Describing People — Appearance & Personality (Pre-Intermediate)

PRE-INTERMEDIATE · VOCABULARY

Describing People

PICTURE

"Tall, dark and handsome" — or "kind, but a bit shy"?

(you add this)

Appearance and personality: hair, build, face, and character adjectives.

Vocabulary

Speaking

1 · LEAD-IN

Guess who

Look at the four people. Secretly choose ONE. Your partner asks yes / no questions to find out who it is.

Is it a man? Does she have glasses? Has he got a beard?

A

B

C

D

long curly red hair

bald, big dark beard

older, short blonde

long straight dark

Then talk: which of the four would you sit next to on a long flight? Who would you invite to a family dinner? Why?

2 · BEFORE YOU READ

The Blind Date column

Blind Date is a magazine column: a restaurant gives two strangers a free dinner, then asks them both the same questions and prints the answers side by side.

PREDICT

PICTURE

1. What questions do you think the magazine asks? Write two. Then read ONLY the bold questions in the text — were your ideas there?

2. Will Priya and Tom want to meet again? Make a guess, then read quickly and check.

(you add this)

3 · READ

Read quickly — will they want to meet again?

Priya, 26, nurse, meets Tom, 29, chef

What were you hoping for?

PRIYA Someone tall, dark and handsome. And funny — I can't spend two hours with a serious person.

TOM Someone kind. My last girlfriend was very clever, but a bit mean.

First impressions?

PRIYA Well, he isn't tall — he's medium height — and he has a big red beard and a moustache. Like a friendly Viking.

TOM She has long straight dark hair and big brown eyes. And a beautiful smile.

What did you talk about?

PRIYA Everything. He's very talkative. Maybe too talkative.

TOM Her job, my job, our families. She's quite quiet at first, almost shy — but after ten minutes she was really funny.

3 · READ (continued)

The dinner continues

...and the difficult questions

Any difficult moments?

TOM I showed her a photo of my bald, slightly overweight dad and said, "This is me in thirty years." She stopped laughing.

PRIYA He wanted to pay for everything. Very generous — but I'm a hard-working woman. I can pay for my own pizza!

Would you meet again?

PRIYA Ask him.

TOM I'm cooking for her on Saturday.

4 · UNDERSTANDING

Who says it — Priya or Tom?

Read each sentence. Write P (Priya) or T (Tom) in the gap.

1. I wanted to meet someone who makes people laugh. ____

2. My date talks a lot. ____

3. My last partner wasn't very kind. ____

4. My date was quiet at the beginning. ____

5. I didn't want my date to pay for everything. ____

5 · QUICK TALK

What do you think?

Discuss in pairs.

1 Is a blind date a good way to meet people?

2 Priya says Tom is maybe "too talkative". Can a person be too funny? Too honest?

PICTURE

(you add this)

3 On a first date, what matters more — how a person looks, or what they are like?

6 · FIND THE WORDS

Look at the text again

Find and write these words from the Blind Date text.

1. three words that describe Priya's hair:

______________________________

2. three words for hair on a man's head or face:

______________________________

3. four personality adjectives — two positive, two negative:

______________________________

7 · HOW IT WORKS

look like vs be like

APPEARANCE

PERSONALITY

What does she look like?

What is she like?

She's tall and slim. She has curly blonde hair.

She's friendly, but a bit shy.

be + adjective (height, build, personality). have / has + hair, eyes, a beard.

Word order — size → style → colour: long curly red hair · big blue eyes

thin = neutral · slim = attractively thin · (a bit) overweight = the polite word for "fat".

Soften it with quite / a bit: "He's quite short and a bit overweight."

7 · HOW IT WORKS

Personality — learn the opposites

adjective

opposite

adjective

opposite

friendly

unfriendly

hard-working

lazy

kind

unkind

funny

serious

talkative

quiet

clever

stupid

generous

mean

shy

extrovert

Careful: un- works only for friendly / unfriendly and kind / unkind. There is no rule — learn the opposites in pairs.

8 · PRACTICE

Word order, and the right question

A — Put the words in order.

1. has / she / curly / hair / long / blonde

2. is / height / medium / she / slim / and

3. short / a / he's / overweight / bit / quite / and

C — Circle the correct question.

1. What does she look like? / What's she like? — Tall, with short dark hair.

2. What does he look like? / What's he like? — Kind, but a bit serious.

8 · PRACTICE

Complete with the best word

clever · extrovert · generous · lazy · mean

1. He never pays for anything. He's really _________.

2. She learned Dutch in six months — she's very _________.

3. My brother watches TV all day and never helps. He's so _________.

4. Ana loves parties and meeting new people. She's a real _________.

5. My grandad always buys us cinema tickets. He's very _________.

9 · THE SET-UP

Find your partner a date

Your male friend is looking for love! Here are six single people (full-length photos).

1. Secretly choose one of the six people for your partner. Invent a name, a job and a personality.

2. Your partner interviews you — "What does she look like? What is she like?" — and finds the photo.

3. Your partner decides: yes or no to the blind date, with two reasons. Then swap roles.

FOLLOW-UP

Homework — your own Blind Date

Write your own Blind Date answers (40–60 words) for a dinner between YOU and a famous person of your choice.

USE THE FIVE QUESTIONS

What were you hoping for? · First impressions? · What did you talk about? · Any difficult moments? · Would you meet again?

TEACHER'S REFERENCE · HIDE OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key

4 Who says it: 1 P · 2 P · 3 T · 4 T · 5 P

6 Find the words (suggested):

1 long, straight, dark

2 beard, moustache, bald

3 positive: funny, kind, generous; negative: mean, serious

8A Put the words in order:

1 She has long curly blonde hair.

2 She is medium height and slim.

3 He's quite short and a bit overweight.

8B Complete with the best word:

1 mean 2 clever 3 lazy 4 extrovert 5 generous

8C Circle the correct question:

1 What does she look like?

2 What's he like?

Tip: this slide is for you — hide or delete it before class.