How to Describe a Person in Italian

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Buongiorno
to all our readers! Today, we’ll be talking about how to d
escribe a person in Italian.
People’s differences are something to celebrate – but it does make our lives a little more difficult when learning a foreign language!

This guide covers appearance, personality, occupations and nationalities. Use these descriptions when introducing a friend, meeting someone or describing a person you are looking for.

Sentence Construction

So you want to describe someone in Italian. Where on Earth do you start? Luckily, the grammar in this is pretty simple.

Use present tense to describe someone now. A past-tense description places the trait at a past reference point; it does not automatically mean the trait has changed.

When talking about physical appearance or personality traits, we would simply use our present-tense forms of ESSERE
(to be):

Io sono… – I am

Tu sei… –
You are…

Lui / Lei è…
– He / She is…

Noi siamo…
– We are…

Voi siete… –
You (pl) are…

Loro sono… –
They are…

Although, as we already know, you don’t have
to use the subject in Italian.

But it gets a little more complicated. When using an adjective (a describing word) in Italian, you have to change the ending of the word to match the person you’re talking about. What?
I hear you say. Never fear – it’s not as terrifying as it sounds. Each different subject has a matching ending that almost never changes. Let’s take the word for “mean” as an example: CATTIVO
.

MASC. SING.	FEM. SING.	MASC. PLURAL	FEM. PLURAL
cattivo	cattiva	cattivi	cattive

As you can see, the ending changes for each type of person you’re talking about. REMEMBER
: if you are referring to more than one person, and that group is a mixture of men and women, then you would use the MASCULINE PLURAL.

So let’s use these in some example sentences.

I (feminine) am blonde.	Sono bionda .
You (masculine) are skinny.	Sei magro .
She is cute.	È carina .
We (men and women) are English.	Siamo inglesi .
You (masc. plural) are rude.	Siete scortesi .
They (fem. plural) are kind.	Sono gentili.

Another common regular pattern is -e in the singular and -i in the plural. These adjectives have the same form for masculine and feminine nouns; they are not irregular merely because they end in -e.

An adjective such as divertente has singular -e for either gender and plural -i. Compare una persona divertente with due persone divertenti.

This pattern applies to many adjectives, including forte, gentile and inglese. It is not restricted to personalities or nationalities. For example:DIVERTENTE
(funny/fun) as an example:

SINGULAR	PLURAL
divertente	divertenti

And it really is that simple. When there’s more than one person, the ending changes from an ‘e’ to an ‘i’. See – that wasn’t so bad now, was it?

To describe an occupation, Italian can use either essere or fare. Compare the following sentences:

In English, we would say both:

He is blond.

He is a waiter.

Both constructions are correct in Italian:

Lui è
biondo.

Lui fa
il cameriere.

There are two main differences here between the English and the Italian.

• 1. With fare, use a definite article: Fa il cameriere (“He works as a waiter”).
• 2. With essere, an unmodified profession commonly has no article: È cameriere. With a description, an indefinite article is natural: È un cameriere esperto (“He is an experienced waiter”).

Now that we’ve nailed the grammar side of things, let’s move on to the most important part: the vocabulary.

How to describe a person in Italian: Physical appearance

The following words describe appearance. Choose neutral wording when possible; terms about body size or weight can sound personal or unkind without the right context.

Body shape and build

ENGLISH	ITALIAN
Short	Basso/a
Fat	Grasso/a (can sound blunt); grosso/a means big or heavily built
Tall	Alto/a
Strong	Forte (same singular form for either gender)
Skinny	Magro/a

Hair colours and hairstyles

ENGLISH	ITALIAN
Blonde	Biondo/a
Brunette	Moro/a
Ginger	Rosso/a
Grey	Grigio/a
Long	Lunghi
Short	Corti
Bald	Pelato/a
Straight	Lisci
Curly	Ricci
Wavy	Mossi

Quick Reminder

For the hair on someone’s head, normally use plural capelli: Ha i capelli biondi. Singular capello means an individual hair. Descriptions agree with capelli, so use masculine plural forms.

However, you can also refer to someone as being blonde, or brunette, or ginger, just as you can in English. So make sure you specify whether the PERSON
is blonde, or they have blonde HAIR
. Take a look at these examples:

He has blonde hair -> Lui ha i capelli biondi

He is blonde -> Lui è biondo

The adjective agrees with the word it describes: capelli biondi, but lui è biondo / lei è bionda.

Eyes and eye colour

ENGLISH	ITALIAN
Blue	Blu
Brown	Marroni
Hazel	Color nocciola
Big	Grandi
Dark	Scuri
Clear	Chiari (light-colored); limpidi (clear)

Descriptions of occhi normally use masculine plural, such as occhi verdi or occhi chiari. Blu is invariable: occhi blu.

