ENGLISH FLUENCY SECRETS | 20 EXPERT Phrases to Describe Looks!

28,566 views ・ 2023-12-13

Learn English with Harry


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Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to advanced English lessons with Harry where
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we try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language. We can help you to
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prepare for the proficiency exams that you're taking for that job interview, help you with
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your business English, your conversational English, whatever it is, you've come to the
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right place. This is an advanced English lesson it's 20 collocations to describe physical
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appearance, the physical appearance of somebody.
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Okay, so advanced English lesson 20 collocations to describe physical appearance. So let me
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give you a bit of a background here. So these are really important if you're going to use
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them in one of those proficiency exams where you want to just describe a picture or indeed,
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if you're walking down the street and you're a witness to an attempted robbery when the
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police arrive and there's no criminal around, they might want to ask you for a description.
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So these are really important words collocations that you can use to describe what the rubber
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looked like. Or you could be just simply sitting on the train and you see somebody that you're
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fancy and you're trying to describe them to your friend later so that you can ask them
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their opinion.
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Okay, let's get cracking 20. Number one, cropped hair, cropped hair is hair that is really
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really short. And sometimes it looks as if it wasn't cut by a barber or hairdresser because
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the hair is a different lens but it's really short and it's cropped so quite tight. Not
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completely bald and not shaved but cropped so there is hair sticking up but it looks
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like grass on on a lawn after you've gone over with the lawn more so cropped hair. Number
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two dishevelled hair. Dishevelled means messy all over the place. So if you've been running
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around playing football with your friends, you've been jumping, and then when you stop
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you're a bit sweaty and the hair is everywhere it's down your cross your eyes hanging out
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over your shoulders. This is what we called dishevelled. It looks as my mother used to
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say it looks as if you've been dragged through a hedge backwards. So your hair is really
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really messy. You really need to get a good brush or comb to get all the knots out of
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it and make it look a little bit presentable, dishevelled. We can also talk about people
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having a dishevelled look in general not just about the hair, but it could be about that
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clothes, then they haven't got their clothes properly. attire, they haven't got their shirt
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up or it's sticking out of the trousers, everything looks just a general mess so they are dishevelled.
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Number three coarse hair causes usually thick and it's not very fine. Not easy to brush.
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Coarse hair could often be the hair of a dog, so that could be quite coarse and naughty.
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But if you're trying to describe a person with coarse hair it's generally shortish or
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shoulder length hair, but it's not easy to brush, no real style about it and quite thick
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so coarse hair.
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Number four, we talked about receding hair or receding hairline to be specific and the
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receding hairline means that the hair is not coming down fully over the forehead. They
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are showing the early signs of going bald. So it's usually to describe a man's physical
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appearance that he had a receding hairline so it's easy to see the top of his hair, there's
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a parting on the hair on the left or the right, but he's not completely bald like me, but
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the hair is beginning to go backwards. So there are signs that he's beginning to age
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so might give an indication as to the age of the individual. So he's got a receding
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hairline. To recede means to go backwards. So when the hair is receding, it looks as
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if it's going back over the back of his head, okay to have receding hair or receding hairline
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number five when we refer to somebody as ginger head or a redhead, yeah, so redhead and ginger
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hair are virtually the same. Lots of people in Ireland have red or ginger hair. Yeah,
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so his ginger had very recognisable, very easy to spot and easy to describe ginger hair
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or redhead. There is a difference between red hair and ginger but in lots of situations
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that you we use the same words to describe a ginger hair or a ginger headed individual
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so he's ginger headed mean his hair is a ginger colour.
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Number six, a sallow complexion so when somebody has a sallow complexion that usually means
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that the natural colour white is beginning to go a little brown or yellow. Usually is
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as a sign of some sickness on your face loses its colour and somebody describes you as having
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a sallow complexion it usually means slightly yellow or lighter tan colour as a sign of
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some sort of infection or illness or sallow complexion so not so healthy, sallow and we
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often say sallow skin so it's not just the face, the complexion is usually refers to
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the face, but sallow skin, so if you're you're wearing a t shirt, so the colour on your face
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and your arms may be exactly the same sallow complexion, or sallow skin.
