What Are They Really Like? Describing People in English

(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, welcome to the 3 English Experts. I'm Dave, I'm Rebecca and I'm Birgit and welcome to this episode. 3 English Experts is your English podcast to help you speak better English and create a positive and happy mindset for your English learning journey. Hi everyone, welcome back to this episode. Today we're talking about characteristics, so we're going to talk about some adjectives, some words to describe people. We've tried to choose some words that maybe not everybody thinks of straight away, slightly more advanced vocabulary that we know, we all know some of our clients struggle with. It's always good to have these words. For example, if you have to describe your team, maybe your manager and you have to do appraisals, you have to review the performance of your team and how people work. So they are quite useful. With that, I'm going to hand over to Dave and he's going to go through a few tricky ones or ones that you might not always think of. Yes, hello everyone. Thank you, Rebecca. These are some of the phrases I've noted down. I often have to put in my chat for my participants in my groups. So the first one is actually a nice one, down to earth. If somebody is down to earth, that they are very nice people, the opposite for this one would be maybe arrogant. So a person who is realistic and not arrogant is down to earth. In actual fact, if you wanted to translate it into German, it's quite easy because it's one of those you kind of can translate. Correct me if I'm wrong, Birgitte you would be Burdenständig, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Hello, everybody. Yeah. Very good. Thank you. I've got one right. Excellent. The next one is easygoing. So somebody who is easygoing, we can also say is quite relaxed and a better version of easygoing, the even more easygoing than easygoing is what we call a laid back. So often they talk about the Australians as being very laid back people because they are so relaxed and chilled. Another word that often I write in the chat is the word approachable, which means that you can easily go up to somebody, talk to them, ask them questions about something. So it's particularly here, it might be something you could talk about your boss, your manager, that your boss or manager is very approachable, meaning you could go up and talk to them and you don't feel that this person would be arrogant, but is down to earth and easy to talk to. Another one would be likable. I think that word speaks for itself, but often people don't always think about the word likable could be the word that they need in this context, of course. So somebody who is likable, you can like them easily. Very, very simple. Next one will be reliable. So if somebody is reliable, they do as they said they would do. So if they say something that they will do for you, for example, to help you out, and you know that you can then count on them, you can rely on them. So that's where the word reliable comes from, from the word to rely on somebody, the verb, and that person then is reliable. And two more, honest. I'm sure you've heard the word before, honestly, or something like to be honest, but then the person who is being honest is an honest person. Here, there is a strange negative form though. Here, we don't say an honest, in honest, we actually say dishonest, but Birgit will mention a little bit more about that later on today. And last but not least, decisive. So somebody who can decide, take decisions, make decisions is considered a very decisive. So somebody, maybe a characteristic you want of your manager, somebody who doesn't think too long about making a decision, but they make the decision relatively quickly, then these people are called decisive. Okay, that's my list. So Birgit, over to you. What do you have for us? Birgit Hohmann Thank you, Dave. And hello, everybody. So there were quite a few words that describe yourself, Dave, I thought. Don't you think? Well, can you think? Decisive is not one of them. Birgit Hohmann That would not have been the one that came first in my head. Likeable? What about likeable? Reliable? Daisy Easygoing. Easygoing. So like quite a few of them. Dave I'm also, I'm speechless. Speechless. That's the word, speechless. I'll pay you later, Birgit. Birgit Hohmann Okay, but that was positive, wasn't it? Dave Absolutely. Thank you. I appreciate that very much. So the ones I have brought in today are also similar approach like Dave. The ones I need to mention to my clients, they can't think of easily. They don't come to the mind easily to learners sometimes. My first one is faithful. You are a faithful person if you don't cheat on anybody. What is cheating? Maybe that's even a word I need to explain. So if you are having an affair with somebody outside your marriage, you are cheating on your partner. So you would be not faithful. If you're faithful, you don't do that. Troy. Another one not easy to think of is resentful. So if somebody says something