How to Talk about Personal Style with Slang in English
hi everybody welcome back to our weekly
live stream my name is Alisha and today
we’re going to talk about how to talk
about your personal style your personal
style in this lesson I’m going to talk
about phrases you can use to describe
appearance I’m going to talk about a lot
of vocabulary words you can use to
describe your fashion or just an
aesthetic like a look that you like and
I’m going to talk about slang words for
describing fashion and appearance we
have a lot of vocabulary to cover so I
hope we can get through it all as you
join please send us a message in the
chat to say hello make sure to LIKE the
video too and share it so other people
can find this week’s live lesson while
we wait for people to join two
announcements announcement number one if
you have not seen it yet data this one
this is our new culture video I talked
about it last week and it was shared it
was public made public last Friday it is
out now so please have a look this is
the second yeah second video in our
culture series
it’s about supermarkets in the US so if
you want to learn a little bit about
this part of everyday u.s. culture
please check this video this is on the
English class 101 live live channel
English 101 YouTube channel it is live
now well not live but you can watch it
now so please check this out second
announcement is about as always our free
stuff that we have from the link below
the video or above the video will see a
video I’ll go away for a second this one
if you want to get the free stuff use
our website right here so log in or make
an account scroll down to the PDF you
would like to download just click the
PDF you want to get and then you can
download that to your phone to your
computer whatever so just like you’re
seeing on the screen right now okay so
you can get those things this is one
example there are a couple examples I’ll
show you a bit later so if you want
these that’s how to do it I’ll show you
again a little bit later
all right great I see lots of people in
the chat now on YouTube Caleb Joseph
Stephanie
Robert Wellington Abdul Aurora and Neen
grace Edson hello everybody and on
Facebook Anna Beale chameleon IR ciub
hello bori hello Alf Camilo Javier many
people fantastic if you missed it
today’s topic is your personal style
your personal style so again as I said
please make sure to like and share the
video and then we’re going to begin
pretty much now actually again if you’re
watching on Instagram I highly recommend
watching on YouTube or Facebook today
I’m going to show lots of pictures for
examples so let’s get started I’m going
to share the video and then I am going
to begin the lesson so today’s lesson is
going to start with some common phrases
we use to describe appearance so let’s
get into it the first expression I want
to talk about is to look nice to look
nice this is a very general expression
you can use for men and for women to
look nice in an example sentence you
look nice
you look nice so someone is dressed very
well for a fancy party or someone has a
new hairstyle that’s really great you
can say you look nice you look nice so
you do need to keep in mind a point to
remember this look does need to change
if your subject is he she or it so for
example he looks nice he looks nice so
you want to talk about your brother or
your father or
your boyfriend or your husband or some
male in your life he looks nice
same thing for she as well she looks
nice she looks nice so this is a general
and polite friendly way to make a
compliment about someone’s appearance
you look nice
he looks nice he looks nice okay
and if you want to use someone’s name
here like Eric looks nicer or Devin
looks nice our recent same pattern use
this s form here so Eric looks nice of
course the opposite is doesn’t look nice
like that doesn’t look nice he doesn’t
look nice but hopefully you can use the
positive more often so looks nice and
look nice okay Eric says I do okay all
right good
this is our first expression let’s talk
now about this one here to suit to suit
so this is a verb so to suit is
different from suit like the name of the
clothing item I like a three-piece suit
this is a verb to suit means to suit
means to match to suit means to match
something so for example that haircut
really suits you
that haircut really suits you that means
your hairstyle whenever your haircut is
matches you so in other words your
haircut looks nice on you so it means
something
matches the person in this case that
haircut really suits you so here I’m
using that haircut as my noun phrase
that haircut you could say that shirt
really suits you or those shoes really
suit you so again you need to be careful
of your conjugation with suits if this