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And as always, if you've liked this particular lesson, please Like the video and if you can
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Number seven is a fair complexion so when somebody has a fair complexion has no relevance
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to their how healthy they are fair complexion just means the hair is a lighter colour. So
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you know if somebody's hair is dark, or somebody's is mousy colour or blonde. Fair is somewhere
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in the middle of. Fair complexion, so perhaps his skin is a little lighter than others,
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or the colour of his hair is not black, but it's not blonde. It's somewhere in the middle.
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He has a fair complexion. Number eight refers to face a haggard face looks like a face that
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has been lived in for a long time. Haggard means looking old, probably with lots of wrinkles,
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lots of creases on the forehead, on the cheeks, on the chin. So when somebody has a haggard
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face, it might mean that they look old before the time. Typically, because they're under
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a lot of stress. Yes, some people age as a result of stress, they begin to look older
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than they actually are so haggard face mean somebody who's suffering from some stress,
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perhaps they're just excessively tired, and they've got bags under their eyes or wrinkles
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on the face, and might have to do with some lack of sleep. So haggard face.
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A pointed face is all about the shape of the face pointed, not just a big point sitting
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on the top of your head, but you know from the shape of the chin, or they're not completely
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round face, we could describe it as a pointed face. It's just another way to to try and
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describe somebody a little different than the average person a pointed face. Somebody
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can also have a pudgy face. Now the next to number 10 and number 11. We've got to put
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g face and chubby face or chubby cheeks. These are two ways of describing somebody having
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a bit rounder face than normal. Particularly kids when they are maybe they're a little
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heavier than they should be say, Oh, he's a pretty child. He's got a real pudgy face
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or real chubby cheeks and so on somebody that chubby cheeks, they certainly like eating
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their food and maybe their face and their cheeks are nice rosy red. So they've got a
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chubby face because they they liked the food or perhaps the juice a little bit of overweight
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and as they grow up and they start running around and they will lose that chubby complexion
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they will use that lose that chubbiness or that pudgy face that they have so pudgy and
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chubby cheeks and face really mean the same thing. So onto number 12. And we're talking
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about the eyebrows those above the eyes when somebody has bushy eyebrows bushy means very
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big and very expansive. So like a little bush you see in the garden, so they need a trim
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bushy eyebrows, so you'll be able to describe, yeah, he had grey, bushy eyebrows, so you
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can describe the colour of his hair. And the fact that they weren't just like a little
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thin line of a pencil that you often see in the fashion industry. But these were big,
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bushy eyebrows usually means that they haven't been in any way trimmed or cut or shaped so
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bushy eyebrows, usually worn by older people who don't really pay much attention to the
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hair on that their eyebrows, so they become bushy, with age and they don't trim them.
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Number 13. Somebody has hollow eyes. When somebody has Halloween eyes, it almost looks
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like the eyes are way back in their head. Maybe they have dark circles around their
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eyes which accompany these hollow eyes, it's often a sign that somebody is underweight,
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they maybe are not fed properly, or they're in need of some really, really good food over
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a long period of time. Maybe they been living in a country where water and food is not so
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easily accessible. So when you take a look at them, you've got this hollow eye expression
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where their eyes are deep and deeply set in the back of their head. So hollow eyes. Number
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14 sunken eyes very similar. So hollow eyes and sunken eyes, again, very similar the way
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they look and perhaps in need of a really, really good meal or two. And we also can have
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sunken cheeks and our face was you know somebody really, really thin, you can see the outline
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of the cheekbones on either side, or a bit like that so that you know my face, they've
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got plenty of flesh on my face, but when they have sunken cheekbones or a sunken cheeks,
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this like that so you can see all of the bones and usually, there's somebody who's really
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thin or has spent a lot of time on diets, or perhaps they're just naturally that way.
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Okay, so sunken eyes or sunken cheekbones.
