How to describe personality and character in English (with pronunciation)

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English with Lucy
This English vocabulary lesson will teach you how to describe character and personality in English w...
Video Transcript:
(electronic music ) - Hello, everyone and welcome back to English With Lucy. Today I'm going to talk to you about how to describe, personality and character in English and I'm going to help you with your pronunciation. Before we get started I'd just like to mention, the sponsor of today's video, it is Italki.
If you haven't heard of Italki before, it's a huge online database of both native and non native speakers who give one to one lessons, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can learn English and over 100 other languages, from anywhere in the world as long as you have a stable internet connection. It's a really affordable way of learning a language, much cheaper than offline academies and in person tutors.
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Italki have given me a special offer to pass on to you, you will receive $10 worth of Italki credits, in your student wallet within 48 hours of making your first purchase of any amount. Just click on the link in the description box to sign up. Right let's get started with the lesson.
By the end of this lesson, you will know 72 adjectives that can be used to describe personality and character. I've divided them into positive or approving adjectives and also negative or disapproving adjectives. For each adjective I've included the IPA transcription so you can really focus on the pronunciation and also the definition.
Let's start with personality category number one. The adjectives within this first group, describe how willing you are to communicate with others. So we have extroverted, (extroverted.
) Someone who is extroverted is lively and confident and enjoys being around other people. The opposite or the antonym, for this adjective is introverted,(introverted ) So, this describes somebody who is more interested, in their own thoughts and feelings, than they are in spending time with other people. We also have talkative, talkative.
This describes somebody who likes to talk a lot, then on the other hand, we have quiet, quiet which means tending not to talk a lot. Next, confident, confident. This means feeling sure about your ability to do something and be successful and the antonym for this is shy, shy.
Someone who is shy is nervous about meeting people or speaking to people. Right our second category talks about how you make others feel. Firstly we have warm, warm.
Someone who's warm shows enthusiasm and affection and is friendly. On the other hand we have cold, cold. Be careful with that O vowel sound.
I do actually have a video on that which I will link down below. Someone who is cold is without emotion and unfriendly. Next we have kind, kind.
This means caring about others, gentle and friendly. On the opposite side we have unkind, unkind. This means unpleasant, unfriendly, maybe even slightly cruel.
And then we have sweet, sweet. Someone who is sweet shows a kind character. The opposite is nasty, nasty.
A nasty person is an unkind person, the third category is how you treat the feelings of others. First we have considerate, considerate. If you're consider you are always thinking of the feelings of others.
If you're not considerate, then you might be inconsiderate, inconsiderate. This means not giving enough thought, about other people's feelings or needs. We also have thoughtful, thoughtful.
If you are thoughtful, then you show that you care and consider other people's feelings and needs. The opposite is thoughtless, thoughtless. This means that you don't care, about the possible negative effects of your actions or words.
Then we have tactful, tactful. This means that you're careful not to say or do, anything that might upset or anger other people and the antonym for that is tactless, tactless. That's quite a hard one to say with the ct combination.
Tact, tactless, this means that you say or do things that might upset or anger other people. Our next category discusses how much people might be able to trust you. First up, we have trustworthy, trustworthy.
We use a voiced th sound, I often hear it mispronounced as trustworthy but it should be worthy. Your voice should be constant, it shouldn't cut out at any point. Someone who's trustworthy then it means you can rely on them to be good and honest.
On the other hand we have untrustworthy, untrustworthy. This is somebody who cannot be trusted. We also have reliable, reliable.
If someone is reliable then you can trust them to do something well. On the other hand, we have unreliable, unreliable, meaning that you cannot trust them to do something well. You can't depend on them.
Then we have loyal, loyal. This means remaining faithful and supportive. Then we have disloyal, disloyal.
This means not loyal or faithful. Next, we're going to discuss adjectives that describe how honest you are with others. We have sincere, sincere.
This means that you show what you really think or feel. On the other hand we have insincere, insincere. If someone is insincere they say or do things that they don't really mean.
Next we have frank, frank which can actually sometimes be negative or disapproving as well as approving. So it all depends on the tone of voice or the context. If someone is frank, it means they are honest or direct and there's sometimes at risk of hurting other people's feelings because of this.
On the other side we have secretive, secretive. If you're secretive you like to hide your thoughts, feelings and actions and keep them private. Then we have direct, direct and sometimes much like frank, this can also be negative or disapproving, depending on tone of voice and context.
If you're direct in means you say exactly what you mean and no one can pretend they haven't understood because it's very, very clear. Then we have not an exact antonym but sneaky, sneaky. This means behaving in a secretive or dishonest way.
