Speak Better English with Harry | Episode 553

In this episode, you will learn English adjectives for describing people. You will learn how native speakers talk about personality, behaviour, and character in everyday situations. Each adjective is explained in clear, simple English with examples to help you use them confidently.

This lesson is ideal for English learners at intermediate and advanced levels who want to expand vocabulary, speak more naturally, and prepare for exams such as IELTS, TOEFL, or Cambridge English. By the end, you will be able to describe people more accurately in both professional and everyday conversations.

Transcript

0:09

Hi there, this is Harry. Welcome back to Advanced English Lessons with Harry, where I try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language, to help you with your conversational skills, your business English skills, interview skills, whatever your goals are, we're here to help. And for those of you and your friends or family who want one-to-one lessons, well, you know what to do. Just get in touch, www.englishlessonviaskype.com and you can apply for a free try lesson and we'll be very happy to hear from you and very happy to help you. So what are we going to talk about today? Well in the podcast now we're going to take a look at some adjectives and the particular adjectives we have for today are those adjectives that might describe people and the way they behave or the way they are. Okay, so some of them might be a little different. So hopefully you will enjoy these. As always I'll give you the expression of the adjective and then I'll give you an example. Number one, she's completely incompetent or he is completely incompetent. Completely incompetent means unable to do something satisfactorily. Completely incompetent, just unable to do anything basic that you ask. So you ask somebody to complete a spreadsheet, Excel spreadsheet. They don't know how to do it. You ask them to write a few emails. They've never used email before. So you look them up and down saying, my God, you're completely incompetent. You're completely unable to do all of the basics. You said in your CV that you have computer skills. You have no computer skills. You are incompetent. Unable to do the basics. Incompetent. Okay, so when somebody is incompetent, it means, yes, unable to carry out basic functions. Completely incompetent means totally. Okay, so just we're just emphasizing then that not only are they incompetent, they are completely or totally incompetent. Okay, number two, she is very direct. She is very direct. This means that she speaks or he speaks exactly what is on their mind. They don't cover or secrete or hide what they want to say. They're very direct. I don't like your shirt. I don't like your hairstyle. I really don't like those shoes. So very direct. If you want it to be a little bit indirect, you might say, are you sure that shirt suits you? Are you sure that hairstyle is the way you wanted it to be? Might you think about putting on a different pair of shoes? Indirect. So direct, somebody who gets straight to the point, doesn't waste any time, lets you know exactly what they are thinking, or as we sometimes say in English, gives it to you through both barrels, like a shotgun has two barrels, yeah? So they give it to you through both barrels. They don't hold back. They just fire. I don't like the shirt. I don't like this food. I don't like the color on the wall. Okay, so very, very direct. I like people who are direct. I'm quite direct, but some people don't always react kindly to directness. So to be direct or sometimes to be a little bit more sensitive and to be less direct. Okay, she is or he is very direct. She is such a snob. Well, a snob is somebody who may not be in the wealthy category or they may not be super rich, but they think they are and they like only to wear things that have a label on them. She will not be seen inside a McDonald's restaurant. She wouldn't like to be seen walking in certain parts of the city. She would never be seen wearing a pair of denim jeans and a hoodie. Okay, so we would describe this person as a snob. Of course, it can be he or she. So I'm not making a sexist in any way, of course, but he or she, they are such a snob. Okay, so it can be to do with the things that you wear. It can be to do with the places you will go to or the places you won't go to. It can be to do with the people you will talk to or be friends with. So any action in your life where you judge others based on perhaps their social rank. Oh, she's such a snob. She wouldn't go to the meeting because these people come from the wrong side of the city. Okay, she is such a snob. So we can also call people a little snobbish or they walk around with their nose in the air. This is another way to describe somebody who is a little bit of a snob. They walk around a pretentious way with their nose in the air. She is such a snob. Next, he or she is quite absent-minded, quite absent-minded. To be absent-minded means you forget things and you forget things easily. So we are all prone to this problem from time to time, particularly if we're under stress or we've got a lot of work to do. We can forget something. But to be absent-minded usually is a part of your character. Yeah. So you forget meetings, you forget to call somebody, you forget the car keys all the time, you forget where you park the car, you forget to pick up the laundry, just generally absent-minded. There's a very funny movie made many years ago called The Absent-Minded Professor, and there was a remake of it. And as far as I can remember, the remake was with Eddie Murphy as the absent-minded professor. So somebody who was constantly forgetting things. Very clever, very bright, but absent-minded. Yeah. So, for example, you go into the kitchen, you switch on the oven, you're going to make yourself an omelette, and you walk out of the room, and you come back 10 minutes later to find out that the pan is burnt because you forgot, you're absent-minded. You went into the room, you got occupied with something else, and you forgot that you had switched on the oven, and therefore you've ruined your best pan, which your wife won't be so happy with. Yeah, so to be absent-minded. Okay, she's quite hard work. She's quite hard work. Now, that doesn't mean that she works hard, okay? She's a hard worker, that would be meaning she works hard. But when we say she or he is quite hard work, it means it's difficult to have a conversation with them. They are not so extrovert that you can have a good conversation with them. It's very hard to get some information out of them. And it's actually very hard even to like the person. So you can have a conversation with the person