A ‣ Describing beauty

Your appearance is the way you look, and we sometimes use different words to talk about beauty in men and women.

WOMEN can be attractive or good-looking [nice to look at], and we often use pretty [attractive] to describe a girl. We use beautiful or gorgeous for women who are very attractive.

MEN can be attractive and good-looking, but also handsome. If men are very attractive, we can say they are gorgeous or very good-looking, but not usually beautiful.

Liam has become quite handsome.

Bella looks gorgeous in that dress.

Olivia was very pretty when she was younger.

They’re a very good-looking couple.

B ‣ Size

We can talk about a person’s height [how tall or short they are] and their weight [how heavy they are], e.g. I’m roughly [about; syn approximately] one metre eighty (tall), and I weigh just under eighty kilograms. If someone is not tall or short, you can describe them as medium height. If a person is very similar to most other people in height and weight, you can say they are average.

A: How tall is Hannah?
B: Medium height, I’d say.

A: Is Marco quite big?
B: No, about average.

C ‣ Hair

D ‣ Talking about someone’s appearance

A: What does Sophia’s boyfriend look like? [Can you describe his appearance?]
B: He’s blond, and quite good-looking.

A: Is he tall?
B: Er, tallish [quite tall], but he’s got broad shoulders [wide; opp narrow]. He looks very athletic [strong, healthy and often good at sports]. I think he does a lot of sport.

A: Is he quite smart [clean, tidy and stylish]?
B: Yeah, he dresses quite well [the clothes he wears are quite nice].