Describing People, Places, and Things in English

To describe a person, use be for general qualities (She is tall.) and have or have got for features (She has long dark hair.). When two or more adjectives come before a noun, they follow a fixed order — opinion → size → age → shape → colour → origin → material → purpose — as in a lovely old wooden table. Below are the adjectives for appearance, character and places.

Describing appearance

Height and build: tall, short, slim, well-built Hair: long, short, straight, curly, blonde, dark Age: young, middle-aged, elderly (politer than "old" for people)

We use have got / have for features and be for general qualities:

• She has long dark hair.
• She is tall.

Describing character

Positive	Negative
friendly	unfriendly
generous	mean
hard-working	lazy
patient	impatient
confident	shy
reliable	unreliable
easy-going	difficult

Note the pattern: many opposites just add un- or im-. But not all — the opposite of generous is mean, not "ungenerous".

A useful frame for character: He's the kind of person who always remembers your birthday.

Describing places

• Size: tiny, small, big, huge
• Atmosphere: quiet, busy, crowded, lively, peaceful
• Condition: modern, old, clean, dirty
• Opinion: beautiful, ugly, boring, interesting

It's a small, quiet town near the mountains.

Adjective order

When you use two or more adjectives, English has a fixed order. The full rule runs:

opinion → size → age → shape → colour → origin → material → purpose → noun

• ✅ a beautiful little old house
• ❌ an old little beautiful house
• ✅ a lovely big red car
• ✅ a small round wooden table

Native speakers don't learn this rule — they just hear it. If you're unsure, remember that opinion comes first and the material or purpose sits closest to the noun.

In practice, three adjectives in a row is rare. Two is normal, and beyond that English usually splits them up: a lovely old house, painted white.

The -ed / -ing trap

This is the most consequential mistake in the whole topic, because it changes the meaning rather than the style.

• -ing describes the thing: The film was boring.
• -ed describes the person's feeling: I was bored.

So ❌ I am boring says you are a dull person. The same split runs through interesting / interested, confusing / confused, surprising / surprised and the rest of the family.

Making descriptions stronger

Instead of adding very, use a stronger adjective:

Instead of	Say
very big	huge
very small	tiny
very good	excellent
very bad	awful
very tired	exhausted
very pretty	beautiful
very cold	freezing
very hungry	starving

Note: you can't say very huge or very excellent — these adjectives are already extreme. Use absolutely or completely instead: absolutely huge.

And softening one

The other direction is just as useful, and English speakers use it constantly:

• It's quite good. (fairly — in British English this can even mean "not very")
• It's a bit small. (slightly, and usually a criticism)
• It's not exactly cheap. (it's expensive — understatement)

Adjectives carry your attitude, not just information. Small and tiny describe the same flat; a bit small is a complaint and cosy is an estate agent's compliment. Choosing the adjective is choosing what you think of the thing.

Describing a flat you've just seen

A: What was it like?

B: Quite small, and a bit dark. But it's a lovely old building.

A: Were you disappointed?

B: A little. The photos were misleading — it looked huge online.

Quite and a bit to soften, the adjective order in lovely old building, and disappointed against misleading — the -ed and -ing pair doing exactly its job.

Try it yourself

The quiz below tests both the vocabulary and the word order.