glasses."
Word order: length, then style, then colour. "Long straight black hair."
Age, indirectly
- "He's in his thirties."
- "She's middle-aged."
- "He's elderly." — more respectful than "old"
- "She looks young for her age."
Personality: positive
generous, patient, reliable, easy-going, thoughtful, straightforward, hard-working, warm
Personality: negative, but usable
stubborn, impatient, blunt, disorganised, reserved
Note that reserved is neutral-to-positive while unfriendly is not. The word you choose reveals your judgement.
Describing manner
- "He's very direct." (says what he thinks)
- "She's quite reserved." (quiet, private)
- "He comes across as confident." — useful hedge for an impression
The safest structure
"comes across as" and "seems" let you describe an impression without asserting a fact about someone you barely know.
In a work context, describe what someone did, not what they are. "She handled that difficult call well" is more useful than "she's patient".
