Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to advanced English lessons with Harry where
we try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language. We can help you to
prepare for the proficiency exams that you're taking for that job interview, help you with
your business English, your conversational English, whatever it is, you've come to the
right place. This is an advanced English lesson it's 20 collocations to describe physical
appearance, the physical appearance of somebody.
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Okay, so advanced English lesson 20 collocations to describe physical appearance. So let me
give you a bit of a background here. So these are really important if you're going to use
them in one of those proficiency exams where you want to just describe a picture or indeed,
if you're walking down the street and you're a witness to an attempted robbery when the
police arrive and there's no criminal around, they might want to ask you for a description.
So these are really important words collocations that you can use to describe what the rubber
looked like. Or you could be just simply sitting on the train and you see somebody that you're
fancy and you're trying to describe them to your friend later so that you can ask them
their opinion.
Okay, let's get cracking 20. Number one, cropped hair, cropped hair is hair that is really
really short. And sometimes it looks as if it wasn't cut by a barber or hairdresser because
the hair is a different lens but it's really short and it's cropped so quite tight. Not
completely bald and not shaved but cropped so there is hair sticking up but it looks
like grass on on a lawn after you've gone over with the lawn more so cropped hair. Number
two dishevelled hair. Dishevelled means messy all over the place. So if you've been running
around playing football with your friends, you've been jumping, and then when you stop
you're a bit sweaty and the hair is everywhere it's down your cross your eyes hanging out
over your shoulders. This is what we called dishevelled. It looks as my mother used to
say it looks as if you've been dragged through a hedge backwards. So your hair is really
really messy. You really need to get a good brush or comb to get all the knots out of
it and make it look a little bit presentable, dishevelled. We can also talk about people
having a dishevelled look in general not just about the hair, but it could be about that
clothes, then they haven't got their clothes properly. attire, they haven't got their shirt
up or it's sticking out of the trousers, everything looks just a general mess so they are dishevelled.
Number three coarse hair causes usually thick and it's not very fine. Not easy to brush.
Coarse hair could often be the hair of a dog, so that could be quite coarse and naughty.
But if you're trying to describe a person with coarse hair it's generally shortish or
shoulder length hair, but it's not easy to brush, no real style about it and quite thick
so coarse hair.
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Number four, we talked about receding hair or receding hairline to be specific and the
receding hairline means that the hair is not coming down fully over the forehead. They
are showing the early signs of going bald. So it's usually to describe a man's physical
appearance that he had a receding hairline so it's easy to see the top of his hair, there's
a parting on the hair on the left or the right, but he's not completely bald like me, but
the hair is beginning to go backwards. So there are signs that he's beginning to age
so might give an indication as to the age of the individual. So he's got a receding
hairline. To recede means to go backwards. So when the hair is receding, it looks as
if it's going back over the back of his head, okay to have receding hair or receding hairline
number five when we refer to somebody as ginger head or a redhead, yeah, so redhead and ginger
hair are virtually the same. Lots of people in Ireland have red or ginger hair. Yeah,
so his ginger had very recognisable, very easy to spot and easy to describe ginger hair
or redhead. There is a difference between red hair and ginger but in lots of situations
that you we use the same words to describe a ginger hair or a ginger headed individual
so he's ginger headed mean his hair is a ginger colour.
Number six, a sallow complexion so when somebody has a sallow complexion that usually means
that the natural colour white is beginning to go a little brown or yellow. Usually is
as a sign of some sickness on your face loses its colour and somebody describes you as having
a sallow complexion it usually means slightly yellow or lighter tan colour as a sign of
some sort of infection or illness or sallow complexion so not so healthy, sallow and we
often say sallow skin so it's not just the face, the complexion is usually refers to
the face, but sallow skin, so if you're you're wearing a t shirt, so the colour on your face
and your arms may be exactly the same sallow complexion, or sallow skin.
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Number seven is a fair complexion so when somebody has a fair complexion has no relevance
to their how healthy they are fair complexion just means the hair is a lighter colour. So
you know if somebody's hair is dark, or somebody's is mousy colour or blonde. Fair is somewhere
in the middle of. Fair complexion, so perhaps his skin is a little lighter than others,
or the colour of his hair is not black, but it's not blonde. It's somewhere in the middle.
He has a fair complexion. Number eight refers to face a haggard face looks like a face that
has been lived in for a long time. Haggard means looking old, probably with lots of wrinkles,
lots of creases on the forehead, on the cheeks, on the chin. So when somebody has a haggard
face, it might mean that they look old before the time. Typically, because they're under
a lot of stress. Yes, some people age as a result of stress, they begin to look older
than they actually are so haggard face mean somebody who's suffering from some stress,
perhaps they're just excessively tired, and they've got bags under their eyes or wrinkles
on the face, and might have to do with some lack of sleep. So haggard face.
A pointed face is all about the shape of the face pointed, not just a big point sitting
on the top of your head, but you know from the shape of the chin, or they're not completely
round face, we could describe it as a pointed face. It's just another way to to try and
describe somebody a little different than the average person a pointed face. Somebody
can also have a pudgy face. Now the next to number 10 and number 11. We've got to put
g face and chubby face or chubby cheeks. These are two ways of describing somebody having
a bit rounder face than normal. Particularly kids when they are maybe they're a little
heavier than they should be say, Oh, he's a pretty child. He's got a real pudgy face
or real chubby cheeks and so on somebody that chubby cheeks, they certainly like eating
their food and maybe their face and their cheeks are nice rosy red. So they've got a
chubby face because they they liked the food or perhaps the juice a little bit of overweight
and as they grow up and they start running around and they will lose that chubby complexion
they will use that lose that chubbiness or that pudgy face that they have so pudgy and
chubby cheeks and face really mean the same thing. So onto number 12. And we're talking
about the eyebrows those above the eyes when somebody has bushy eyebrows bushy means very
big and very expansive. So like a little bush you see in the garden, so they need a trim
bushy eyebrows, so you'll be able to describe, yeah, he had grey, bushy eyebrows, so you
can describe the colour of his hair. And the fact that they weren't just like a little
thin line of a pencil that you often see in the fashion industry. But these were big,
bushy eyebrows usually means that they haven't been in any way trimmed or cut or shaped so
bushy eyebrows, usually worn by older people who don't really pay much attention to the
hair on that their eyebrows, so they become bushy, with age and they don't trim them.
