Study 30 English IDIOMS that describe PEOPLE

Hey there! I'm Emma from mmmEnglish.

I've got a fun lesson for you today. 

30 beautifully descriptive idioms  that we use to refer to people.

These idioms act as nouns in  English sentences and they are  

brilliant entertaining ways to refer to  people when you speak or when you write.

There are 30 English idioms in  this lesson, so what I recommend is 

not to try and learn all of them  at once, but as you're watching  

take note of some of the ones that you can use to describe people

or to refer to people in your life like friends, family members, neighbours, and colleagues.

When I'm talking and I'm introducing each idiom,  if someone pops into your head and you think

ah that's so and so! This is  a really good idiom for you to  

learn because you can start associating the idiom

and the meaning  

with someone who's present in your life and that makes it easy to remember. 

i've got some homework for you too  when you finish watching this lesson.  

Write a short paragraph about these people in  your life, add it down into the comments below,

so that I can read about all of these characters

but also share a little bit of feedback or  maybe make some corrections if you need it.

Do you know what my favourite thing  about teaching you English idioms is?

I always get to learn so many  interesting idioms from you 

down in the comments. Idioms from your own native  language. Idioms that express similar ideas  

to the ones that I'm sharing but maybe they're  slightly different, and I love that about idioms.

So don't hold back if you have one that you want  to share. Write it down in the comments below.

Share it in your native language,  

plus the translation so that  we can all learn something new!

The first one is a lone wolf. A lone wolf,

and this is a person who likes working or  likes doing things without other people.

So they're quite independent and  they're quite happy to be on their own.

in fact a lone wolf, probably  prefers to be on their own.

As i mentioned in the introduction,  all of these idioms are nouns.

So in a sentence, they would replace a word like  woman or guy or person. He or she is a lone wolf.

Hmm... John's a bit of a lone wolf actually.

He prefers to spend his holidays  up in the mountains hiking alone.

Next up we have party animals. A party animal.

someone who enjoys parties and  they go to as many as they can.

They're always out and about. They love staying  up late, dancing and having a good time.

They're a party animal. They can't stop.

Do you know any party animals?

A dark horse

I really love this idiom because these people,  

they always surprise you,  but in a really positive way.

A dark horse is a person who keeps their ability,  their skill or their achievements a secret.  

So when you do finally  discover it, it surprises you.

You're like: "Wow! I had no idea!"

Like one of my students. Really  shy, hardly ever spoke for a long time

but then one day, I found out  she can speak 10 languages!

I had no idea. She'd never mentioned it before.

A team player. A team player is someone who works  really well with other people, as part of a group.

It's a pretty common idiom.  You might have heard it before,  

and it often comes up in professional context

like at an interview, when you might  get asked if you're a team player.

Pssst! If they ask this, the right  answer is: "Yes. I'm a team player."

A culture vulture. Say that  with me. Culture vulture.

This idiom is a little outdated, but  still it appears really frequently  

in media and literature so it's  definitely one to be aware of.

What's a culture vulture? It's someone  who really loves culture, in all forms.

They can't get enough of art and theatre and  literature and music. All of those things.

An early bird. I think this is probably one of the  very first idioms that you ever learned, right? 

An early bird is someone who is early. Usually  someone who gets up early in the morning  

they're awake as the sun comes up. But it can also  be used to refer to people who are first to do  

something. You know? It doesn't have to be that  they wake up early. though it's often the case.

Being an early bird is definitely a good thing and  the idiom is inspired by an old English proverb,  

that says: 'the early bird gets the worm'.  Those who are first get the reward. Right?

So now, do you know the opposite of an early bird?

Well it's a night owl of course, and  

night owls are people who feel like  they function better during the night.

They prefer to be awake at  night not in the morning.

So what about you? Are you a  night owl or an early bird?

A go-getter. Say it with me. A go-getter.

A go-getter is someone who is  ambitious. They pursue their goals.

They know what they want and they go after it. They're a go-getter.

So it's a really positive idiom.

Do you think of yourself as a bit of a go-getter?

Or, if not, maybe you can think of someone  else in your life who is a go-getter.

