Speaking: Advanced English Vocabulary For Describing Personality

hi everyone anna here from englishlikernative.com today we're learning 30 advanced phrases and i may throw in some extra bonus phrases too but these can be used when talking about personality this lesson has been kindly sponsored by lingoda but more about them later let's get started [Music] phrase number one all over the place to be all over the place means that you're emotionally a mess you're quite disorganized and unable to focus on things usually someone is all over the place when something's happened or perhaps they feel overwhelmed with work and personal things that are going on it's not often that someone is all over the place all the time so usually it's just when you're experiencing high stress or just not really coping very well so here's an example if i have just given birth to my my little baby and my boss has asked me to try and still work one day a week and said to me can you lead this project i might say i'll try but i am a bit all over the place at the moment i'm not getting much sleep i don't know um i don't know my i was gonna say i don't know my ass from my elbow that's another phrase to know your ass from your elbow means you just don't know what's going on with yourself let's not do that phrase today um but yeah it means that you're emotionally all over the place unable to focus and quite disorganized have you ever been all over the place okay next phrase to be down to earth a person who is down to earth is someone who's grounded they're realistic they don't try and do things that are impossible and they don't tend to have unrealistic dreams like one day i want to have a million pounds and live in a mansion and be famous that would not be someone who's down to earth that would be a dreamer perhaps but if you're down to earth you're realistic the next phrase is to be the life and soul of the party this is a really good one i hope people think of me as the life and soul of the party they're probably not to be the life and soul of the party is to be someone who's fun someone who is the center of energy and activity they come into a party and really make it feel fun now this phrase can be used outside of a party environment it can be used in any kind of group environment you can just say about someone in general if someone is generally fun and always full of energy you can say oh yeah she's always the life and soul of the party the next phrase is to bend over backwards oh that would hurt wouldn't it to bend over backwards to break your back to bend over backwards is to try to help someone but to try really hard bending over forwards is easy bending over backwards is difficult so if someone is bending over backwards for you or bending over backwards to do something it means they're trying really really hard to make something happen or really hard to help somebody else they are bending over backwards have you ever bent over backwards for somebody i know i have the next phrase is cheapskate cheapskate hopefully no one's ever thought of me as a cheapskate a cheapskate is quite a negative phrase it means that someone doesn't like to spend money so for example you might go to a cafe with your friend and you order a coffee and a piece of cake and you say to your friend are you gonna get something she says oh no i'll just have tap water i don't want to spend money on a coffee there's nothing wrong with saving money and being careful with money but a cheapskate is somebody who just won't ever really spend money so maybe they don't buy their parents a gift on their birthday instead they give them something that they have already around the house because they don't want to spend money it's not someone who's poor it's someone who has money and doesn't want to spend it okay so a cheapskate the next phrase is a dark horse now this sounds like it's negative but it's not always used in a negative way a dark horse is someone who has a secret a secret skill or a secret past experience that suddenly comes to light so for example if you've known me for three years and you never knew that i could juggle and then suddenly at a children's party the kids go i'm bored i'm bored and i get out some balls or something and i start juggling amazingly you'll go wow anna you're a dark horse when did you learn to juggle so it's something that has been kept a secret a skill or a past experience okay the next phrase is the phrase open-minded so you would describe someone as being open-minded if they are happy to consider anything they're very accepting of other views other ideas other options so i might want to organize a night out at the weekend and say to a group of my friends does anyone fancy going to the cinema or maybe we could go to a restaurant what do you want to do and one of my friends might say i'm easy whatever you want to do i'm happy to do you just tell me what we're going to do and that person is quite open-minded they're happy to consider anything the next phrase is outgoing this is another quite positive way to describe someone if someone's outgoing it means they're very friendly they're socially quite confident yeah usually just quite bouncy and bubbly energetic very outgoing the next one's very similar but it means something different it's easy going easy going if you're easygoing it means you're relaxed you're not easily worried about things so you just chill you don't get stressed you're quite easy going the next one is the word extrovert extrovert an extrovert is someone who is outgoing they're very energetic and they're also socially confident it's just a way to describe that personality type someone who is big and socially confident and happy in a very busy social environment the next one is absent minded absent-minded if you're absent-minded it means that you don't really think about things that you make mistakes from not thinking about things so perhaps you regularly leave the oven on when you finish cooking perhaps you forget to lock the door or you