Number 13. Somebody has hollow eyes. When somebody has Halloween eyes, it almost looks
like the eyes are way back in their head. Maybe they have dark circles around their
eyes which accompany these hollow eyes, it's often a sign that somebody is underweight,
they maybe are not fed properly, or they're in need of some really, really good food over
a long period of time. Maybe they been living in a country where water and food is not so
easily accessible. So when you take a look at them, you've got this hollow eye expression
where their eyes are deep and deeply set in the back of their head. So hollow eyes. Number
14 sunken eyes very similar. So hollow eyes and sunken eyes, again, very similar the way
they look and perhaps in need of a really, really good meal or two. And we also can have
sunken cheeks and our face was you know somebody really, really thin, you can see the outline
of the cheekbones on either side, or a bit like that so that you know my face, they've
got plenty of flesh on my face, but when they have sunken cheekbones or a sunken cheeks,
this like that so you can see all of the bones and usually, there's somebody who's really
thin or has spent a lot of time on diets, or perhaps they're just naturally that way.
Okay, so sunken eyes or sunken cheekbones.
And you know the drill by now if you need some extra help. So additional uses of these
collocations then just write to me, as always, I'd be very, very happy to help you before
we mentioned having a pointed face okay, but you can also have a pointed nose and this
has been very descriptive as to how long the nose is perhaps it is determined by the nationality
of the person. So some features are like noses, and Chin's are very specific to certain people
from certain countries. But if you're trying to describe this person, and you are asked
without any noticeable features on their face, we say Oh, well, you had a very pointed nose
usually means long, thin nose. Yeah, pointed nose, number 16, rosebud mouth and lips. I
had to check this one out because it's not something that I would use. But rose bird
usually describes the colour and some people have naturally red lips. Others obviously
use makeup, women in particular where they would apply a lipstick to the lips to give
them that glossy look and all sorts of wonderful colours, but rose bird and rosebud is a red
like the the roses that grow in your garden rose but mouth and lips a certain shape and
a certain colour. Number 17 describes the physical appearance of the body and we're
using this expression, broad shoulders. So somebody who has broad shoulders is really
big here ... So they've got broad shoulders. And you can see when you look at them that
they've either worked out well in the gym, or they're naturally fit or they play some
really good contact sports that requires a good frame, a big frame and quite muscular.
So yeah, if you're describing somebody about his height, yes, he was one metre at a 1 metre
82 with very broad shoulders. So a big guy and when he looked at him, you could see that
he was physically well formed well shaped. So with broad shoulders. Number 18. We've
got spindly legs, okay, so if you had broad shoulders, you've got probably very strong
legs to support a big frame but if you've got spindly legs it means really thin I mean
not just skinny, but re really, really thin spindly legs like a spider or spindly legs
like a bird. So something that wouldn't almost support your body when you're out walking.
Wow. Because see how thin her legs are. They're real spindly legs like pieces of string spindly,
so means really, really thin. Number 19 Big brawny arms. Big brawny arms means really
strong big biceps. Brawn means plenty of strength. Somebody perhaps who is working physically
every day using their arms in the hands, perhaps they are a builder in the construction industry.
Perhaps they're a farm worker used to lifting heavy material, so they get big muscles, big
brawny arms, okay, so it's a sign of strength. And you know the way people who have good
muscles they'd like to wear short, tight T shirts, so you can see those muscles or the
guns as they like to call them. Big brawny arms. And the last one number 20 flabby arms,
you can also call flabby thighs, okay, you just have to be very careful here not to get
too personal with anybody. But flabby arms is when you hold up your arm and there's a
lot of loose skin hanging under the arm that really isn't tight. So a sign that there's
not much muscle shape there. Okay, so these as we call them wings, that's flaps of skin
that hang under the arm, like the wings of an aeroplane. So these will be flabby arms,
and the same would appear around the thighs where somebody hasn't perhaps done a lot of
workout or leather exercise recently. It doesn't take much to trim up it doesn't take much
to keep that skin tight and those muscles firm. But if you don't do it, then you end
up with flabby arms, flabby thighs, and you've got to put a lot of work in to reduce that
amount of flaps or flap means something loose something hanging under the arm or at the
top of the thighs. Okay, so these are flabby arms.
Okay, so there are 20 particular collocations to describe somebody's physical appearance.
And I said you could use these to create a picture for somebody, particularly if the
policeman was asking you for a description of the person. Then you could describe the
person has Oh, yeah, he was a big guy, by 1.80, very square, very big man. He had broad
shoulders. He had short cropped hair, a sallow complexion, a pointed nose and he was really
really fit out. So you could describe the person that way or the opposite. You could
say well, very small petite person about one metre 61 metre 65 and noticed really spindly
legs very thin. They had a sallow complexion and sunken eyes and the hair was dishevelled.
So there's a good description of how you would describe that person to a police officer.
Okay, so it's all about collocations putting words together that are helpful for you when
you want to make some good descriptions in relation to that. Make sure you join us for
the next lesson. This is Harry saying goodbye for now. Thanks for listening. Thanks for
watching.