Someone who knows exactly what  they want they go after it.

A good egg. A good egg is just a good person.  

You didn't need to spend your weekend helping me  to move into my new house. You're a good egg.

But equally, someone can be a bad egg. A bad  egg, and that's a bad person. Don't be a bad egg.

Oooh! A jack-of-all-trades. A jack-of-all-trades.

There's some really great linking there for  you to practice. Jack-of-all. Jack-of-all.  

a jack-of-all-trades is someone who is  really good at doing several different jobs  

instead of only being specialised in one  thing. From designing through to construction,  

Frank can do it all. He's a jack-of-all-trades.

When used in this context, it's a positive thing. 

Frank can help you  with anything. He can do it all.

But be careful here, because this expression is not always positive.  

usually a jack-of-all-trades is a good thing.  But, they are not excellent at any one of them.

So another common expression that we use is jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none.

This person can do lots of things  but they can't do them all well.

They're not an expert. They're not a specialist.

The easiest way to think about this is someone  who comes to your house to fix something.

If you have a problem with  the tiles in your bathroom,

there is the type of person who  can come and fix that and do a  

perfect job of it because  they are trained only in that

and then there's the guy who does doors and  

roofs and builds houses and fixes  things and puts hooks on the wall.

He does everything. He's never going to do a job as good as the expert.

Ahh, this is a lovely one. A man  of his word or a woman of her word.

This is a reliable, trustworthy person.  

Someone who always does whatever it  is they promise that they will do.

They stay true to the words that they say.

A mover and shaker. So this is an influential  person. Someone who makes things happen. 

Often politicians and leaders might be  

a mover and shaker. I only know my grandma  

in her retirement but apparently, she was  a real mover and shaker back in the day. 

She fought to introduce new regulations that  ensured all children had access to free education. 

A smart cookie. A smart cookie refers to someone  who is really clever. They're good at dealing  

with difficult situations or solving problems.

What's that? You already know all of these idioms?

Well aren't you a smart cookie then. If you're a smart cookie, then you might be  

the teacher's pet. The teacher's pet. I'm sure that you can think of,  

if you think back to your classes at school,  your teacher's favourite student in the class. 

This is the teacher's pet. Usually they're  the best or they're the most helpful student in the class. 

The best. The most helpful. This idiom is always used with the definite  

article 'the'. The teacher doesn't have multiple  pets. They only have one favourite.

You can only have one favourite.

It's not fair!

The teacher's never angry with Jim when he forgets  to do his homework. He's the teacher's pet. 

A creature of habit. A creature of habit.

You can use this idiom to talk about yourself or other people,

especially if your routine is always the same and you really like it that way, then you're a creature of habit.

You always choose the same thing on the  menu, every time you go to the restaurant or 

you always go to the same fish  and chip shop down the road even  

though everyone says the new one is better. You still just keep going to that one because  

it's what you know and you like it.  

A smooth talker. A smooth talker.

This person is really good at persuading  other people to do what they want,  

or to get themselves out of trouble. They can even convince people of things  

that are not true or convince you to do  something that you never intended to do. 

The salesman was a real smooth talker.

A busy body. Busy body.  

Oh I'm sure you know someone who's a busybody. Someone who is overly interested in the lives  

of other people or what, what are  they doing? What's happening there?

Laura is always peering out her window to see what  her neighbours are up to. She's such a busy body. 

A cheapskate or a tight arse. If someone  is stingy with their money or maybe they're  

quite obsessive about avoiding to spend money, then you could call them a cheapskate  

or a tight arse, but don't say it to their face.  

This is not a compliment. You don't want anyone  to hear you talking about them in that way. 

George is such a tight arse. He never offers  to pay but he's happy for me to pay the bill. 

A fuddy duddy. Try it. Say it with  me. Fuddy duddy. A fuddy duddy.

This is someone who is quite old-fashioned in  their ways or maybe in the way that they think. 

Their ideas are a bit old-fashioned. They're  quite conservative and a little boring. 

So again this is definitely not a compliment.  You don't want to say: "you're a fuddy duddy". 

