Super Catchy Phrases To Describe People, Appearance & Personality - Advanced English Speaking Lesson

Have you met beautiful people in your life? Well beautiful from the heart but also from

the exterior. Their personalities were so catchy that you always wanted to kind of give

them a compliment but all you could say in the end was, “I think you're really amazing”,

“I think you're really great”… Well today's lesson is one such lesson, because

in today's lesson we are going to be talking about super catchy ways to describe appearances

and people and their personalities, so what are we waiting for? If you want to continue

learning all of these phrases please stay tuned with me on this lesson, my name is Hridhaan

and I welcome you with a very big heart on Let's Talk. Let's get started, the first phrase

in the list is, “a fraidy cat” so here we have ‘cat’, fraidy, what does fraidy

mean? It's got something to do with someone, someone who ‘gets scared easily’ so what

is a fraidy cat? Fraidy cat is a person who gets scared easily. For example, do you think

children are fraidy cat? A lot of children definitely are. Let's see how we can use it

in an example, “stop being a fraidy cat get inside the room and switch off the lights”.

Well at night who doesn't get scared and so it is being instructed to the person that

‘stop being a fraidy cat please, step inside the room and switch, switch the tube light

let's say… This is for the fraidy-cat, let's move on to the next one, the next one is “an

old hand”. What is an old hand? An old hand is a person who's an expert at doing things,

because that person has an experience in doing that thing for a very, very long time. For

example, “this one is a very complicated machine, it needs an old hand to run it”,

what is the meaning of an old hand? It means it needs an expert to run this machine back

again because it is a complicated one. So a person who has a lot of experience in using

the machine already can only help us in running it better and smoothly. The next example is,

“the law is very strict in this country, you need an old hand in law to help you get

out of it”, that means somebody's actually stuck in the law and order of a country and

that person needs an old hand, an expert to help him or her to get out of the troublesome

affair, whichever it be that the person is stuck in, that is how we can use ‘an old

hand’ to describe a person, a personality. “Fresh as a daisy”. Imagine if somebody

asks you, “how are you?” Everybody says, “I'm fine” there's one of the phrases

that we learnt, in one of the lessons and that is ‘fit as a fiddle’ but besides

that if you're short of phrases and collocations what can you use? You can say this, ‘fresh

as a daisy’. What is fresh as a daisy? Feeling energetic, that means I am feeling energetic

thank you very much. “After bathing he was feeling as fresh as a daisy” that means

he felt quite fresh and energetic after taking a bath. Next is, “be as fresh as a daisy

on your first day to work”, whenever you go in the first talk in the organization that

you work on your first day be as fresh as a daisy, don't just be fine be as fresh as

a daisy. The next word is “good for nothing”. Now this is something that is actually not

quite, that is not used in quite a positive sense, it means ‘a worthless person’ or

‘a worthless item’. Something that is actually of no use. For example, “don't

expect anything from him, he's a good-for-nothing creature.” He's a good-for-nothing creature

that means, he has nothing good to do or nothing good to say and nothing good to give to the

people that he's connected with, so do not expect anything from him. Next one is, “I

just broken up with Dev, right now I feel good for nothing” that means right now I

feel like a worthless creature, so somebody's saying it probably for her boyfriend and so

the person is saying I feel like a worthless person. The next is “nerves of steel”.

Now this is a very, very strong phrase and it means when nothing can scare you or make

you feel nervous, you're such a strong personality. You're so strong in your demeanour, your personality,

in your appearance that people call you nerves of steel that means, nothing can scare you.

For example, “he has got nerves of steel, I have seen him handling all the difficult

situations calmly.” There is this person who never gets nervous and people have seen

that person dealing with all the possible difficult situations calmly. This was about

‘nerves of steel’. If you have somebody in your life who you think never gets scared

and is always calm in difficult situations please do let me know in the comments section

below, ‘nerves of steel’. Next one is, “not born yesterday”. This is quite again,

we've spoken about quite a lot of sarcastic phrases, and this is one, ‘not born yesterday’.

