How to Describe People in English Basic Phrases
rolling cool hi everybody welcome back
to our weekly live stream my name is
Alisha and today we’re going to talk
about how to describe people this is a
great lesson for beginners and of course
have for review too I’m going to talk
about some patterns you can use basic
patterns for describing appearance
number one then I’m going to talk about
patterns to use for personality
expressions and finally I’m going to do
some grammar reviews so how to use
relative clauses to give some more
details about people this is really
really useful when you want to specify
someone so for example if there’s
someone across the room that you’re
trying to point out to someone you can
use this grammar point to do that so
today I’m going to fill up the board
with lots of example sentences please
send your example sentences along in the
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and then I’m going to start today’s
lesson today I’m going to start by
talking about appearance related
expressions so I’m going to cover some
very very basic phrases and that’s like
I’m gonna cover some basic phrases you
can use to express people’s appearance
that means the way a person looks I’m
going to talk about the patterns we use
to talk about like hair or eye color and
to talk about the adjectives we use
relating to of the body so let’s begin
and of course throughout this please
feel free to send your own example
sentences in the chat that would be
great to include some of your examples
on the board as well so let’s get
started first appearance appearance
related expressions so I’m going to
focus on using half and has and is and
are so we’re going to make some very
basic sentences to talk about people’s
appearance first
if our subject is I you we or they will
use this pattern to make it negative
will use don’t this is the reduced form
of do not and then we’ll use have plus a
noun phrase so for me for an example of
this I would say I I am the subject I
have brown hair so a very simple
expression to describe my appearance
here’s my subject I have so this is a
positive sentence and my noun phrase
here is brown hair I have brown hair to
make it negative I could say something
like I don’t have blonde hair so this is
how we make this basic appearance
related statement with a noun phrase so
no adjectives used here if however your
subject is he or she you probably won’t
use it to describe a person if you want
to describe an animal maybe you could
use it but for talking about people will
use he or she and in this sentence if
you want to make it negative we need to
use doesn’t doesn’t he or she doesn’t
Plus have plus known phrase so in this
case for example let’s see I could say
control desk today he doesn’t have to
make a negative he doesn’t have black
hair he doesn’t have black hair so again
we’re using a noun phrase I’ve made this
negative with doesn’t doesn’t if however
so I’ve made this into a negative form
have made this negative pattern here if
however your sentence is positive please
remember that instead of have we need to
use has so for a positive sentence
meaning no doesn’t we need to use has
he has premiere or she has blonde hair
so some examples are in here ah
why not hairs why not hairs when we’re
talking someone asked that question
pasta Kim asked that question in the
YouTube chat we use a hair hair notice
to talk about all of this on our head we
use hair alone to refer to all of this
we use hairs when we see a few pieces
somewhere like oh there are some hairs
on the floor over there where did those
come from when you’re talking about all
the hair on your head we use hair not
hairs okay example is from one of our
members probably no hello she doesn’t
have brown hair very nice example
sentence some of you are saying things
not related to appearance good so she
doesn’t have money is correct
please remember today we’re focusing on
appearance so how does a person look
that’s what we want to practice today to
send your example sentences in high noon
says she has an oval face yeah good so
you can talk about face shape face shape
with this so an oval face are like a
square face good or a round face good
Andrew says he doesn’t have red eyes but
he has blue eyes okay good
Dennis says he doesn’t have he doesn’t
have long ears make sure when you use a
negative he doesn’t have he doesn’t have
so when you make a negative sentence the
verb following does not change when you
make a positive sentence has needs to
change
hmm okay good good good good she has
blue eyes as Silva Alexandra on Facebook
great great Antonio says she has a mean
look oh interesting okay very nice Kyra
says she has brown skin very nice okay
great great examples everyone so we can
talk about eye color skin color hair
color and so on with a very simple
sentence
and this is actually it scuse me this is
actually how native speakers do it it
does not need to be complicated so let’s
go to the second part here the second
part is using this pattern using is and
are plus an adjective so remember an
adjective is a word that we use to
describe a noun we use it to give more
information about a noun so we can use
three different patterns when we want to
talk about ourselves use this pattern I
am NOT plus adjective so for example I
am NOT tall I am not tell if I write it
down here you can’t see ya so for
example I am NOT tall so notice in this
sentence my adjectives here is tall when
you choose an adjective make sure it’s
an appearance related adjective so don’t
choose something that’s related to like
their work necessarily make sure it’s
something that expresses their
appearance something that expresses
their appearance so I am NOT tall this
is a good one that’s true actually
of course to make this sentence positive
simply remove not I am tall I am tall
and to make this even more natural
reduce I am - I’m I’m I’m not tall or