Mr Smith he's such an old fuddy duddy I  can't stand any of his history classes. 

A goody goody. A goody goodie. This is  someone who always appears to be perfect  

doing the right thing. They try very hard to please  

people in authority so especially people  like teachers or parents or any superior. 

So it's quite similar to the teacher's  pet, but it's a bit more general. 

A goody goody is not usually liked by everyone else because they're always sucking up to the teacher, their parents.

You know doing the right thing when the rest of us are doing the wrong thing.

Like Jeremy, he's always handing in his homework early. He's such a goody-goody.

A know-it-all. Say it with me, a know-it-all. 

This idiom is exactly as it sounds someone  who knows everything or more accurately  

someone who thinks they know everything and they go around making sure that everyone  

knows that they're intelligent  and they have all the answers. 

So it's usually used spitefully.  It's not a compliment. 

Rob is constantly correcting his boss and his  brother and his parents. He's such a know-it-all. 

A gold digger. This is also not a compliment. it's  quite a nasty thing to say about someone actually. 

It's someone who is in a relationship with  someone else only because they're rich. 

So usually you're making an assumption about  

someone else's relationship  when you use this idiom. 

It implies that they're not there  for love or for anything meaningful. 

They're there for the other person's money.

If you did come into a bit of money then I'd say you're a lucky duck.

Do you know anyone who's won a big prize or had something great happen to them?

You can always say, "You're a lucky duck".

Party poopers. I use this idiom all the  time myself. Don't be a party pooper. 

A party pooper is someone  who ruins all of the fun. 

Now it could be at a party but it could also  be someone who doesn't want to participate  

in an activity that everyone else is doing. Well they're just being really negative and  

they're saying no to everything. Party  poopers say, "No. I don't want to do it.  

I don't want to go there. I'm going home". They're party poopers. They ruin all the fun.  

Can you think of the time or someone  that you know who's a party pooper? 

A penny pincher. Now this is not quite  as negative as cheapskate and tight arse. 

They're the ones that I mentioned  earlier and they're quite an insult.  

A penny pincher refers to someone who is  very careful about the money that they spend. 

They're quite thrifty. Cautious with their money.  

Martha never spends any more  than she actually needs to. 

She's extremely careful with her money.  So we can say she's a penny pincher. 

A backseat driver. Okay this is  another one I use all the time. 

Imagine that you're driving a car and  someone is sitting in the back seat  

behind you telling you how to drive. Overtake that car. Don't go so fast.  

This isn't the best route. Going on the  ring road would have been way quicker. 

That person sitting back there, they're a backseat  driver telling you what to do even though you're  

perfectly capable of doing it yourself and it can be used in the context of driving  

in the car, don't be a backseat driver,  but it can be used in other contexts too. 

When someone is watching over your shoulder  or telling you how to do something that you  

already know how to do. All right  backseat driver, I've got this. 

Oh a worrywart. Worrywarts are people who worry too much.

They worry about unimportant things things that don't really matter.

So people who are anxious, nervous, uncertain people, they tend to be worrywarts.

They worry about all the things that could go wrong when they don't need to.

Stop being such a worrywart. We'll be fine!

A smart aleck or a smart arse. So  a smart aleck is someone who thinks  

they are highly intelligent and they try to  demonstrate this to others all of the time. 

A smart arse is more common here in Australia and  I think that smart aleck is more common in the UK.  

Correct me if i'm wrong. Let me know in the comments, but we use  

smart arse more commonly here in Australia and smart arses often like to contradict  

or correct others so they're not  usually liked or it's sort of a  

little bit annoying to have a smart arse around.

After my presentation, Steve publicly questioned the accuracy of my research. That smart arse was  just trying to look good in front of the boss. 

A straight shooter or a straight talker.  That's someone who speaks the truth  

even if it hurts a little. Brad is a really straight talker.  

He's not going to sugarcoat his  feedback. He'll make sure that you know  

what worked well and what you need to improve.

We did it! 30 beautifully descriptive idioms that you can use to talk about the people in your life.

If you're ready for some pronunciation practice, that's where we're headed next. Come join me right here