Vocabulary | Describing Personality 2

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Episode 273 Vocabulary Describing Personality 2

Disclaimer

I am using an automatic transcript service as it is not possible for me to do it on my own and I cannot afford human transcription at the moment. The service claims to have about 95% accuracy, which means there will still be some mistakes, so my apologies for having a less than perfect transcript, but I hope I can afford human transcription soon and I will solve this problem. However, the service is pretty good, and the transcript is almost perfect.

Transcript

Welcome to a new episode from English plus podcast. Today, we will focus on vocabulary that you can use in your own speaking and writing. And we will focus on describing personality and character traits. Now, we talked about that last time and I promised you that we will talk one more time about describing personality.

[00:00:26] In this episode, we will talk about some adjectives to describe people’s personality or behavior. We will talk about some adjectives to describe people sociability, and we will wrap the episode up by talking about some other common character traits. So without further ado, Let’s start talking about some adjectives to describe people’s personality or behavior.

[00:00:48] We will start with an example and then we will figure out the meaning of the word or the key word that describes the personality and learn about its meaning. Let’s start with this first example. She’s so impetuous. I wish she would consider things before acting. So obviously the word is impetuous. I M P E T U O U S impetuous.

[00:01:12] Now, what do you think the meaning of impetuous is? Impetuous means someone who acts on a sudden idea without thinking first. And it’s often negative. You’re not praising a person by saying he or she is impetuous. So that was impetuous. Let’s talk about the next example. His impulsive generosity led him to give money to anyone who asked for help.

[00:01:36] And the word here is impulsive. I M P U L S I V E impulsive. What does that mean? Now? It is similar to impetuous, but can be used in a more positive way. Impetuous and impulsive are very close to each other, but impetuous is usually used in a negative way and impulsive is usually used in a positive way.

[00:01:59] And now for the next example, she always gives me such an, a few Civ welcome when I visit her. The word obviously is if you Civ E F F U S I V E what does that mean? Now, when we talk about an effusively welcome, that means she gives exaggerated expression of pleasure, praise or gratitude if you said welcome.

[00:02:21] So that is if you sieve, what about our next example? He’s a very excitable child. He needs to calm down. Excitable is our word here, and that means easily excited by things. And by the way, excitable is spelled E X, C I T a B L E. Excitable. And now for our next example, she’s so pushy. It’s typical of her to demand a pay rise for herself and not care about the rest of us.

[00:02:50] So the word is pushy. When we say that someone is pushy, what do we mean by that? B U S H Y pushy. That means when someone always selfishly promotes his or her own position or interests, and that is usually an informal word to use and a negative one of course. And now what about the next example? Freddie seemed self-conscious and uncomfortable when he had to make the announcement at the party.

[00:03:17] What does it mean to be self-conscious now? Self-conscious is S E L F dash C O N S C I O U S. Self-conscious. That means nervous or uncomfortable because you know what people think about you or your actions? That is self-conscious. Now what about the next example? The teacher said Maddie was a well-balanced child who got on well at school seems like a good word, a positive one, and it is.

[00:03:45] Well balanced first is spelled w E L L dash B a L a N C E D. That is well balanced and that means calm and reasonable and showing good judgment. And now for our next example, he was a bit taciturn. When I first met him. He hardly said a word now that’s the turn is spelled T a C I T U R N. Taciturn. What does that mean?

[00:04:10] That means reserved and says very little. And we said that he hardly said a word taciturn, and that is generally negative. Of course. Now let’s move on to talk about the sociability of people. Now let’s talk about Chloe. For example, CLO is such an introvert. Her brother Mark is so outgoing and is such an extrovert strange.

[00:04:31] Isn’t it. Now here we have three words. We have introvert, we have outgoing and we have extrovert. These three words we can use to describe people sociability, but they are not exactly the same when we said glow is such an introvert. I N D R O V E R T. That means inward looking and quiet when we said her brother Mark is so outgoing.