part your subject here is singular it it
really suits you use this s here it
suits you it suits you if this part is
plural like my example those shoes those
shoes plural really suit you know s
those shoes really suit you so please
consider your subject and whether it’s
plural or singular those shoes really
suits you that haircut really suits you
okay so you are writing nice comments
Alicia looks but make sure looks looks
nice so if the subject here is a person
use s Alicia looks nice so please be
careful of that got someone caught onto
you over there okay let’s go to the next
point is to fit to fit some people use
fit to mean the same thing as to suit
yes but for this lesson let’s look at to
fit to mean to match someone’s body size
to match someone’s body size so for
example this is kind of a negative
expression I’m not sure that shirt fits
you properly I’m not sure that shirt
fits you properly so fit refers to the
size of the clothing so for example if
this shirt was super big someone might
say like mmm I’m not sure meaning I
don’t know I’m not sure that shirt your
shirt fits you properly so this means
I’m not sure that shirt is the correct
size for you I’m not sure that sure is
the correct size for you
I’m not sure that shirt fits you
properly so again that shirt is a
singular so we need to conjugate the
verb fit to fits that shirt fits or that
shirt doesn’t fit you is another way to
say that so to fit means to be the
correct size for something but some
people can also use it to mean match
okay on to the next one on to the next
one
do be cute so let’s look at these two
together to be cute and to be sexy
what’s the difference here we tend to
use cute like if we’re talking about
kids
we’ll say oh he’s so cute or she’s so
cute it has kind of this childish feel
about it in English
cute sounds like something that’s very
like kind of for young kid like a cute
game or a cute dress or maybe a cute toy
it has kind of this childish feel about
it so we can say that we think someone
is cute like a person we’re attracted to
is cute but it has kind of a sweet feel
like a nice feel about it like oh he’s
cute or I think she’s cute so we can use
this to describe attraction as well so
the difference with like cute and sexy
sexy is is kind of more adult generally
so when we use sexy it’s often when we
can see a lot of someone’s skin like we
would to say like um like swimsuit
models are sexy so like men or women
without like a shirt or without jeans or
whatever so we can see a lot of their
skin and they’re posing like in a way to
model the clothes in an attractive way
we would say that’s very sexy so
something that’s more adult is usually
sexy so we use cute more for like kind
of sweet nicer things of course it’s
possible to be sexy and to be cute we
can use both words to describe a person
so this is kind of the difference in
seal between sexy and cute for example
her dress is so cute her dress is so
cute so actually here I’ve used cute as
an adjective this is probably the more
common way that we use this I’ve got
this as a verb here like Oh her dress is
so cute this is probably a more common
way that we use it but you could use it
as a verb as well too like oh she’s
being cute she’s being cute meaning like
she’s just kind of being nicer she’s
being sweet
here are two similarly so to be sexy we
can use it in in like a as a verb as
well like wow like like they’re being
very sexy in this photoshoot today we
could use it that way we also use it as
an adjective here so that photo is so
sexy if that photo is so sexy oops I
meant it’s look like a question that
photo is so sexy like did you see his
Instagram post or did you see her
Instagram post that photo was so sexy so
again it has that very grown-up like
kind of adult feel about it usually how
do we tell a little girl she looks nice
so like if you want to compliment like a
family member like your neighborhood
someone in your neighborhood you could
say it for example like your dress is so
cute that’s what I would say too like
the little kids in my family like oh
your dress is so cute or you look very
nice so that’s the expression we would
use a nice example of everybody my
girlfriend is so sexy very good very
good okay other examples Pamela on
Facebook hi says I told somebody he was
cute and I felt he didn’t like it maybe
because it’s a little sweeter than adult
could be it could be so if you use cute
with someone and they feel like time an
adult they might not be happy so you
kind of have to like try to understand
their feelings a little
yeah for sure for sure okay all right I
don’t see any other questions so let’s
finish up these last two the last two
are another pair they are to be handsome
and to be beautiful so I have these