Details and Extras

ENGLISH	ITALIAN
He/she wears glasses	Porta gli occhiali
He/she has tattoos	Ha tatuaggi
He/she has a nose piercing	Ha un piercing al naso
He/she is in a wheelchair	Usa una sedia a rotelle
He has a beard	Ha la barba
He has a moustache	Ha i baffi

Personality Traits

Even more important than someone’s physical appearance is how they are as a person: their characteristics
or personal traits
. Imagine now you’re in a job interview, and the interviewer asks you to describe yourself in three words. You’re almost definitely not going to get the job if you say “short, blonde and ugly” are you?

They want to know the kind of person that you are. Here’s our list of characteristics – both good and bad!

ENGLISH	ITALIAN
Cheerful	Allegro/a
Sociable	Socievole
Friendly	Amichevole
Outgoing	Estroverso/a
Chatty	Chiacchierone/Chiacchierona
Grumpy	Scontroso/a
Mean	Cattivo/a
Horrible	Orribile
Bossy	Prepotente
Shy	Timido/a
Irritable	Irascibile
Annoying	Fastidioso/a
Kind	Gentile
Selfish	Egoista (plural masculine egoisti, feminine egoiste)
Arrogant	Arrogante

Jobs and Professions

Work isn’t everything in life – but when you’re trying to explain what someone is like, it’s a pretty good place to start.

As we’ve already seen earlier in this guide, describing someone’s job can be a little more complicated than describing how they look, as the sentences are constructed differently. But we’ve gone over that.

To make matters just that little bit more complicated, the names of the jobs themselves also change in Italian to match the person you’re describing: namely, whether they’re masculine or feminine.

Usually (thankfully), this tends to follow a pattern. A good example of this would be the word for ‘waiter’ again, CAMERIERE
:

MASCULINE	FEMININE
cameriere	cameriera

As we’ve already seen, when we’re talking about a female waiter (waitress), the word ending simply changes to an ‘a’. Easy.

Unfortunately, it isn’t always that easy. And, even more unfortunately, the only way to know them is to memorise them. Sorry.

Hopefully this list will help start you off. Before you know it, you’ll be remembering them without even consulting our guide. You’ll see. We hope.

ENGLISH	ITALIAN
Actor/Actress	Attore/Attrice
Teacher	Professore/Professoressa
Policeman/Policewoman	Poliziotto/Poliziotta
Chef	Cuoco/Cuoca
Writer	Scrittore/Scrittrice
Translator	Traduttore/Traduttrice
Politician	Politico/Politica
Lawyer	Avvocato/Avvocata
Doctor	Medico/Medica (usage varies)
Nurse	Infermiere/Infermiera
Businessman/woman	Imprenditore/Imprenditrice
Shop assistant	Commesso/Commessa

Nationalities in Italian

Nationalities describe where a person comes from; they do not determine personality. In Italian, nationality adjectives normally start with a lowercase letter.

We’ve already spoken about the different ways adjectives of nationality can change depending on who you’re describing. So let’s take a look at some examples of different nationalities.

ENGLISH	ITALIAN
Italian	Italiano/a
German	Tedesco/a
Spanish	Spagnolo/a
French	Francese
English	Inglese
Scottish	Scozzese
Irish	Irlandese
Welsh	Gallese
American	Americano/a
Australian	Australiano/a
Chinese	Cinese
Japanese	Giapponese
Greek	Greco/a
Indian	Indiano/a
Brazilian	Brasiliano/a
Dutch	Olandese
Vietnamese	Vietnamita (plural masculine vietnamiti, feminine vietnamite)
Canadian	Canadese
Icelandic	Islandese
Russian	Russo/a

Real-life Examples

It’s time to put your descriptions to the test with some real-life examples!

The following people are fictional. Each example combines appearance, occupation, nationality and personality vocabulary.

Use these examples as language practice, then write a neutral description of someone you know.

Chiara

Chiara fa l’imprenditrice. È italiana. Ha i capelli biondi, lunghi e lisci. Ha gli occhi blu. È amichevole e divertente.

Chiara is an entrepreneur. She is Italian. She has long, straight blonde hair and blue eyes. She is friendly and fun.

John

John è un attore americano. Ha i capelli scuri e mossi. Porta gli occhiali e ha i baffi. È serio ma gentile.

John is an American actor. He has dark, wavy hair. He wears glasses and has a mustache. He is serious but kind.

Emma

Emma fa la cantante. È inglese. Ha i capelli rossi e gli occhi marroni. È timida ma socievole.

Emma is a singer. She is English. She has red hair and brown eyes. She is shy but sociable.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. Hopefully now you should be well-equipped to describe anyone you know in any situation; be it a police line-up, a job interview, or even a good old game of Guess Who
.

Go off and practice for yourself next time you’re scrolling through Instagram and you see a snap of your favourite author/singer/influencer. Practice makes perfect!