[00:04:54] Oh, UT going that means energetic and friendly and finds it easy to be with others. And we said he is such an extrovert. Extrovert is the opposite of introvert. And that means outward looking energetic and sociable. Let’s take a look at another example, Mr. Rogers is such a diffident man. He seems to have quite low self-esteem.

[00:05:17] We have dividend and we have self-esteem now dividend is spelled D I F F I D E N T. And self-esteem is spelled S E L F dash E S T E M self-esteem. Now, when we say Mr. Rogers is such a diffident man, what does that mean? That means he lacks confidence. He is not confident enough. And when we say that he has low self-esteem, we mean that he has a low opinion of himself.

[00:05:47] Now let’s move on to talk about the next example. English people are traditionally thought of as rather reserved R E S E R V E D. Reserved. What does that mean? It doesn’t mean that they’re not sociable, but that means they’re not immediately sociable. Some people say it’s true. Some people say it’s not.

[00:06:06] But that is at least what they are traditionally thought of. And now for the next example, Eva tends to be rather aloof. I don’t know if she’s just shy now. Aloof is close, but it’s a little bit different and it’s mostly negative. When we talk about a person who’s unfriendly and not sociable. And it is spelled by the way, a L O O F aloof.

[00:06:31] And now for the next example, my aunt Annie can be very hearty and disdainful at times, but she’s lovely. Really. No here Hottie and disdainful hearty is H a U G H T Y. Disdainful is D I S D a N F U L. What is the meaning of haughty? Now he said my aunt and he can be very hearty and disdainful, but if you really know her, you will realize that she is a lovely person.

[00:06:58] So that means Hottie and disdainful are not that positive. Right? So hearty is unfriendly and thinks herself better than others. Now of course, herself here, because we’re talking about and any could be herself or himself and disdainful. We’re talking about a person who does not believe others deserve respect.

[00:07:17] These are very negative traits to have, but some people do have them. Anyway, let’s move on to talk about the next example. I’ve always found professor Microsoft, very unapproachable, but his colleague, Dr. Simpson is very approachable. Now, here, obviously the words are approachable and unapproachable. Now approachable is spelled app R O a C H a B L E.

[00:07:42] Approachable is obviously the opposite. So what do we mean by saying unapproachable? Unapproachable means not easy to be sociable with or start a conversation with. That’s sometimes even intimidating. You’re kind of afraid of this person, but it doesn’t have to be intimidating, but unapproachable difficult to be sociable or start a conversation with.

[00:08:03] And obviously approachable is just the opposite. Easy to be sociable with or start a conversation with. And now let’s move on to the next example. Natasha is very conceded and self-important, but Rachel is such a modest person. So conceded self-important again, we’re talking about negative qualities, modest.

[00:08:24] We’re talking about a positive quality conceded is spelled C O N C E I T E D self-important is obviously S E L F dash I M B O R T a N T. And modest is spelled M O D E S T. Now let’s start with conceited. When we said Natasha is very considered, she thinks herself wonderful. These are the people who look in the mirror for hours and hours and they just praise themselves, mirror, mirror on the wall, something like that.

[00:08:55] And then we talked about self-important. That means to have an exaggerated sense of her importance. It is important to be confident, but not that much. This is not about confidence. When you have an exaggerated sense of your importance, that means you’re self-important and you think you’re better than other people.

[00:09:13] You might be better, but if you think so there’s a problem. And trust me, there’s always someone better, no matter how good you are, there’s always someone better and it doesn’t matter. Who’s better than whom. It all matters that we’re doing the things we want to do. We’re confident we can deliver. We can get to the things we want to get.

[00:09:31] And that’s enough. We don’t need to be self-important conceded Hottie or all of these things, but some people are, and here we go to the opposite, which is modest. We said, Rachel is such a modest person, not a modest person, prefers not to exaggerate her or his own qualities. And now for the next example, Joe is always so polite and respectful, respectful.