handsome and beautiful we tend to use
handsome for men and beautiful for women
we tend to do but we can use them for
anyone so we tend to use handsome with
like very masculine look so when I say
masculine I mean looks that we
historically we think about as being
looks for men so that’s what we use
handsome to describe but recently
especially recently there have been lots
of interesting fashions where it’s like
women are wearing like these kind of
strong suits and we could say she looks
so handsome in that suit I’ve seen that
here and there also beautiful although
we use beautiful usually to talk about
women we can use beautiful to talk about
anybody to like oh wow his hair is so
beautiful we can totally use it in that
way so yes although we traditionally use
handsome for men and beautiful for women
these days we can use it with anything
it’s more about a feeling and less about
like a specific gender so it’s quite
flexible at these days okay
so some example sentences again this is
as an adjective like he looks so
handsome in that suit he looks so
handsome in that suit
so that suit looks nice on him he looks
handsome he looks handsome or here she
looks beautiful she looks beautiful so
again I’m using these as adjectives here
- okay great so that’s our first part in
the second part of today’s lesson I’ll
go to next we’re going to look at a lot
of images for examples of these
vocabulary words so if you’re watching
on Instagram you will not be able to see
this please join us on YouTube or
Facebook okay so with that let’s take
one short break are we gonna okay I will
show you um this is the PDF I chose to
focus on for today
oh we will see this okay so you’re gonna
see one more time the video we showed
you now so here it is if you want to get
these free PDFs
click the link in the description and
put in your email address and name and
scroll down on this page to whichever
PDF you’re interested in so we have many
different topics I’m going to show you
one in just a moment so choose the one
you want and then you can download it to
your phone to your computer whatever
this is the one I wanted to show you
today’s lesson is about fashion and
style and so on so if you want to pick
up a quick vocabulary reference sheet on
the front of this one this is called the
shopping for clothes chichi
there are of course vocabulary words for
clothes like shirt pants and so on and
on the back you’ll find key vocabulary
words for shopping so like credit cards
how to use those some verbs you need to
know for shopping as well there’s also a
list of adjectives at the bottom here to
talk about fit yeah what I talked about
earlier so like tight or loose whatever
so check this out you can find this and
Mark from the link below the video on
youtube or above the video on Facebook
okay let’s continue to part two of
today’s lesson if you’re just joining
today’s lesson is about personal style
please make sure to like and share the
video if you have not already okay let’s
continue on if you’re watching on
Instagram check it out on YouTube or
Facebook from this
forward okay let’s take a look someone
asked if the lesson ended here hopefully
let’s take a look then I’ve got this
list of vocabulary words we’re going to
look at now so this is about like types
of looks so looks that you’re interested
in some of these have a strong
connection to fashion some of these are
more about a lifestyle thing so our goal
for this part is for you to finish this
sentence so when you see a style that
you like try sending this sentence in
the chat I like something something
style style so we’re going to see lots
of examples I hope that you can find one
that’s like your own favorite look or
your own favorite style so let’s get
started the first word is vintage
vintage so we’ll see a photo of this
vintage so vintage refers to these old
things things from many years ago like
they’re not new a company did not make
these things like last year to look old
these are actual old things so you might
like vintage fashion so that means old
shirts or old dresses old shoes we that
we refer to this as vintage style these
things are vintage maybe you’ve been to
a vintage store or a vintage cafe so
this is called vintage vintage our first
one so maybe you like vintage style okay
let’s continue on to the next one modern
modern so modern modern comes from the
word like modern referring to now like a
contemporary time so modern means
something that’s very very recent so for
example modern this is a modern building
a modern piece of architecture so modern
is this style where everything feels
fresh and new so in like modern
buildings it’s lots of glass I’ve
noticed lots of glass or maybe really
big spaces like
this is modern modern modern style okay