I’m tall and so on so this is the
pattern we use when you’re talking about
yourself this is an eye subjective type
however excuse me if your subject is you
we or they so you want to talk about
your friend or you want to talk about
your group or if you want to talk about
a group of people outside you follow
this pattern you are to make it negative
not and an adjective again I haven’t
seen any examples there yet so I’ll make
my own sentence so for example mmm I
want to talk about my friend
I might say you are short you are short
so if I want to express something like
that in a positive sentence I would use
u & R so R is used for these three
subjects we are short maybe you and your
friend are short together you want to
express that or they are short as well
to some good examples are coming in I am
short okay someone says I’m not sexy
okay I am not fat okay I am NOT tall
very nice ones okay ah do you need hot
tea yes I’ve been drinking lots of hot
tea my voice is a little out of it you
are slim another good one slim slim very
nice examples finally then Leah says I’m
not sure I’m vertically challenged next
one Leah let’s go to the last pattern
for this one he or she if he or she is
your subject you want to talk about a
friend or a family member you could say
he or she and here the verb is is he is
or she is adjective he is tall she is
pretty he is handsome and so on to make
it negative use not so he is not
handsome or she is not pretty and so on
my friend is not tall a great example
hamza on youtube so in this i’ve used i
you we they he she you can also express
a person in this position and use this
pattern so my friend is not tall or my
mother is short and so on to use a
person the name of a person use this
final pattern here
great she is pretty perfect perfect nice
one she is beautiful good good good good
excellent she is a nervous so nervous is
maybe about a condition we’ll talk about
in this part for this pattern i wanted
to focus on practicing appearance
related vocabulary words it looks great
looks great thanks very much for your
example
everybody okay we’ll take one short
break and then we’ll go to part two for
today’s lesson part two will focus on
these personality and condition
expressions which uses this pattern
actually so I think we’ll go to the the
camera cool let me find the one I wanted
to show you for today
which was about your family there it is
good so I thought this would be a
perfect PDF to show you again today this
is the family and relatives PDF it does
include family vocabulary some very
common family vocabulary so we can use
this actually in part two my question
for you in part two is about describing
someone in your life on the back are
some expressions to use for the first
time you meet someone as well so I
thought this would be a nice one to
review also this holiday Thanksgiving is
coming soon so this is one PDF I thought
would be good to review for today’s
practice and to practice today’s grammar
point as well so this is one thing you
can find from the link below the video
there are many many more so please make
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sorry I cannot see your comments live
alrighty let’s go to part 2 for today’s
lesson if you are just joining today’s
topic is how to describe people how to
describe people with relative clauses a
little bit so the last point is going to
be about relative clauses okay let’s get
to part two though so in part two I want
to talk about personalities and
conditions so when I say personality and
condition I mean the adjective you
choose so in part one we pract
just adjectives about appearance yeah
like tall short slim pretty handsome
appearance related adjectives here we’re
going to focus on personality and
condition related adjectives so please
consider your adjective choice when you
prepare your example sentences here
let’s take a look you’ll notice very
quickly these patterns are exactly the
same as the ones I introduced over here
we just need to create a different
expression by changing the type of
adjectives so for example when I use the
I subject pattern I am if I want to say
not to make it negative
I can plus an adjective so for example I
am sick that’s true I have a bit of a
cold I am sick so sick means not healthy
this expresses a condition this is my
condition I am sick or I am a little
sick I’m a bit sick this expresses
condition if we want to make a you or we
or they sentence we follow it with our
and we use not plus adjective so for
example you are hardworking so here
hardworking is my adjective hard-working
refers to a personality trait someone
who works very hard we can describe them
with the adjective hard-working
I am hardworking you are hard-working
mayor on that on YouTube says I am
starving great and great I’m starving
nice one some other examples are coming
and I’m tired I am lazy good I’m not
sick good examples everybody y’all says
I am brave on Facebook good ones okay
let’s go to this he and she pattern
again this is the same pattern as the
person so when you want to talk about a
family member or a friend you can use
their title kind of
mom or my dad or my friend or my
roommate we use the same pattern for
both of these plus is to make the
sentence negative will include not and
an adjective so for example he is not
funny he’s not funny he is not funny or
something similar so again a funny is an
adjective that refers to someone’s
personality so that means maybe his
jokes I’m not very good he is not funny
or maybe I could to use this pattern my
mother
hey mom is very talkative my mother is
very talkative so talkative means
someone who likes to talk a lot we can
include very before our adjective to add
emphasis okay
Gertrude is said my sister is pregnancy
very close pregnancy is a noun
my sister is pregnant pregnant is the
word my sister is pregnant is correct
good examples he is talented excellent
examples excellent example so I’ll