and you get monosyllabic answers. Yes, no, perhaps, hmm, whatever. Yeah. So you keep asking the questions, you keep trying to get the conversation going, but you get little in return. So you can say, wow, that person, she's quite hard work. It's very difficult to have a conversation. It's very difficult to get to like them. I'm sure she's a nice person, but I wouldn't like to be stuck in the corner at a party with her because what are you going to do? So she is quite hard work. She's a difficult person, not friendly, not open, and very definitely not relaxed. So she is quite hard work. She's really bitchy. When somebody is bitchy, they make snide or not nice comments on a regular basis about other people. Oh, have you seen the girl on the second floor? Have you seen her hair today? Have you seen what she's wearing? Have you noticed how she speaks to some people? Have you seen how she walks? Have you seen how she eats? So when somebody starts making very personal comments, we regard that as a little bit bitchy, not being so pleasant, not being so nice. So we try to avoid being bitchy with one another. We try to avoid being bitchy with anybody else. And not always nice to hear bitchy comments made by one person about another, particularly if they don't happen to be there. Quite a problem with people who have, with neighbours. So somebody who doesn't particularly like the neighbor can often refer to them in a bitchy way. Oh, this lady next door, have you seen the coat she wears? Or have you seen the clothes on the washing line? Or have you seen the colour of her walls? Bitchy comments. So not so pleasant. Okay, next, she's very laid back. When somebody is laid back, it means they are relaxed, but sometimes in a very, very relaxing way, more than you would expect. So nothing seems to worry the person. Ah, don't worry about Mary. She's so laid back. If she was laid back anymore, she would be horizontal. So she's so laid back. So when somebody is laid back, they are ultra-relaxed. Nothing seems to worry them. Nothing seems to stress them. And they don't get upset about anything. Ah, yeah, Mary's like that. She's always the same. She has been laid back since I have known her. She takes everything in her stride. She doesn't get upset. She doesn't get worried. Okay, so a nice way to be, to be laid back. But sometimes not always good to be too laid back because there are times when we have to be a little bit emotional and a little bit focused so that we can get the work done. Because often people look on people who are laid back and they might see them as a little bit lazy, which in fact they're not. They are just a little bit more relaxed than the average person. Okay, next. She seems very principled. She seems very principled. So when somebody is principled, it means that they morally look on things in a lot more detail and they wouldn't do something without considering all its implications. So to be principled is to have somebody who has high principles that, for example, they wouldn't buy clothes that were definitely made in a third world country because you wouldn't like to be supporting payments and the exploitation of child labor. So that would be somebody who would be very principled. She wouldn't buy certain goods from certain countries that perhaps didn't respect women's rights. So she would be very principled in that way. She would be very principled in relation to religion and perhaps wouldn't send her children to a school that didn't offer religious schooling or religious education. So somebody with principles, somebody who has principles or somebody who has high moral principles in relation to everything from religion, sex education, how to deal with the poor, anything that she feels that is right that governments should take a little bit more seriously, to be very principled. And next, to be very strong-willed. Well, to have a will means to do things the way you want to do them, the way you see that is appropriate. And when you are strong-willed, it means that you don't let people dictate to you. You don't let people tell you what to do. So you can be a little bit obstinate or a little bit stubborn. So when we are strong-willed, we are very determined people. So we don't give up easily. We don't allow people to tell us what cannot be done. And we stick to something until we achieve it. So in the current climate, we have to be a little bit strong-willed about how we approach things. We have to focus on the present. And if you're strong-willed, you will not give in. You will not give in to the temptation to be a little bit depressed. You will find your way through it, to be strong-willed. And then finally, thick-skinned. She or he or thick-skinned. When you have a thick skin, it's actually quite important because if you have a thick skin, then it means that when people either insult you or say something to you that others might find somewhat insulting, it doesn't bother you because you are thick-skinned, like an elephant or a rhinoceros. Yes, the skin of a rhinoceros or the elephant is very, very thick. So if you have a thick skin or you develop a thick skin, it means that you're a little bit impervious to people's insults or difficulties. Okay. So if you are a woman working in what would be perceived as a man's world, somebody might say to you, well, you either have to have a thick skin or you have to develop a thick skin to work in that environment because it can be a little bit sexist. Okay. So you develop a thick skin or somebody says something and your friend says, oh, did you hear that? Are you not a little bit insulted? Ah, don't worry. I'm thick-skinned. It doesn't matter to me. Salespeople, people who work in sales, should be a little bit thick-skinned because often they get rejected by their approaches to different potential customers. But they know that sooner or later, somebody is going to buy the product they have and they will be a lot happier. So they have a thick skin. Okay, excellent. So these are adjectives describing people. So let me just run through them quickly again. To be completely incompetent, to be very direct, to be such a snob, quite absent-minded, quite hard work, really bitchy, very laid-back, to be very principled or to be appear or seem very principled, very strong-willed and quite thick-skinned. Okay, so all adjectives describing people and the way that they can act and their type of personality. Okay, well, thanks for listening again. And if you have any questions or you want to contact me, well, of course, then you can do so at www.englishlessonviaskype.com. I'm always happy to hear from you and always happy to help you with anything that you need. So as always, thanks for listening and join me again soon.