IELTS Energy 1494: How to Write About People on IELTS
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This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1494, How to Write About People on IELTS.

Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English, downloaded more than 22 million times with former IELTS examiner Jessica Beck and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz. If you are stuck with a low score, our insider method will help you get the score you need to unlock your dreams. Get your estimated band score now with our two-minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash IELTS.

You know you have to describe people on IELTS Speaking, but did you know you might have to do this on your writing test as well? Today, we'll give you some example writing questions and teach you excellent high-scoring vocabulary for physical appearance and personality.

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We show you how to impress the examiner with native phrases, organized answers, and a clear message. And we make it fun because motivation matters. If you want a seven or higher on IELTS, open your search bar now and find All Ears English and hit follow and get one step closer to getting past IELTS starting now. Aubrey, can you give me one adjective to describe your physical appearance and one adjective for your personality?

All I can think of is "ready." Jessica and I just had this conversation about whether you should describe someone's skin as "ready," which means sort of the opposite of smooth. I do not have ready skin. I've always had pretty smooth skin. That's great. That's great for you. That's awesome. What about your personality? One adjective. Bubbly. I love it. I love it. What about you? You're also quite bubbly.

I'm pretty bubbly. I'm going to say animated. That's a great adjective. That is just part of me. And physical appearance.

Odd. Okay. Those are my adjectives. Unique. Unique is better than odd. You know, I'll take both. I like them both. Guys, today we are talking about when you will have to describe people on IELTS and how you can describe them. So it is a jam-packed episode today. Yes.

Yes, and this is a little tricky because when it comes to describing physical appearance, I often tell my kids like just don't comment on someone's physical appearance because you can easily offend or say something that is inappropriate. So you do have to be very careful on IELTS. Stick with what we described today. These are all safe for the IELTS exam and appropriate. Yes, love it. So we are doing this episode because a student

wrote us a question. Aubrey, can you read the question? Yes. How can you write a descriptive paragraph on physical appearance or personality of people? And how can I write a descriptive paragraph on places that I describe? Ooh, tricky. Awesome. Okay. So today we're going to- Let's go part two for the places. That one's different.

Yes, there could be parts of writing that you would have to describe places, but we're going to talk about places on the next episode, guys. Today, we're going to focus on that first part, writing a descriptive paragraph about physical appearance and personalities. The reason why we chose this question, guys, is because we usually just think this only happens on IELTS Speaking.

but there is actually opportunity for this to happen on writing also. Absolutely. On both task one and task two, you may need to describe people. And again, it's a little tricky to know what to do and how to do it. So we're covering that today. What types of questions might you get on the writing exam where you would need to describe either personalities or appearances? Yes. All right. So in task two, guys, I can't

I don't think there will be a question asking you to describe people physically unless it were related to health, like the obesity epidemic, for example. But even in that question, I

I don't recommend getting into like the physical description of overweight people. That wouldn't be necessary. Stick to like the health consequences and causes. Answer the question. Exactly. Exactly. But there could be questions related to personality types on task two. I have seen a number of examples about this, but we're going to give you two examples now. So what's one task two example?

Yeah, one could be some people enjoy changes in life while others try to avoid change. What are the advantages and disadvantages of both personality types? That would be tricky.

answer? The way I would answer that first, guys, is I would think of examples. I would think of a person I know who loves change and a person I know who does not like change. Think of the examples first and then get the main idea from that. Exactly, because especially if this is someone you know, then you're going to be describing their personality, what makes them like that. It's going to be easier to come up with those details.

Exactly, exactly. And here's another possible task two question. Some say that ambition is necessary for success. To what extent do you agree or disagree? So first of all, you have to know the word ambition, right? What does ambition mean? Yeah, it means you have drive, right? You have goals for your future. You're not lazy. You're not unmotivated. You're very motivated to succeed.

Yeah, totally. And Aubrey just gave you a number of parallel expressions there, right? Having drive, being motivated, not being lazy. So lots of great vocabulary there. What about task one? I don't think this would ever be a topic of like academic task one, but I can see it being like an informal task one.

