Describing People: Appearance
Appearance-description vocabulary is one of the most-needed lexical areas for productive speaking — and one of the trickiest because the conventions are culture-specific. Tall, short, slim, well-built, average height, average build, in her thirties, late forties for body and age. Brown eyes, blue eyes, blonde hair, dark hair, curly, straight, wavy, shaved, balding for hair and eyes. Wears glasses, has a beard, has a tattoo, freckles, glasses for distinguishing features. The collection trains learners to describe people factually and sensitively.
This worksheet builds A2–B1 fluency with appearance-description vocabulary in picture-talk and crime-witness contexts.
Worksheet preview
What’s inside:
- Vocabulary box organised by feature (height, build, age, hair, eyes, distinguishing features)
- Picture-description tasks with focus on neutral, factual language
- Gap-fill in person-description paragraphs
- Personalised production: describe a family member or friend
- Full Answer Key plus Teacher Notes with pair-work guessing-game extension
Common challenges: Cultural sensitivity matters — fat is rude in English; overweight, heavy-set, well-built are neutral alternatives. Age estimation conventions: in her late twenties / mid-thirties / early forties signal range, not exact age. The order of adjectives matters: a tall, slim, blonde woman — opinion → size → shape → age → colour, in that order.
For: Adult and teenage learners (14+) at CEFR A2 to B1, in pre-intermediate and intermediate classes, 1:1 lessons, or self-study. Appearance description is central to Cambridge A2 Key (KET) and B1 Preliminary (PET) Speaking Part 2 (picture description). Part of the Everyday Life & People collection — the natural next step is Describing Personality and Character, which extends physical description into the inner-life dimension.
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