Describing people

This lesson focuses on expressions and idioms used to describe people's personality, behaviour and appearance in everyday and professional contexts. You'll learn informal and formal phrases, when to use them, and how to adjust tone for conversations, CVs and meetings.

• Learn common idiomatic expressions (e.g. 'team player', 'go-getter').
• Choose the right register: formal language for CVs and reports, informal for conversations.
• Be specific: prefer concrete examples over vague adjectives.

Choose expressions appropriate to your audience and situation.

• Use formal adjectives (e.g. 'highly motivated', 'reliable') in CVs and reports.
• Use idioms and informal labels (e.g. 'go-getter', 'people person') in conversations and interviews when tone allows.
• Support labels with examples: don't just say 'team player'—give an instance.

Adjust tone: formal for written business, conversational for meetings.

Watch for these universal errors when describing people in English.

• Overusing vague modifiers like 'very' instead of choosing a stronger adjective (e.g. 'very good' → 'excellent').
• Mixing registers: using informal idioms in formal writing (e.g. CVs, reports).
• Incorrect word order: placing adjectives incorrectly ('a player team' instead of 'a team player').
• Using labels without evidence: say what they do or did, not only the label.

Always check register and provide examples to support descriptive labels.