I can definitely see general training letters where you need to describe a friend. But I thought of a couple of possible task one academic questions as well. For example, what if there are charts that show results from surveys taken by a thousand college students and they are describing their own personalities?

maybe a scale between outgoing and timid or driven and unmotivated. And so then you're needing to use parallel expressions there to describe these survey results. Or what about a graph that shows physical attributes that are listed as desirable on social media apps, something like that. And so then you're not coming up, you know, they would be listed on the task one and you would still need parallel expressions to describe all of those.

Those are such fantastic examples. I love it so much. So yeah, so they could come up on academic for sure. And then task one, the informal general training letter, right? Writing about a friend to another friend. There could be a number of informal letters about that, but I love these examples of academic task one questions. Love it. Yeah, it could come up anywhere on the writing exam.

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Okay, so let's get into some vocabulary. How can we describe physical appearance, Aubrey? Yeah, you can always describe height, of course, tall, short, and then coloring, light or dark complexion or complected as the adjective, and then hair color, of course, brunette, redhead,

blonde, and then just the color. You can say they have brown hair, black hair, lots of different options there. Sure. Gray hair, short hair, long hair. And as far as height goes, guys, you cannot say a person is high, a person is tall. If you did not know that, then you missed our last episode. So scroll up to IELTS Energy 1493, Mistakes You Make With High and Tall.

All right, so we can also describe like skin type. It can be smooth, right? Or if you're describing a beloved granny, maybe she's wrinkly.

That's not bad to say, like people over the age of 90 are going to be wrinkly, right? You could say how strong a person is. Maybe they have big biceps or maybe they're well-toned, right? They have like muscle definition. You could also describe their style, right?

Yes, exactly. Their fashion sense. You can share if they have glasses and describe their glasses. Eye color as well. Hazel is sort of the mixture of green, brown, blue eyes, green and brown, and then blue, brown or green, gray. My eyes are gray. That's a cool color. My eyes are hazel.

Gray eyes. That's rare. That's a cool eye color to have. And, of course, facial features, right? Like big nose, small nose, pouty lips, we could say. You could describe tattoos if they have them. And this last one I like, you could describe how much they smile. These are really...

very specific detailed things to say about physical appearance, right? It's not just like they're tall and pretty. So I hope all of these ideas really give you guys more options when you're describing people in speaking or writing.

Yes, and when it comes to describing something like someone's smile, you're opening yourself up to using so many more interesting adjectives. To say they have a glowing smile or bright, brilliant, stunning, all of these interesting adjectives that can describe a smile. Yes, love it. But of course, guys, remember after you say one of these things, if you can give more details,

always give more details. If you can give examples like how much they smile, give an example. Now what about personality? We've already mentioned some good personality vocabulary in the examples that Aubrey gave about questions. Exactly right. Whether someone is driven or unmotivated can also talk about introverted or extroverted.

and generous or stingy, it's often good to think of these as opposites. So then you can get both and start thinking of the synonyms for each. Nice, nice. All right. And then what are some more sort of opposites? We've paired all these in opposites. What are some more opposites we can use? Yeah, we have talkative or shy or timid.

And then energetic or low energy. You can say lazy, but be careful, this definitely has a negative connotation. So low energy is a good way of sort of saying lazy without having that negative connotation. I would rather be called low energy when I'm having a lazy day. - Me too.

And if someone is funny, you don't have to say like funny. That's kind of normal. You can say they're witty. Witty is like funny and clever. I think it's like both of those things. Yes, very much so. Or hilarious. But if ever you call someone hilarious, you really need to hit it, right? You don't want to say this in a monotone. They are hilarious. Nice. Love it.

All right, guys. If you have IELTS questions for us, like the awesome one that inspired today's episode, send us an email, support at allearsenglish.com. And we'll see you next time. Awesome. See you next time. Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy. Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com slash my score.

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