promise that you'll do something and then you forget to do it that would make you quite absent-minded and perhaps you're absent-minded because recently you've been all over the place because life has been chaotic the next phrase is fun loving if you're fun-loving it means that you enjoy having fun yeah i'm really fun-loving let's go and party the next phrase a bit more negative is to have a short fuse someone who has a short fuse is someone who loses their temper very easily so they get angry easily sometimes someone is usually quite easy going relaxed but maybe they've had a very bad day and they're feeling a little bit impatient and frustrated and angry and you could say what's wrong with anna she's got a very short fuse today she snaps into being angry very quickly it's not like her she's normally very easy going very relaxed the next phrase is quite a fun one a jack of all trades now it's often shortened to a jack of all trades but it actually comes from a longer phrase a jack of all trades master of none now someone who is a jack of all trades is someone who's good at many things but they're not an expert at any of them so for example if you are organizing a party you might be organizing the party creating the invitations making a cake doing the catering for the party so organizing all the food you might be organizing all the music so you're being a dj and you're good at all of those things you can create nice looking invitations you can bake a nice cake you can create lots of wonderful food for people to enjoy and you're good at putting music together but you're not the best you're not an expert cake maker you're not a professional dj you've not organized that many parties before you are a jack of all trades does that make sense the next one is a good egg if someone is a good egg i like this phrase it just means they're a good person they're a nice person see why i said oh i like that that nikki she's a good egg now talking about good eggs the lovely team over at 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like being in their company so to be with them because they're just nice they're fun it's always pleasant so you could say i enjoy hanging out with dave he's always good company then we have a good sense of humor if you have a good sense of humor it means you have the ability to understand what's funny so if someone tells a joke or pulls a prank or says something silly then a person with a good sense of humor will laugh they'll understand it's funny they'll understand it's a joke or a prank if someone doesn't have a good sense of humor then perhaps they will find a joke offensive or get angry when someone pulls a prank or just not laugh when someone does something silly do you have a good sense of humor similar to that phrase you could say that someone is a good laugh so they have a good sense of humor but someone can be a good laugh if someone is a good laugh it means they're always fun to be around they make other people laugh i like him he's a good laugh the next one on the list which is the opposite to extrovert is introvert so remember extrovert is someone who's socially confident uh who just likes being in big groups of people who likes speaking to people they're friendly an introvert is the opposite they're someone who is quiet reserved they're quite thoughtful perhaps they don't feel comfortable in big groups of people they prefer one-on-one interaction and introvert which one are you an introvert or an extrovert now the next one is to be laid back laid back someone who is laid back is pretty much the same as someone who's easy going it means they're relaxed they yeah they're just relaxed about things they don't worry they don't get stressed they don't get agitated easily so yeah they're pretty laid back now the next one is a fun one to be a loose cannon it's not very positive if you're a loose cannon it means you're unpredictable you're potentially dangerous or destructive or maybe just disruptive um imagine a loose cannon is like the big guns the cannons that they used to have on pirate ships and they were on wheels so they could move but when you wanted to shoot them you'd have to tie them down so they didn't roll around too far with the force of the gunshot and so a loose cannon if it's not tied down is dangerous it will go off and it might fly back it might hurt somebody a loose cannon you don't want to be described as a loose cannon on the same sort of theme the next one is to lose one's temper so if somebody loses their temper it means they suddenly become angry so you could say the teacher lost her temper when she heard the students giggling at the back of the classroom or my partner lost his temper when he saw the mess that the house was in okay the next one another negative one is to be narrow-minded to be narrow-minded now to be narrow-minded the opposite would be broad-minded um so narrow-minded means that you are not open to ideas you have one idea and it's set and you can't see any other point of view you won't accept any other opinion you're very narrow-minded someone who is broad-minded or open-minded we discussed that one before uh is more open to other ideas and opinions okay the next one this is a good one a people person a people person are you a people person a people person is just someone who's great with people even people that they don't know they can talk to anyone have a full conversation with a stranger in a queue or in in the toilet or anywhere making a cup of tea in the office kitchen so they're a people person opposite to a people person might be someone who is painfully shy painfully shy if someone's painfully shy it just means they're very very shy some people are so shy that they find life difficult they get very upset and anxious when someone talks to them or if they have to do something that makes them feel uncomfortable if they have to deal with confrontation so to be painfully shy it can be debilitating if something's debilitating it means that it stops you from being