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Chinese Vocabulary: Physical Characteristics and Personality 

 May 17, 2020

By  Alyza Cajigal

Are you looking for how to describe a person in Chinese? Lucky for you because you are at the right article! Here, you will learn how to describe a person in Chinese. You will learn how to describe someone’s physical characters and personality.

How to Describe a Person in Chinese Physical Characteristics and Personality

Chinese Descriptions Vocabulary

Before learning how to describe someone’s physical characteristics and personality, you first need to learn some of the body parts.

Body Parts in Chinese

Here is a list of body parts with its definition in alphabet order.

HanziPinyinDefinition
腹肌fùjīabs
胳膊gēboarm
肚子dùzibelly/stomach
身体shēntǐbody
屁股pìgubutt
脸颊liǎnjiácheek
下巴xiàbachin
耳朵ěrduoear
眉毛méimaoeyebrows
睫毛jiémáoeyelashes
眼睛yǎnjingeyes
liǎnface
手指shǒuzhǐfinger
jiǎofoot (spoken)
foot (written)
头发tóufahair
shǒuhand
tóuhead
膝盖xīgàiknee
tuǐlegs
chúnlips
嘴巴zuǐbamouth
鼻子bízinose
皮肤pífūskin
大腿dàtuǐthighs

Now that you know few body parts, let’s learn words to describe a person’s physical characteristics and personality.

Descriptive Words

Here is a list of Chinese descriptive words with its definition in alphabetical order.

HanziPinyinDefinition
还 可以hái kěyǐalright
漂亮piàoliangbeautiful
big
黑色hēisèblack
蓝色lán sèblue
身材shēncáibody shape/figure
棕色zōng sèbrown
cool/awesome
juǎncurly
可爱kě àicute
pàngfat
风趣fēng qùfunny
好看hǎo kàngood-looking
灰色huīsègray
绿色lǜsègreen
shuàihandsome
个子gèziheight
身高shēngāoheight (when asking)
chánglong
橙子chéngziorange
粉色fěnsèpink
美丽měilìpretty
紫色zǐsèpurple
红色hóngsèred
性感xìnggǎnsexy
duǎnshort
ǎishort (in height)
害羞hài xiūshy
shòuskinny
xiǎosmall
chòusmelly
ruǎnsoft
zhístraight
gāotall
nóngthick and dark
dànthin and light
难看nán kànugly
白色báisèwhite
黄色huángsèyellow

To know more descriptive words or adjectives, you can check out our article about the The 100 Most Useful Chinese Adjectives.

Grammar

Physical Characteristics

One of the most common sentence construction for describing a person’s physical characteristics is by using “的 (de)…很 (hěn)”.

SBJ + 

de

+ (body part) +

hěn/ bù
很/不

+ (description)

Literal translation for this is “(someone’s) (body part) is (description)”

很 (hěn) here functions as a positive connecting word between a noun and an adjective or descriptive word while 不 (bù) is the negative connecting word.

Since 的 (de) in this sentence construction is placed before a noun, its function here is to mark possession of something or someone. It is important to know that in a sentence, there cannot be two or more 的 (de).

de

jiějie

姐姐


de

érzi

儿子

My older sister's son.

jiějie

姐姐


de

érzi

儿子

My older sister's son.

Examples

bǎobèi

宝贝

de


bízi

鼻子

hěn/ bù

很/不

kě'ài

可爱

The baby's nose is/is not cute.

de


shēntǐ

身体

hěn/ bù

很/不

xiǎo

Her body is/is not small.

de


tóufa

头发

hěn/ bù

很/不

juǎn

His not hair is/is not curly.

de


liǎn

hěn/ bù

很/不

piàoliang

漂亮

Your face is/is not beautiful

To give emphasis on the descriptive word, 的 (de) is placed at the end of the sentence and 很 (hěn) will not be used in the sentence.

When using this sentence construction, single syllabled words or single character words are repeated once before 的 (de).

SBJ + (body part) + (descriptive word)  +

de

OR

SBJ + (body part) + (descriptive word)x2 +

de

Examples

shǒuzhǐ

手指


xiǎoxiǎo

小小

de

He has small fingers.

Ālǐ

tuǐ


shòu

shòu

de

Ali has skinny legs.

wáng

lǎoshī

老师


méimao

眉毛

dàndàn

淡淡

de

Teacher Wang has thin and light eyebrows.

shēncái

身材


xìnggǎn

性感

de

She has a sexy body figure.

liǎn

liǎn

好看

de

He has a good-looking face.

Personalities

Describing someone’s personality has the same sentence construction as of forming a sentence with adjectives.

SBJ 



n

ADJ

To know more about forming sentences with adjectives, you can check out our article about the The 100 Most Useful Chinese Adjectives.

Examples

hěn

hàixiū

害羞

She is shy.

mèimei

妹妹

hěn

cōngming

妹妹

Younger sister is clever.

hěn

yǒuqù

有趣

He is interesting.

bàba

hěn

nǔlì

努力

Dad is hardworking.

Luis



hěn

Luis is cool.

Now YOU try!

Describe the physical characteristics and personalities of your family members using the words and sentence constructions we just learned.

Examples

māma

妈妈

hěn

piàoliang

漂亮

Mom is beautiful.

bàba

爸爸

liǎn

shuài

shuài

de

Dad has a handsome face.

jiějie

姐姐

shēncái

身材

shēncái

pàng

Older sister is fat.

dìdi

弟弟

shēncái

头发

hēisè

黑色

de

Younger brother has black hair.

Learning Tip

One of the best ways to learn and retain what you learned is by repetition. When you learn a new word, it is best to construct a lot of sentences using that word so that repeating the word will help you remember it.

Ideally, repeating the word and the definition 5 or more times is the key. You can write your sentence (which will also help you remember Chinese characters) or you can speak it out to practice your pronunciation.

Keep learning Chinese and enjoy!

Alyza Cajigal


Alyza is a fluent Chinese speaker who works as a corporate analyst in the Philippines. She also loves gaming and fitness on her downtime.

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