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And you know the drill by now if you need some extra help. So additional uses of these
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collocations then just write to me, as always, I'd be very, very happy to help you before
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we mentioned having a pointed face okay, but you can also have a pointed nose and this
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has been very descriptive as to how long the nose is perhaps it is determined by the nationality
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of the person. So some features are like noses, and Chin's are very specific to certain people
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from certain countries. But if you're trying to describe this person, and you are asked
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without any noticeable features on their face, we say Oh, well, you had a very pointed nose
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usually means long, thin nose. Yeah, pointed nose, number 16, rosebud mouth and lips. I
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had to check this one out because it's not something that I would use. But rose bird
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usually describes the colour and some people have naturally red lips. Others obviously
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use makeup, women in particular where they would apply a lipstick to the lips to give
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them that glossy look and all sorts of wonderful colours, but rose bird and rosebud is a red
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like the the roses that grow in your garden rose but mouth and lips a certain shape and
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a certain colour. Number 17 describes the physical appearance of the body and we're
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using this expression, broad shoulders. So somebody who has broad shoulders is really
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big here ... So they've got broad shoulders. And you can see when you look at them that
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they've either worked out well in the gym, or they're naturally fit or they play some
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really good contact sports that requires a good frame, a big frame and quite muscular.
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So yeah, if you're describing somebody about his height, yes, he was one metre at a 1 metre
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82 with very broad shoulders. So a big guy and when he looked at him, you could see that
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he was physically well formed well shaped. So with broad shoulders. Number 18. We've
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got spindly legs, okay, so if you had broad shoulders, you've got probably very strong
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legs to support a big frame but if you've got spindly legs it means really thin I mean
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not just skinny, but re really, really thin spindly legs like a spider or spindly legs
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like a bird. So something that wouldn't almost support your body when you're out walking.
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Wow. Because see how thin her legs are. They're real spindly legs like pieces of string spindly,
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so means really, really thin. Number 19 Big brawny arms. Big brawny arms means really
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strong big biceps. Brawn means plenty of strength. Somebody perhaps who is working physically
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every day using their arms in the hands, perhaps they are a builder in the construction industry.
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Perhaps they're a farm worker used to lifting heavy material, so they get big muscles, big
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brawny arms, okay, so it's a sign of strength. And you know the way people who have good
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muscles they'd like to wear short, tight T shirts, so you can see those muscles or the
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guns as they like to call them. Big brawny arms. And the last one number 20 flabby arms,
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you can also call flabby thighs, okay, you just have to be very careful here not to get
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too personal with anybody. But flabby arms is when you hold up your arm and there's a
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lot of loose skin hanging under the arm that really isn't tight. So a sign that there's
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not much muscle shape there. Okay, so these as we call them wings, that's flaps of skin
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that hang under the arm, like the wings of an aeroplane. So these will be flabby arms,
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and the same would appear around the thighs where somebody hasn't perhaps done a lot of
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workout or leather exercise recently. It doesn't take much to trim up it doesn't take much
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to keep that skin tight and those muscles firm. But if you don't do it, then you end
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up with flabby arms, flabby thighs, and you've got to put a lot of work in to reduce that
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amount of flaps or flap means something loose something hanging under the arm or at the
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top of the thighs. Okay, so these are flabby arms.
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Okay, so there are 20 particular collocations to describe somebody's physical appearance.
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And I said you could use these to create a picture for somebody, particularly if the
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policeman was asking you for a description of the person. Then you could describe the
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person has Oh, yeah, he was a big guy, by 1.80, very square, very big man. He had broad
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shoulders. He had short cropped hair, a sallow complexion, a pointed nose and he was really
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really fit out. So you could describe the person that way or the opposite. You could
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say well, very small petite person about one metre 61 metre 65 and noticed really spindly
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legs very thin. They had a sallow complexion and sunken eyes and the hair was dishevelled.
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So there's a good description of how you would describe that person to a police officer.
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Okay, so it's all about collocations putting words together that are helpful for you when
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you want to make some good descriptions in relation to that. Make sure you join us for
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the next lesson. This is Harry saying goodbye for now. Thanks for listening. Thanks for
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watching.
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