some people are sending examples I don’t
like vintage style great great okay or I
like gothic girl someone wrote okay
we’ll get to that someone else that I
like retro style very cool okay lots of
good ones
okay let’s continue someone says I like
modern style great great so this is
modern this is an example of modern okay
Leah says she loves modern Eric says I
like serials that’s not a style
- derailing okay let’s continue to the
next one the next one is gothic gothic
this is a good pronunciation point this
th the th is not gosh sick but gothic
gothic gothic so Gothic style this is an
example of a Gothic style building so
the word this style comes from
architecture so many like churches
churches are a great example from this
period in time this style with like
these kinds of maybe dark feeling like
buildings and like gargoyles and like
statues and creatures plus these
beautiful stained glass windows so this
is part of Gothic style
today’s fashion Gothic fashion we
associate we have a connection with
Gothic fashion with wearing lots of
black like you have a lot of black and
you wear like a very white makeup that’s
kind of the image of Gothic fashion for
many people
so there’s Gothic architecture and
there’s also this gothic fashion kind of
this dark sort of I guess gloomy under
I’m not an expert on Gothic fashion but
we use gothic to describe that does
gothic mean ancient no gothic does not
mean ancient gothic refers to this time
period of architecture or like if you
can imagine maybe like Marilyn Manson
like that 1990s or so if you know that
artists Marilyn Manson is a good example
of kind of a gothic I guess fashion
person okay my friend style is gothics
as someone good someone says I have a
gothic style building great okay nice
one someone says I you teacher you like
modern style I kind of like modern yeah
okay
let’s continue then let’s continue to
the next one street wear street wear so
you might hear this called street style
street style so street style this is an
example kind of one example of street
style so this refers to kind of a
combination so street wear has come from
a couple different places there’s like
California surf culture in there there’s
like hip hop rap culture as well so it’s
kind of this cool laid-back relaxed feel
is Street like street style this can be
called street wear so you’ll see like
the guy on the right in this picture has
like athletic pants on that’s there’s
kind of a sporty feel about these two so
we call this street wear or street style
street style so this is quite popular as
well especially among young people is
Street or street wear okay examples okay
good let’s continue on then to casual
casual so this is an example a very
casual clothes I have okay I have very
casual clothes on today so casual is
easy to wear it’s comfortable for a lot
of people casual just means jeans and a
t-shirt so people in the u.s. a lot of
people in the US are very casual we use
this style casual it’s what we use okay
the next word is business business style
or business dress so business dress is
something like this suits wearing suits
we’re looking very professional so this
is business style
you may hear the expression business
casual business casual is like Miss with
a little bit of a casual feel so for
example like a suit jacket and jeans is
maybe business casual business casual
but we think of this in the US as a
business style business style ok onward
to minimal minimal is the next one so
minimal this the routier is like the
minimum so it’s like you don’t want
extra stuff you want as little as
possible so very few things
minimal people who like this style are
called minimalist minimalist I’m a
minimalist he’s a minimalist so you
could say I like minimal style I like
minimal style I don’t like lots of extra
stuff I want only the things I need
it’s called minimal minimal ok someone
says I like the minimalist style less is
more yeah cool ok um I don’t see
anything
ok someone says I love business
professional style cool good ok great
great
let’s move on then to sophisticated
sophisticated so sophisticated we’re
first you have some like worldly
experience you have this like refined
feel about you so this is an example of
a kind of sophisticated fashion she
looks really cool yeah like she has like
this fash this cool fashion sense about
her she clearly understands how to
create this interesting outfit for her
personality so this is the feeling of
sophistication she looks sophisticated
or her style is sophisticated so a
sophisticated style can be sexy it can
be cute it can be handsome
so it’s refined it’s like someone who
has experience and knows themselves very
well that is
stated sophisticate okay onward time’s
running out next is sheek shiek the
spelling of this CH IC chic chic we