For example if somebody is trying to fool you and you say, “dude thank you very much

for your advices but I'm not born yesterday” that means I'm not so immature to not understand

it. For example, “no more an inexperienced person” or you can say it's simply, somebody

who's not immature. Remember not mature, not immature. “I understand all your tricks,

I'm not born yesterday”. So someone is saying that do not try to trick me please, I understand

all of that and I'm not born yesterday. Use this phrase because it can be very, very sarcastic.

Next one is, “I trust that you can take the responsibility of handling all the administrative

work, you're not born yesterday”. This is actually a good example wherein someone is

entrusting their trust in someone, in the other person and telling the person, you can

do this, I do trust in you because you're not born yesterday, because you have the experience

of handling such a situation, so use this phrase accordingly. The next one is, “a

rare bird”. A rare bird means, an exceptional, unusual person. Someone who's really good

or really bad in something, so it can be used in both positive situations and negative situations

as well, an exceptional or unusual person. For example, “he's a rare bird that you

can find in any social gathering” that does not mean that you can find that person anywhere

that means he's a rare bird who can't be found at any social gathering just like that casually

he's very good or very exceptional. “You are a rare bird, I want to know you more”

well probably a gutsy person is saying this to somebody he or she likes and the person

is saying, ‘I think you're a rare bird and I would like to know you more’. ‘I think

you're an exceptionally good one or bad one’ in the context that that person is talking

about and the person is saying, I want to know you a little more. The next example is,

“cock of the walk”. What is cock of the walk? It means ‘an arrogant person’. So

somebody who's really arrogant and very rude what at all times that person is called, ‘cock

of the walk’. For example. “after winning the competition, James became cock of the

walk for a few days”, or for many days… so James, a person who participated in a competition,

actually became cock of the walk, that means very arrogant, like this, for many days. Another

example would be, “Mike's boss is cock of the walk at all times, he speaks very rudely”.

Mike is an employee in an organization and in the same organization his boss works too,

but he's always cock of the walk that means, he's always arrogant and rude to his subordinates.

That's how you can use cock of the walk, somebody who's really arrogant at all times. Next one

on the list is, “cat burglar”. What is cat burglar? Someone who smartly gets away

from things without letting other people know about it. Smartly gets away without other

people knowing about it. So imagine there's a person let's say, a thief who always gets

away after a robbery without even giving a hint of the evidence left behind about the

things that he has done or about how he has done it, for example, “Finally the police

caught on the cat burglars who were the cause of many thefts in our house.” Cat burglars

or cat burglar who were the cause of many thefts in the house or in the community. Another

example, “you've been a cat burglar for long, you won't get away this time in fooling

others” that means, you've been that person who has been doing wrong things without letting

other people know about it. You will not get away at this time. So a person who does wrong

things and gets away very easily without letting other people know who and how he did that

too, that is the situation where you use cat burglar. “Cut a dash”. What is cut a dash?

It means to become the centre of attention of an event on the basis of your appearance.

If you remember in the beginning of the lesson I did talk to you about how we can describe

appearances and personality, this one phrase here, this one collocation is actually used

to describe personality and personality of a person who's really attractive and gets

all the attention of people wherever he or she goes. The first example is, “she cuts

a dash wherever she wears this dress”, so there's this particular dress that let's say

a girl wears and she always cuts a dash whenever she goes out in that dress or let's say a

man who wears a particular attire and let's say a suit, a tuxedo and that person cuts

a dash wherever that person goes. Another example is, “he's got a very charming personality,

he cuts a dash wherever he goes and in whatsoever he does”. We're talking about a person who's

got a very, very charming personality and that person cuts a dash, everybody gets attracted

to that person whenever that person goes out, wherever he goes out. That's all that we have

for this lesson when it comes to vocabulary and phrases of talking about people and appearances.

Thank you very much for being with me and if you have any questions and recommendations

for future lessons, please do let me know in the comments section below, bye-bye.