Describe a person in French
Exercises
- Exercise: Parts of the body? Score -/-
- Translation exercise: How he looks like? Score -/-
- How to describe a person? - Recap exercise Score -/-
In this lesson you will learn how to briefly describe someone; his or her face, body and characters traits. To make it more useful we suggest you to first study the lesson about colors.
Lesson Outline
HideAdjectives to describe someone in French
To ask some Francophone about physical appearance, you can use the expression "A quoi ressemble ?". And to answer the question you can use the same expression but in the affirmative form "Il ressemble à" and add few adjectives from the table bellow.
English |
French |
|---|---|
| Old | Vieux |
| Young | Jeune |
| Small | Petit |
| Big | Grand |
| Slim | Mince |
| Large | Gros |
| Pretty | Joli |
| Ugly | Laid |
| Muscled | Musclé |
| Pale | Pâle |
| Tanned | Bronzé |
| Athletic | Sportif |
Examples:
How Julien looks like? = De quoi a l`air Julien? / A quoi ressemble-t-il?
He looks like a athlete. = Il a l'air sportif.
He looks old. = Il a l'air vieux.
Parts of the face in French
Being able to describe someones parts of the face, can help you to give more faithful description. In this case we use expression made of verb:
avoir + noun + adjective.
English |
French |
|---|---|
| face | le visage |
| eyes | les yeux |
| noise | le nez |
| mouth | la bouche |
| hair | les cheveux |
| short | court |
| long | long |
| blonde | blonde |
| curly | bouclé |
| straight (hair) | raide |
Attention!
Pay attention that in French "hair" has a plural form "les cheveux", also that adjectives need to be agreed in gender and number with the noun they follow.
Examples:
She has a blue eyes. = Elle a les yuex bleus.
He has long curly hair. = Il a les cheveux bouclés longs. / Il a de longs cheveux bouclés.
How to say body parts in French ?
To speak about body parts in French you can apply the same rule as for parts of the face; formulation is verb
"avoir" + noun + adjective.
To enrich your vocabulary you can add a few adjecives such as, long (long), court (short), gros (big)...
English |
French |
|---|---|
| face | le visage |
| head | la tête |
| shoulder | l`épaule |
| arm | le bras |
| ears | les oreilles |
| hand | la main |
| fingers | les doigts |
| leg | la jambe |
| stomach | le ventre |
| back | le dos |
| knee | le genou |
| foot | le pied |
| toe | l`orteil |
Examples:
She has a long legs and small arms. = Elle a de longes jambes et courtes bras.
His face has a oval shape. = Son visage est ovale.
How to say main character traits in French ?
Here you will find a list to describe someone`s character traits in French. You can use the formulation of verb:
"être" + adjective.
Pay attention to formation of adjective masculine and feminine forms! Masculine is only variable in plural. In feminine form you add an -e / -le / -euse.
English |
French |
|---|---|
| Nice | Sympa |
| Kind | Gentil |
| Bad | Méchant |
| Intelligent | Intelligent |
| Stupid | Bête |
| Generous | Généreux |
| Patient | Patient |
| Shy | Timide |
| Lazy | Paresseux |
Examples:
She is kind and generous. = Elle est gentille et généreuse.
Mario is restless and lazy. = Mario est impatient et paresseux.
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