pronounce this chic so something that is
chic we usually use chic to describe
women’s style to describe ladies fashion
it’s something again that’s kind of
elegant and like very smart like smart
looking and pretty so here this image
this is kind of thank you this is like a
very pretty but it’s also very smart
looking so we describe this style as
chic chic so I like chic clothes or I
like my favorite style is kind of a chic
style yeah someone says I’m curious
about chic so this is an example of chic
style okay onto retro retro so retro is
very different from vintage because
retro is new things that we make like
they’re something from the past so that
means all of these things this fashion
these items whatever they’re new a
company or someone made new things to
look like their favorite things from the
past so this is retro style retro style
so vintage is actually the old things
that’s actually the old stuff vintage
things retro is new stuff made to look
like something that’s old so it has kind
of this new feeling about it like you’re
just kind of making something again this
is retro okay someone says sophisticated
can be chic and elegant yes absolutely
is it Scheck or chic the spelling of
chic is CH IC ch
see sheek shiek do we have a youtube
channel yes English class 101 on YouTube
okay on to the last few because time is
running out oh my funky is the last Oh
coming up funky funky so funky relates
to funk like music funk so it’s often
like these bright colors and kind of
like this cool maybe a little bit sexy
feel so she has like this bright red bag
it looks red to me she has like this
bright colored bag and like this cool
kind of relaxed casual feel but her
shoes are really like exciting yeah like
so this is kind of a funky look a funky
style or a funky feel we call this funky
all right almost then last one or sorry
second to last is rustic rustic this has
become more popular I feel like on
Instagram lately so this was hard to
find a picture form but rustic the feel
of rustic is like in a cabin an old
cabin in a forest this is called a cabin
so it’s a small house in a forest a
cabin so rustic is the feeling of being
here in this cabin so many cafes are
very rustic or maybe people want a
rustic house so rustic is like this
wooden natural feel plus something old
that’s how we like explain rustic so the
spelling is ru s TI c rustic rustic that
is a rustic style I’ve noticed lots of
like rustic Instagram photos of like
coffee and coffee shops in the last few
years so I think it’s a thing okay
finally is the word fashionable
fashionable or some of you wrote a
stylish as well that’s fine fashionable
or stylish we use fashionable or stylish
to talk about someone who’s always like
looking for the new fashion they always
want to have something cool and original
from like the top designer from a
special designer so maybe this is it
this is an interesting look
so someone who is really interested in
fashion we could say they’re very
fashionable or they’re very interested
in fashion we also use fashionable or
stylish to talk about someone that we
think has good style so he’s very
fashionable there she’s very stylish
means we like that person’s fashion so
we usually use this as a compliment
fashionable or stylish so sometimes
maybe it’s a kind of strange fashion but
we can use these words to describe those
those people as well okay let’s finish
up there I have to go to the last part
real quick I suppose I’ll go to a few
slang thanks for dealing with all those
fixtures let’s go to our slang the slang
part of today’s episode very exciting
slang how to describe your look so we
have all of these styles we talked about
I hope you found one that you like
slang let’s talk about slang now so how
do we talk about our own like clothing
our own fashion cool we can use the word
cool this is an adjective it’s sort of
an old word it’s cool he looks cool she
looks cool just as we talked about here
you look nice or he looks cool she looks
cool cool is a general compliment that
shirt is cool what your fashion is cool
you can use this with anybody it’s fine
to use with people younger than you
older than you whatever to be cool this
is a new one to rock in the last five to
ten years maybe to rock this is a verb
to rock it does not mean to rock a baby
to rock for example sunglasses or to
rock a shirt or to rock shoes means to
wear it means to wear yes but it means
to wear and you’re excited about it so
it’s used like with something that you
recently bought like I’m going to rock
my new sunglasses at the beach or whoa
you’re rocking some great shoes so to
rock
it means to wear but you’re super happy
about it are you really excited about it
so maybe some of you are rocking
something interesting today so I’m not