include a list of your adjectives over
here you can help each other talented
nice one ernesto says what does starving
mean ah starving means I’m very very
very very hungry I’m starving I’m
starving I’m starving super super hungry
hmm someone says I’m not funny okay he
is not friendly oh okay he is not big
big is maybe an appearance related
adjectives let’s try to make a list of
so we can’t quite see this one thank you
let’s try to make a short list of some
personality and condition related
adjectives here that’s a good one to
practice together uh personality ones
someone wrote up Paulino said he is a
good student he is a good student that
one is about a person’s condition
like personality type I suppose - we can
use that as well I’m focusing a bit on
adjectives for this lesson he is
annoying good example annoying annoying
you mean someone usually who does like
the same thing over and over and over
again like little kids maybe like my
brother and I were very annoying when we
were kids we would like hit each other
in the car for example very annoying
very annoying
other examples my father is not
talkative someone says what is an
adjective an adjective adjective is a
grammar word adjective means a word that
describes a noun it gives us more
information about the noun
all right nice examples Oh Vicky said my
brother is an outgoing person good so
you can say my brother is an or a plus
noun phrase so a something something
something making a noun phrase there is
great or just my brother is outgoing is
also nice so outgoing outgoing you can
imagine I would just like your
personality goes out so you want to
share a lot and talk a lot that’s an
outgoing person they’re good at talking
to people okay uh we only have a few
minutes left so I think I’ll finish up
there so just keep in mind your
adjective choice when you’re describing
someone make sure to consider your
adjectives there are some personality
and condition adjectives and there are
also appearance related adjectives to
consider but for today I want to
conclude by talking about using relative
clauses to specify and maybe I have one
quick minute to remind you I won’t show
up close I don’t think but if you have
not please do make sure to check the
link below the video if you’re watching
on youtube or if you’re watching on
facebook check the link above the video
to find our free PDFs for vocabulary and
expressions related to everyday
this one I showed earlier it’s about
family
maybe another good time to practice
today’s grammar point is when you’re
shopping - so this is shopping related
expressions okey-dokey let’s go to the
last part for today the last part as I
said is using relative clauses to
specify things so we practice relative
clauses in a live stream about three
weeks ago
remember relative clauses give us extra
information about a noun and we
practiced something called reduced
relative clauses so making the clause
shorter and when to do them so here is
how we can do this when we’re describing
people so in a sentence like he or she
is the man or woman who is something
something IMG you’ll see a pattern like
this so let’s take a look at some
examples let’s say person a in a
conversation asked asks you a question
so I meet you and I ask you a question
I’m at your school or something I say
who is your teacher who is your teacher
and you look around the room and you say
in response let’s go with she she is the
woman who is
talking to the students she is the woman
who is talking to the students so in
this sentence I’ve used this who is
talking to the students this part over
here so we learned from our relative
clauses lesson a couple weeks ago that
when we find relative pronouns followed
by the to be verb as in this case we can
remove it from the sentence this is
especially common when the relative
pronoun and the two beaver are followed
by a verb in the ing form we see that
pattern here that means we can remove it
she is the woman who’s talking to the
students so when we want to like
specifies the specify means make
something clear when we want to make it
clear who a certain person in the room
is we can point and use a relative
clause to describe this oh who’s your
teacher she’s the woman who’s talking to
the students over there so let’s try it
let’s see I think we have a little bit
of time for one more example so let me
grab excuse me my note real quick and
we’ll take a look okay so again let’s
maybe let’s I wanted to introduce one
that’s maybe good for emergency
situations so for example if you’re on
the street with a friend you might say
something like look see that guy who is
running
I think he stole something so here’s
another situation where you can use this
grammar point so let’s break this down
you’re with a friend and you see
something suddenly and you want to
express quickly a specific person look
see that guy again the same grammar
point who is running so someone is
running see that guy who is running I
think he stole something so in like an
emergency situation here again we can
remove who is in this case it’s probably
best to remove the who is because we
want to share this information as
quickly as possible it’s an emergency
situation we want to say it as fast as
possible so we remove this part this who
is part so again when you have a
relative pronoun who which or that
followed by a to be verb is was are and
so on you can remove it we see this with
verbs ending in ing and also with
prepositional phrases so let’s look
let’s see we have a couple more minutes
I have time to share maybe one more
example and then we’ll conclude today’s
lesson excuse me
ok so let’s take a look uh maybe let’s
do with this one where we cannot reduce
the sentence so for example let’s say
you meet me somewhere on the street one
day and you come up to me and you say
excuse me are you the person who teaches
English on the internet so here is a
