Describing people: character

Intellectual ability

Ability: intelligent bright clever sharp shrewd able gifted talented brainy (colloquial)

Lacking ability: stupid foolish half-witted simple silly brainless daft dumb dim (the last four are predominantly colloquial words)

Clever, in a negative way, using brains to trick or deceive: cunning crafty sly

Attitudes towards life

Frank is pessimistic while Helen is optimistic – he always expects the worst to happen while she 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 Bill would far rather be alone with his thoughts.

I feel very tense (or wound-up / stressed-out) after a very busy day at work but, after a hot bath and a cup of tea, I`ll soon feel relaxed.

Jane is very sensible – she`d never do anything stupid. In other words, she`s very practical and down-to-earth.

Rupert is very sensitive – he gets very upset (or worked-up [more colloquial]), if he feels people are criticizing him.

Attitude towards other people

Enjoying other`s company: sociable gregarious

Disagreeing with others: quarrelsome argumentative

Taking pleasure in other`s 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 one does not have oneself: jealous envious

One person`s meat is another person`s poison

Some characteristics can be either positive or negative depending on your point of view. The words in the right-hand column mean roughly the same as the words in the left-hand column except that they have negative rather than positive connotations.

PRACTICE