to you, and you can't manage to forget that you always remember when you see the person, you are a resentful person. Nachtragend. Something. Another one that doesn't need as much explanation is talkative. A talkative person, obviously, talking like a parrot, talking a lot. I'm sure everybody knows somebody like that. Hardworking also doesn't need a lot of explanation. Hardworking, that's what companies are looking for, people who are focused and hardworking. Dave, you want to say something? Yeah. Often it's also interesting to have other words, synonyms for the same word. So here may be one that you often see in appraisals, if you're talking about your manager, about how you work. Of course, you want to be known as hardworking. And the other word, more formal word that you may hear in this context is diligent. Diligent. Somebody who works hard is also diligent. It's a bit more formal, but you may hear that in that context. Very good. Thank you. Yes. And the next one, Omylis, would be patient, to be able to wait for things. And the opposite I will talk about later, as David said, is not unpatient, but impatient. I am impatient. If you can't wait a lot, you want everything now and very fast. And the last one, very last one on my list today is modest. Modest people are people who don't ask for much. They don't need much. They can live with very little or on very little money. And I don't think we have many of these around. Modest. Everybody seems to be wanting a lot today. It's not only about your money, it's also about you don't need recognition. So it can be like he's modest. Maybe he's a millionaire, but he's really modest. So he doesn't tell people that he has money. He doesn't drive a flashy car. So despite having millions, he's modest. So it's not only about, yeah, you're right. He lives in a modest way as in he doesn't spend a lot of money or material things. But it can also be like an attitude rather than a money aspect. In a way, it kind of matches with down-to-earth, doesn't it? I mean, you could say. Oh, very much. Modest, modest, not needing a lot of attention. That's a good expression and description. Yeah. Thank you. Over to Rebecca now. She's got something interesting. Yep. So minor are actually false friends. We did have an episode about false friends. A false friend is a word that you think, you know, because it's very similar to a word in your own language. And they exist in all different languages, not only in English and German. And people often use them because they think, oh, well, I know that word. It's the same as the German word. And then actually it isn't. Actually, that's an atypical one. Actual and actually are not the same thing. I didn't plan to do that, but yes. Okay. So going back to characters. So brave is my first one. Brave. People do know like brave heart, courageous. But of course, the German word brave, which is not the same. Brave is kind of well-behaved. You say to your dog, brave Hund, well-behaved, well done, but he's not necessarily brave as in courageous. Yeah. And when we refer to little children, we say good. He's a good boy or good girl or. Exactly. Yeah. Good boy. I would say to Polo, my dog, you're a good boy. Good boy. And he knows that. But the opposite is naughty. He's naughty on the naughty chair. Yeah. And there is another word that's maybe there in that context is for kids. They often call them. Rebecca will know this from the north of England. I think it's a northern English word. Rascal. Rascal. Rascal. Yeah. You little rascal. You little rascal. But there was a series on television, Little Rascals. Oh, really? Yeah, there was. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, Polo is not a little rascal. He's a good boy. Okay. He's not very brave, actually. He's afraid of big dogs, but he's a good boy. Courageous. Okay. The next one is very often mixed up. So, sensible and sensitive. So, sensible in German would be sensitive if someone's very and maybe emotional or gets upset quite easily. So, she's quite sensitive. Sensitive person. Sensible would be practical. Somebody who makes sensible decisions. That's a sensible decision, not risky. Somebody who doesn't take big risks. You say, yeah, she's a sensible child, for example. I trust her because she's very sensible. She wouldn't take risks and do the wrong thing. I know for myself, it takes quite a long time to get them because you can come back and fall back on this confusion. But we have in the drugstores, of course, sensitive skin. I think that's helpful. Yeah. I always say that as well. People know that. They know sensitive skin. So, that helps that it's not sensible skin. You don't have sensible skin. That would be a bit strange. So, you're a sensible person or you make a sensible decision. Sensitive person or, for example, like Birgit said, sensitive skin. My other one is sensible skin or what does that mean? I'm having visions of a sensible skin. Sensible skin. It doesn't take risks. It never gets sunburned. My next one comes back to what Dave was talking about, the word