The next category is how open you are to the views and cultures of others. We'll start with tolerant, tolerant. If you're tolerant it means you're able to accept what other people say or do, even if you don't agree with them.
On the other hand we have intolerant, intolerant. This means that you are not willing to accept behaviours or ideas that do not correspond with your beliefs. We have open minded, open minded.
If you're open minded, it means you are willing to listen to, accept and think about other ideas. On the other hand, we have narrow minded, narrow minded. This means you are unwilling to listen to new ideas or the opinions of others.
And we have unbiased, unbiased. This means that you're fair and not influenced by your own opinions or someone else's opinions. On the other hand, we have biassed, biassed.
This means you make unfair judgments and have a tendency to favour a certain group of people. Now we're going to talk about the adjectives, associated with how motivated you are. We have strong willed, strong willed.
If you're strong willed it means you are determined to do what you want to do, regardless of what other people say. On the other hand, we have weak willed, weak willed. This means you lack the ability to resist, the influence of others and you can't control your own impulses.
We also have determined, determined. This means that you make firm decisions to do things and you don't let anyone dissuade you. On the other hand we have irresolute, irresolute.
This means that you are simply not able to decide what to do. And then we have driven, driven. This means you are determined to succeed and are working very hard to do so.
On the other hand we have apathetic, apathetic which means you show no interest or enthusiasm. The next category discusses your attitude towards work. We have industrious, industrious.
This means hard working or busy. On the other hand we have idle, idle. If you're idle, you are not working hard.
We also have ambitious, ambitious. If you're ambitious you're determined to be rich, powerful and all successful. We also have unambitious, unambitious.
This means that you are on interested in becoming, rich, powerful or successful. We also have hard working, hard working which means you are willing to work very hard. Or we have lazy, lazy which means that you are unwilling to work or be active.
Now let's just discuss adjectives, associated with how good you are at learning and understanding. We have bright, bright which means intelligent or quick to learn. We also have foolish, foolish which means not showing good judgement or sense.
There's clever, clever, this is very common in British English. It means you're quick learning and understanding things. On the other hand we have stupid, stupid which means showing a lack of thought or good judgement .
And we have intelligent, intelligent which means you are good at learning and understanding and on the other hand we have unintelligent, unintelligent which means you are bad at learning and understanding things. Now let's discuss adjectives that describe how you treat money. We have generous, generous which means that you are willing to give freely.
On the other hand we have miserly, miserly. If you're miserly, then you hate to spend money. We have giving, giving which again means, you are willing to give freely and on the other hand we have mean, mean which means you are unwilling to give or to share.
We also have frugal, frugal and if you're frugal it means you only use as much food or money as necessary. On the other hand we have extravagant, extravagant which means that you spend a lot more than you can afford. Now let's discuss adjectives which describe your attitude around other people.
We have humble, humble. If you're humble you show that you don't think, you are as important as other people. On the opposite side we have arrogant, arrogant which means that you behave in a proud or unpleasant way and think you are better than others.
We also have modest, modest. If you're modest then you don't talk much, about your own abilities and achievements. On the other hand we have vain, vain which means you are overly proud of your own appearance, abilities or achievements.
The next one submissive, submissive, is both approving or positive and disapproving, negative. Probably leaning more on to the negative side but it means you are too willing to accept authority. You're willing to obey them without question.
On the other side, again it's normally negative but it can be positive sometimes, bossy, bossy. This means that you're always telling people what to do. Finally, let's talk about adjectives that can describe how relaxed you are as a person.
We have chilled, chilled and this is slightly more slang, it is derived from the phrasal verb to chill out. You're chilled out, you are chilled and this means you are very relaxed. On the other hand we have tense, tense.
This means you are nervous or worried and unable to relax. We also have laid back, laid back. This means you're calm and relaxed and never seem to worry about anything.
On the other hand, we have uptight, uptight which means you are anxious or upset about something. We also have optimistic, optimistic which means you are positive and expect good things to happen. We also have pessimistic, pessimistic which means you expect bad things to happen.
Right, your homework for today is to include, five of these adjectives in a comment down below and use them to describe yourself. So I want maybe three to four sentences about yourself, using some of the adjectives that we've learned today and if you could include any others that would be really really good. That's it for this lesson, I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you learned something.
Don't forget to check out Italki, the link to sign up is in the description box. Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media. I've got my Facebook, my Instagram and my twitter and I shall see you soon for another lesson now.
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