Recursio
Describing People: Appearance & Personality
Describe people in English: height, build, hair and age, plus personality words — and the key difference between What's she like? and What does she look like?
Three similar questions ask about three different things: What does she look like? asks about appearance, What's she like? asks about personality, and What does she like? asks about interests. The cover shows the full set because changing one word changes the meaning.
The three questions
Learn these as a set — one word changes the whole meaning.
What's she like? (personality — she's friendly and calm)
What does she like? (interests — she likes hiking)
Height, build and age
Height and build use be; age is usually approximate, which sounds more polite than a number.
Hair, eyes and face
These take have — and remember that hair is uncountable here.
Note the natural order when you stack these: length before style before color — long curly brown hair, not brown curly long hair.
Personality
The words you'll actually use about colleagues, friends and family.
A useful phrase for family resemblance: He takes after his mom — he's similar to her in looks or character.
Common mistakes
Mixing up the three questions. What does she like? asks about interests, not looks.
✓What does she look like? — She's tall with blonde hair.
"hairs" for hair on the head. It's uncountable — no plural, no a.
✓She has beautiful long hair.
The countable form exists but means individual strands: There are two hairs in my soup.
"I have 30 years." Age uses be, not have.
✓My sister is 30. / She's 30 years old.
"sympathetic" for a nice person. In English sympathetic means understanding toward someone's problems. For a pleasant person, say nice, friendly or likeable.
Quick exercise
Complete each line with one word.
- What does he ___ like? (you want to know about his appearance)
- She ___ long curly hair.
- He's ___ his forties. (approximate age)
- My brother is very ___ — he talks to everyone at a party.
- She ___ after her mother — they have the same smile.
Answer key
- look (appearance → What does he look like?)
- has (hair takes have, and stays singular)
- in (in his forties)
- outgoing (sociable — friendly also fits)
- takes (take after = resemble a family member)
Practice this in Recursio
Describing someone means reaching for the right adjective fast, and that comes from repetition. Save the appearance and personality words you'd actually use to your word list in Recursio, and spaced review can bring them back so they're easier to recall in conversation.
Build your word list in Recursio → · Free to start, on iOS and Android.