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Describing Personality Traits and Words

This document describes ways to characterize people's personalities using individual traits and idioms. It discusses intellectual ability, attitudes towards life such as optimism and pessimism, attitudes towards others such as sociability and sensitivity, and positive and negative connotations of similar traits. Examples of idioms are provided to describe positive and negative qualities like kindness and unpleasantness. Idioms related to the head describe traits like sensibility and memory. Other idioms characterize how people relate to social norms or their roles in the classroom.

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Janavier Namahoro
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138 views2 pages

Describing Personality Traits and Words

This document describes ways to characterize people's personalities using individual traits and idioms. It discusses intellectual ability, attitudes towards life such as optimism and pessimism, attitudes towards others such as sociability and sensitivity, and positive and negative connotations of similar traits. Examples of idioms are provided to describe positive and negative qualities like kindness and unpleasantness. Idioms related to the head describe traits like sensibility and memory. Other idioms characterize how people relate to social norms or their roles in the classroom.

Uploaded by

Janavier Namahoro
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Describing someone’s personality

a) Intellectual ability

Lots of ability Intelligent bright clever sharp shrewd


able gifted talented brainy (informal)
Lacking ability Stupid foolish simple silly brainless daft
dumb dim thick

b) Attitudes towards life

E.g. Paul is pessimistic while Peter is optimistic – he always expects the worst to happen
while he looks on the bright side.
- It is strange that one of the twins is so extroverted while the other is so introverted – Ben
loves being the focus of attention while Jake prefers to be alone with his thoughts.
- I feel tense (or wound up / stressed out) after a very busy day at work but, after a hot bath,
I’ll soon feel relaxed.
- Eva is very sensible – she’d never do anything stupid. In other words, she’s very practical
and down-to-earth.
- Roberto is very sensitive – he gets very upset (or worked-up, more informal), if he feels
people are criticising him.

c) Attitudes towards other people

- Enjoying others’ company: sociable; gregarious


- Disagreeing with others: quarrelsome; argumentative
- Taking pleasure in others’ pain: cruel; sadistic
- Relaxed in attitude to self and others: easy-going; even-tempered; laid-back
- Not polite to others: impolite; rude; ill-mannered; discourteous
- Telling the truth to others: honest; trustworthy; reliable; sincere
- Unhappy if others have what you do not have yourself: jealous; envious

d) Some words mean roughly the same except that some have negative rather positive
connotations:

Positive associations Negative associations


Determined Obstinate stubborn pig-headed
Self-assured confident Self-important arrogant full of yourself
Unconventional original Eccentric odd peculiar weird
Frank direct open Abrupt brusque curt
Broad-minded Unprincipled permissive
Generous Extravagant
Innocent Naive
Ambitious Pushy
Assertive Aggressive bossy
IDIOMS DESCRIBING PEOPLE

a) Positive and negative qualities

Positive
- She has a heart of gold. [very kind, generous]
- He is as good as gold. [helpful, well-behaved]
Negative
- She’s as hard as nails. [no sympathy for others]
- He’s a nasty piece of work. [unpleasant]

Note also:
- Her heart’s in the right place. [is a good and kind person even though they do not always
seem so]
- He’s such an awkward customer. [difficult person to deal with]
- She’s a pain in the neck. Nobody likes her. [nuisance, difficult]
- He gets on everyone’s nerves. [irritates everybody]

b) Idioms based on ‘head’

- To have your head screwed on [be sensible]


- To have a head for heights [not suffer from vertigo]
- To have a head like a sieve [bad memory]
- To have a good head for figures [be good at maths]
- To have your head in the clouds [unaware of reality]
- To be head and shoulders above someone [much better than]
- To bury your head in the sand [refuse to think about a difficult situation in the hope you
won’t have to deal with it]
- To keep your head [stay calm in a difficult situation]

c) How people relate to the social norm

- She’s a bit of an odd-ball. [peculiar, strange]


- He’s really over the top. [very exaggerated in behaviour]
- He’s (gone) round the bend, if you ask me. [absolutely crazy/mad]
- My politics are very middle-of-the-road. [very normal; no radical ideas]

d) Idioms for people in the classroom

- Sam’s teacher’s pet. [teacher’s favourite] Laura’s top of the class.


- Harry is a real know-all. [thinks he knows everything]
- Ali’s a bit of a big-head. [has a high opinion of him/herself]

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