able to do something so you're stopped from doing things another slightly negative one is a pain in the neck now you can change you can change the word neck for well it can be changed to butt pain in the bum pain in the butt pain in the arse pain in the neck yeah those are the main ones so pain pain in the bum pain in the neck are the main ones or a pain in the ass if you're being a little bit more crude if you're a pain in the neck it means that you're annoying basically um i often hear this phrase to describe children that are nagging or being irritating oh you're such a pain in the neck go to bed go to sleep um it's it's not too offensive but i wouldn't use it to describe someone at work in front of their face anyway maybe privately you'll say well my boss is a pain in the butt but um you wouldn't say that to his face absolutely not okay next one um someone who puts others first to put other people first so you'd use this phrase to talk about someone who thinks about other people before themselves so you might say sandra's such a lovely lady she always puts everyone else first she always puts my needs first before everyone else's needs she's such a sweetheart the next phrase is quick tempered if someone's quick tempered it means that they become angry very quickly so they lose their temper we heard that one before as well they lose their temper very fast the next phrase gosh there's loads of phrases here the next phrase is reserved if you're reserved and we heard that in one of the descriptions it means you're shy so someone who's introverted might be shy hopefully not painfully shy opposite to reserved you could say self-assured or self-confident it just means someone who's very confident they feel very relaxed and confident about who they are and what they have to do they're not shy or reserved or introverted they're self-assured they have belief in themselves similar but very different is self-centered now if you're self-centered it means that you only think about yourself let's say your office has a fire and everyone is sent out of the building because there's a fire in the office rather than worrying about the safety of other people whether or not the business is going to be able to survive after a big fire that will cause lots of damage and disruption you only think about the fact that you left your coat in the office and your coat might get destroyed that would be very self-centered you're only thinking about you and how you've been affected you're not thinking about everything else so try not to be self-centered you want to be self-assured but not self-centered the next one is to be set in your ways now if someone is set in their ways it means they don't like change most older people become a bit set in their ways they do things for such a long time in a certain way that they don't like to change it let's imagine lots of new technology comes in that can make your life easier or the internet and social media platforms if you're in your 80s you might be like well i'd rather just make a phone call instead of sending a whatsapp or i'd rather see you face to face instead of doing this skype or zoom thing or facetime whatever it is everyone's using nowadays someone is set in their ways they don't want to change they do things the same all the time the next phrase is to take after to take after if you take after someone this is normally used in a family relationship setting it means that you are like somebody else so a child will probably take after one of their parents or their grandparents so it means they've got some sort of trait or skill that their parents or grandparents have so you could say oh charlie's really good on the piano he must take after his grandmother who was a professional piano player the next phrase is thick skinned thick skinned if you're thick-skinned it means you're not affected by negativity or by criticism if you are a youtuber then it's helpful to be thick-skinned because most youtubers will have to deal with trolls and negative comments and just nastiness sometimes so to be thick-skinned is to just not be bothered by negativity the next one is the word trustworthy trustworthy if you are trustworthy it means you can be trusted i was doing a lesson recently with a student who meant trustworthy but said trust full i understand where that comes from but we always use trustworthy in this case to be trustworthy the next one is not a positive one it's to be too faced if you're two-faced it means you're not very honest you literally have two faces one that's pretending to smile and be happy and the other one which is mean and nasty so you might say one thing to someone like yeah i'm your friend i won't tell anyone your secret and then behind their back you say negative things about them you tell everyone their secret that would be very two-faced so they have a much longer list than 30 but hopefully i think that was like 36 or something hopefully that wasn't too overwhelming but was actually very helpful for you don't forget to check out that free trial with lingoda i always think it's worth taking freebies just to see what things are like and you don't lose anything if if you didn't like it then well you know you tried and you didn't pay anything for it um otherwise why not come and join me in another lesson or i'll see you on some other social media platform take care bye

Channel: English Like A Native

Views: 42,237

Keywords: British English, English Lesson, Learn English, English Like a native, Anna English, advanced english vocabulary, advanced english, english vocabulary, advanced english words, english vocabulary lesson, improve english vocabulary, learn english vocabulary, real english vocabulary, english, english conversation, english pronunciation, ielts speaking vocabulary, learn english, speak english, ielts speaking, phrasal verbs, british english pronunciation, british english accent

Id: 23FJ8U_aaTM

Length: 23min 8sec (1388 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 18 2020