sentence we cannot reduce we cannot
reduce this sentence so I know are you
the person who teaches so in this case I
cannot remove this because this is not
followed by is I cannot do that so
please keep this in mind if your verb is
not followed I’m sorry if your relative
pronoun is not followed by is you cannot
remove it in this case so if you see me
are you the person who teaches English
on the Internet I might say yes I am
nice to meet you so let’s take a look at
some of your examples
I see many I’ll start on YouTube that
guy who is running is my friend he is a
thief this is Edgard okay that’s a
little serving good good example ok um
some other examples Wayne says hey man
who is the girl who is looking at the
sign good ok who is the girl who is
looking at the sign perfect you can
reduce it who is the girl looking at the
sign good good example some other ones
Julian says she is the woman who is
swimming great and again we can reduce
it she is the woman swimming nice one uh
ok Khan while Jeet has a great example
on YouTube the girl standing over there
wearing a black sweater is my classmate
great example so that person let’s see
I’m a little out of space here so maybe
person Plus over there is a great way to
introduce it the girl over there in I’m
sorry the girl over there in clothing is
something something something this is
another really good pattern you can use
the person or the guy or the girl over
there in is the prep
that we use in a red sweater in a red
jacket so we use this to talk about the
clothing you can use wearing is also
good great great great
some other examples uh she is the girl
with long hair good ah sang from
Facebook sounds great
some other examples who is the person
who helped you okay so try to build
these big sentences that share lots and
lots of information so when you point
across the room at someone you can
easily understand that okay so I get to
go for a little bit longer today people
let’s see I get a little extra time
today so I’ll share one more example
something else I wanted to talk to you
about um let’s see what else can I share
with you let me choose another example
sentence to talk about okay uh let’s try
this one if you want to if you’re with
like a group of people so you go to like
a conference or maybe a competition of
some kind and you want to be clear about
your own team members you can use our to
begin the sentence so where can I’ll
write it here maybe so we can see so
another way to consider how you can
specify someone is by changing the
person at the beginning of the sentence
for example our team leader is the
person who’s the person who is giving
the opening speech the opening speech
okay the opening speech so our team
leader is the person who is giving the
opening speech so again I’ve used this
same relative pronoun plus be verb again
our team leader is the person who is
giving the opening speech at the
conference so I’ve shown
someone belongs to my group our our team
leader our team leader I can reduce the
sentence even more our team leader is
the person giving the opening speech at
the conference so these are just a few
ways a few samples of how you can make
these very specific sentences to
describe a person or to show that
someone belongs to your group and we can
do this with these relative clauses
maybe I’ll finish today with one more
very useful one and then we’ll call it
we’ll call it good I’ll have one more
them okay when you are shopping or maybe
you’re at an event of some kind and
you’re looking for help or you’re
looking for like a manager you can use
this sentence where do I have room where
can you see I’ll put it
I’ll put it it’s very good okay I’ll put
it here so maybe our last example I’m
out of space for the day this is a good
question to use are you the person who
is in charge for example of this event
or of this party question question this
is a question so you’re looking for some
help you’re looking for like a manager
or something like that are you excuse me
it’s how you would begin the sentence
excuse me are you the person who is in
charge of the event so again we can
remove this who is you don’t have to but
we can in this case I’m not using an ING
form you’ll notice that but we use in
charge of something so when we have
these prepositional phrases remember a
preposition is in at bayan for those
little tiny words when we follow this
with the prepositional phrase we can
drop as well so are you the person who’s
in charge of the event I have a question
so you can use this when you’re looking
for someone to help you - so these are a
few examples of expressions that you can
use with relative
whew Alan’s a long listen I got some
extra time today yeah okay but I have to
finish up so let’s wrap it up thank you
for all of your excellent excellent
example sentences today that was
fantastic wow there’s so many people who
joined great so please if you have if
you are just joining for the first time
today welcome of course but I have to
sign off
unfortunately so thank you for coming
and thank you for coming this week and
please join us next week as well next
week oh my gosh November 21st already
Wow okay November 21st next week
Wednesday 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
the topic will be how to make requests
and offers how to make requests and
offers I’ve been getting a lot of
questions from you about using will and
she’ll and so on so we’re going to talk
and practice about making requests
asking for something and offers so
sharing something so please join us
again next week 9 p.m. Eastern Standard
Time that is New York City time please
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thank you very much for joining us live
this week we all really really
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awesome good luck with your studies this
week and enjoy the rest of your week
enjoy your weekend - I will see you
again soon bye-bye