likeable. So, it's sympathisch. This is the classic German word that always comes up and people don't know how to translate it. And they often say sympathetic, which is not the same thing. So, sympathisch, it's also in Spanish. It's simpatico. It's the same, isn't it? It means friendly, likeable. Sympathetic is someone who has sympathy. So, I don't know, you've got three kids and you have to leave work early to take care of them. And your boss is very sympathetic. He says, oh, don't worry. I understand. So, it's like someone who's understanding. They understand your situation. It's sympathetic. It's nothing to do with this. I mean, that makes them likeable, perhaps, but it's an often mixed up translation. Sympathy, of course, is also like if someone dies, you would send a card saying with sympathy, you know, mitleid, beileid. So, it has other meanings. And the last one I'm going to talk about, we've talked about this before, self-conscious and self-confident, also often mixed up because of the word bewusst in German, conscious. So, people think, oh, selbstbewusst, self-conscious. But of course, self-conscious is a negative thing. You're afraid. You don't want people to look at you. You're embarrassed. Oh, I feel really self-conscious when I do a presentation. Everyone's looking at me and I don't like it. So, it's not a positive thing. So, if you want to say the positive version would be self-confident. So, I feel I'm a very self-confident speaker, for example. I have a lot of positive energy and I'm not afraid to stand in front of people. I'm self-confident. So, self-conscious, self-confident, sensible, sensitive, brave, courageous and sympathetic, but not sympathetic, likeable, down to earth, approachable, like Dave said. So, that's my list. Super. Very good. Very useful phrases, but we haven't found a word to describe Rebecca, maybe. Well, she's shrinking. Talkative. You said that. I said that. I admit that I'm very talkative. I talk too much. Yeah. Very good. And easygoing. Of course. And humorous. We haven't had humorous. Yes. I do my best. The Golden Nugget. Okay. The Golden Nugget for today is to do with these characteristics, descriptions, and it's about when we talk about the opposite. And often it is just like the translation that comes to your head, immediately the unsensible, maybe something. Sometimes it's unfriendly, unreliable, unhelpful, unkind, but not always. Be aware of this. There are other prefixes that are important. We mentioned some before, like impatient. So, we have impatient. It's not unpatient. It wouldn't be ungeduldig, translated one for one. And it can be in, like indecisive, unentschieden, I can't decide. You can't translate that to undecisive. And that's a trap here. Our Golden Nugget tip is really to be aware of this. Take a look at it. Another one is irresponsible, irrational, or irregular, or something like that. Be aware of this and take a look and don't think automatically it's got to be like the German translation. That's the tip here. And another one Dave mentioned earlier about the honest person. It can be an honest or a dishonest person. Another one is a loyal person, somebody backing you, or a disloyal person. And some of these words you might not have even not have heard. So, yeah, that's our tip. Take a look or we can add a list. I don't know whether we will do that. And yeah, become aware of this. Thank you, Birgit. Next time, everyone will have been on holiday and we want to tell our story about the holiday. So, that's what we're going to have a look at. Storytelling holidays linked with a bit of grammar, the past continuous. So, a little bit there for everyone, a bit of storytelling, a bit of holiday vocab, but at the same time a bit of grammar for the past continuous. So, see you in the next one. See you then. Bye-bye. Bye. Hi, and now here comes the information of my new book, which I published in July. It's available on Amazon anywhere in the world, so worldwide. It's in English. The title is Speak Clear, Correct, Confident English. Master the five core English tenses and speak with confidence. It's got 77 pages and on those pages you will find everything important about the five tenses. And yes, hopefully this will help you gain confidence quickly. And hopefully I can reach out to many listeners out there who cannot understand German because my former books were all written in German. So, now for the first time I've sent out, I've published an English book. So, I'd appreciate it if you take a look. It's got a blue cover, Speak Clear, Correct, Confident English from me as your author, Birgit Kazimierski. Okay. Thank you so much for pressing play today. If you enjoy our podcast, please share with your friends, your family, or your co-workers. Or you can also support us by giving us a thumbs up or a star rating or a review on whatever podcast platform you are using to listen to us. For questions and comments, you can also head over to our website 3englishexperts.com. Thank you so much for listening. 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