[00:09:54] R E S P E C T F U L. Respectful. I wish he would be more informal and just treat me as his equal to respectful. And now of course, respectful is a positive word all the time. Polite and respectful. But here, the person is just saying, no, come on. Don’t be so formal. Don’t respect me that much. We’re friends.

[00:10:14] But coming back to the word itself, respectful, it means treating someone well and politely often with admiration. And that’s a very positive word. Of course. And now, before I move on to talk about the last couple of examples we have, let me remind you that there is a link in the description of the episode that will take you to our website, English plus podcast.com.

[00:10:35] There you will find interactive exercises and you will find a PDF practice worksheet you can download and all of these interactive activities, PDF downloadable worksheet, you can get for free and they are designed. Only for you to practice the things we’re learning here. The post is custom made for this episode and everything in the post is meant to help you practice the things you learn and improve your English.

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[00:11:27] Now that being said, let’s move on to talk about the last couple of examples we have for today. And we have an example about Ren. Ren is a somewhat naive person. He thinks love can solve all the world’s problems. Now, as beautiful as the idea is, unfortunately we know it’s not true, or it’s not always true.

[00:11:47] Some people believe loft can solve all the world’s problems, but not everybody believes that in the world. I wish everybody would believe in that, but that’s not the truth. So here, that’s why we said audience is a somewhat naive person and a I V E what does that mean? Naive means willing to believe simple things, perhaps because of inexperience.

[00:12:08] And remember a naive person is never a stupid person. We’re not saying a stupid person. It’s more leaning on the innocent part of the person. This person is more innocent than stupid, but never stupid. And now for the next word, which is close to naive, but in a different way, telephone salespeople often take advantage of gullible people.

[00:12:28] Gullible, G U L L I B L E gullible people. Now, these people are easily deceived people because these people tend to trust other people easily. So they’re easily tricked and unfortunately bad people take advantage of gullible people. And again, gullible people are not stupid. Even sometimes people call them stupid, but they’re not.

[00:12:51] They’re also innocent people. They might be naive innocent, but they’re not stupid. They trust easily and they trust too much. And unfortunately that’s a problem in our times. Anyway, let’s move on to the next example. My father was a very conscientious man. He never took time off work unless he was really sick.

[00:13:10] Now, when you are conscientious and it is spelled by the way, C O N S C I E N T I O U S conscientious. And this example, when this person talks about his father, that means always took his work very seriously and paid attention to the smallest of details in this work. That is to be conscientious. And now for the next example, she’s a restless individual.

[00:13:36] I don’t think she’ll ever settle down in a job. When you talk about a person as restless, R E S T L E S S restless. That means not satisfied with what you’re doing now and you want something new. But the problem about this is that is the case all the time. You always want something new. Sometimes it’s good.

[00:13:55] By the way, to be restless at certain stages of your life may help you find what you really want to do. You don’t settle down, you don’t settle down before you really figure out what you want to do in life. Well, but that is a little bit of philosophy. We don’t want to go there. Anyway, let’s move now to our very last example for today, and that is you are so obstinate and pig-headed why don’t you listen when people give you advice?

[00:14:20] Now obstinate and pig-headed are like stubborn, but even more upset is O B S T I N a T E. Pigheaded is P I G. Dash H E a D E D big headed. Now, obstinate and pigheaded are the same, both mean unwilling to change despite persuasion. And even though sometimes you are on the wrong end, you know it, but you are just too obstinate to change your mind.

[00:14:46] Big edit is, as we said, just like opposite, but it’s more, it’s stronger and it’s more informal, but that’s about it. Obstinate big headed. All the other words we talked about today, I hope you found that them useful, and I hope you can use them in your own conversations and writing. And now that we’ve come to the end of our episode for today, I would like to thank you very much for listening to another episode from English past podcast.

[00:15:09] This is your host, Danny. I will see you next time.