rocking anything I’m very casual like so
I don’t I don’t make an effort to be
like fashionable here but perhaps one
day perhaps I should have tried to be
fashionable today mm-hmm well okay all
right so to rock something to rock
something on - swag swag this is a noun
swag is a noun swag this is a noun
swag is not a word I use but swag refers
to like a feeling like a feeling of
confidence in one’s fashion usually in
your fashion or in your personality
someone who has swag is someone who has
confidence or they have personal style
and they’re cool about it like wow like
he has swag or like she has swag
something like that is how we use this
word swag is a noun referring to
confidence in yourself and in your
personal style swag this is the word
young people use okay on to the next
pair on fleek and on point on sleek and
OnPoint we use these like adjectives so
I’ll give you an example we use these
often for like hair style or like makeup
style or we use it for maybe nails we
use this for small details often in our
look so for example her hair style is on
point today or like her makeup is on
fleek so these expressions on point and
on fleek mean perfect very good amazing
awesome your hair is on point today so I
use on point a lot I don’t use on fleek
I don’t know why I don’t like on fleek
but on point means it’s perfect so the
idea with on point is that like
you have a point here and it’s exactly
here it’s just right so something that
is on point is just perfect just perfect
okay is it okay to use slang with
strangers these are okay yeah you can
use these these are okay it depends a
little bit on the situation okay let’s
finish up well I have to end quickly
let’s look at the next three together
the next three are snazzy snazzy swanky
and spiffy snazzy swanky and spiffy
snazzy means something that is cool and
like special so that’s a snazzy suit or
that’s a snazzy hat it’s something cool
maybe a little refined and special
swanky is something elegant
that’s a swanky dress or this is a
swanky bar something elegant and a bit
expensive its swanky spiffy is sort of
cute it has a cute feeling and it’s
special and nice so snazzy and spiffy
are quite similar spiffy sounds a bit
older that word sounds a bit older Oh
spiffy suit I think it sounds a little
bit cute
snazzy is a little bit more grown-up
snazzy okay
I’ve got to finish quick almost end time
I am at a time dressed to the nines is
another kind of older expression to be
dressed to the nines to be dressed to
the nines means to be in your top form
like you are at the highest point in
your fashion he is dressed to the nines
oh she is dressed to the nines for this
like important event tonight or for this
gala event tonight so the image is like
a very elegant dress or like a very
elegant tuxedo something that’s just
beautiful are so so nicely made so
that’s to be dressed to the nine
so he’s dressed to the nines she’s
dressed to the nines
all right last ones dope dope this is a
word that is used a lot with street wear
street wear so something that is dope or
like music that is dope it means cool
but it has kind of this street vibe
about it the street feel okay last one
last one is trend or trendy trend or
trendy this isn’t really slang but it’s
an important word to know something that
is a trend so a trend this is a noun or
something that is trendy an adjective so
that means something that is popular now
so that means it’s not going to stay
forever
it’s just popular now so like maybe for
example this street wear is there this
shirts or this brand is a trend right
now or this is a trendy brand something
that is popular now but will probably go
away soon that’s a trend as an adjective
trendy oh okay that was a lot I have to
finish okay so if you missed anything
this video was recorded so please go
back and check this lesson for all of
the vocabulary words we used and I hope
that you found something you can use to
talk about your personal style as well I
have to finish there because I’m late so
thank you to everyone who joined us and
sent comments and questions fantastic we
will be back next week next week the
topic will be active voice versus
passive voice that will be July 17th
Wednesday 10:00 p.m. Eastern Standard
Time that of New York City time so
please join us for a kind of grammar ish
lesson hopefully we can answer some of
your common questions about active and
so please join us again next week and
don’t forget to download your free
things from the link below the video on
YouTube yet dinner or above the video on
Facebook Instagram please check YouTube
or Facebook to get these so we’ll end
there thank you very much everybody as
always enjoy your week enjoy your
weekend and I will see you again next
time
thank
you