Describing Character and Personality ESL Activities, Games and Worksheets

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Matchmaker

ESL Matchmaking Activity - Vocabulary and Speaking: Completing a Form, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Controlled and Freer Practice - Group Work - Pre-intermediate (A2) - 30 minutes

In this intriguing describing personality speaking activity, students become matchmakers and try to find a match for a friend or relative by asking and answering personal information questions. In two groups, students think of a male or female friend or relative who is single and would like to find a partner. Students then complete a profile about the person, e.g. their appearance, positive and negative personality traits, interests, etc. Next, students speak to the people in the other group and try to find a partner for their friend or relative. They do this by interviewing as many people as possible before deciding on the best match. Afterwards, students tell the class about the most suitable match they found and explain the reasons for their choice.
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Who's coming to dinner?

ESL Character Adjectives Activity - Vocabulary and Speaking: Matching, Table Completion, Guided Discussion, Communicative Practice - Pair Work - Pre-intermediate (A2) - 30 minutes

In this communicative describing character speaking activity, students practice character adjectives through a dinner party scenario. In pairs, students take turns reading out clues to their partner, who matches the information to a person in a dinner party invite list and a character adjective from the worksheet. Both students then complete the list with the information. When the list is complete, pairs discuss and choose three people to invite to their dinner party based on their character and talents, writing the details down in the spaces provided. Finally, pairs tell the class who they invited to their dinner party and why.
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You've Got Personality

ESL Personality and Character Worksheet - Vocabulary Exercises: Word Search, Gap-fill - Speaking Activity: Discussion, Communicative Practice, Table Completion - Pair Work - Pre-intermediate (A2) - 25 minutes

Here is a useful describing personality and character worksheet for pre-intermediate students. Students start by finding 14 adjectives that describe personality and character in a word search. Students then complete definitions with the personality and character adjectives. Next, students complete sentences with the adjectives of personality and character, adding the prefixes 'un' or 'dis' where necessary. Lastly, students work with a partner and discuss what they think are the best and worst qualities in each type of person shown using the personality and character adjectives from the worksheet.
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Personality Adjectives

ESL Personality Adjectives Worksheet - Vocabulary Exercises: Matching, Categorising, Gap-Fill - Intermediate (B1) - 30 minutes

In this free describing personality worksheet, students learn and practice a variety of personality adjectives and complete descriptions of people. First, students match personality adjectives in a box with definitions. Students then match each personality adjective with its opposite. Next, students categorize the personality adjectives according to whether they have a positive, neutral or negative meaning. Students then move on to complete sentences with the personality adjectives. After that, students do two gap-fill exercises where they complete descriptions of themselves and someone they know using personality adjectives. Lastly, students read their descriptions to the class.
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The Happy Days Inn

ESL Personality Adjectives Activity - Vocabulary and Speaking: Describing, Guessing, Matching, Table Completion - Pair Work - Intermediate (B1) - 20 minutes

In this productive describing personality speaking activity, students match hotel guests to rooms from descriptions of their personalities given by a partner. In pairs, students take turns finding out who is staying in each hotel room by asking their partner to describe the guest staying there, e.g. 'What's the person in room 1 like?' Their partner then looks at the chart at the bottom of the worksheet and describes the personality adjective written below the person's name. The student does this without using the adjective or person's name in their description, e.g. 'This person likes to talk with other people'. The other student listens and then tries to match the description to a personality adjective and person in the bottom table, e.g. 'Is it Mario?' When the student guesses correctly, they write the hotel guest's name under the room number. The activity continues until both students have found out who is staying in all the hotel rooms. The first pair to finish wins.
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What do they do for a living?

ESL Characterizing Activity - Vocabulary: Writing Descriptions, Matching - Group Work - Intermediate (B1) - 45 minutes

In this insightful character traits activity, students describe and characterize people in certain jobs and use the descriptions to match pictures of people to the jobs. In groups, students describe and characterize the sort of person who does each job shown on the worksheet using adjectives of character, personality and appearance. Next, groups look at their descriptions and assess which description should go with which picture and why. Students may also consider the appearance and overall impressions they get from the pictures to help them make their decisions. When everyone has finished, groups compare their ideas and the correct answers are revealed.
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Personality Adjectives Crossword

ESL Personality Adjectives Activity - Vocabulary: Defining, Guessing - Pair Work - Upper-intermediate (B2) - 25 minutes

Here is an enjoyable personality adjectives crossword to help students practice adjectives of personality and their opposites. In pairs, students take turns asking their partner for a clue to one of their missing personality adjectives. Their partner reads out the definition of the personality adjective, and the other student tries to guess what it is. If the student guesses the word successfully, they write it on their crossword. If not, their partner continues to give more clues until the student is able to guess the adjective. Afterwards, students check their spelling by comparing crosswords.
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Personality Traits

ESL Personality Traits Activity - Vocabulary and Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Providing Vocabulary, Freer Practice - Upper-intermediate (B2) - 30 minutes

In this free describing personality speaking activity, students practice asking and answering questions about personality traits. Students begin by going through the items on the worksheet and forming the questions they need to ask to do the activity, e.g. 'Do you like to try new or exciting things?' Students then go around the class, asking and answering the questions about personality traits and completing the worksheet with classmates' answers. When a classmate answers 'yes' to a question, the student writes down their name and asks them to give an example of the trait, e.g. 'Last week, I went skydiving.' Afterwards, go through each item and elicit the adjective that describes the personality trait.
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What am I like?

ESL Personality Adjectives Game - Speaking and Vocabulary: Writing Clues from Prompts, Describing, Guessing - Group Work - Upper-intermediate (B2) - 30 minutes

Here is an engaging describing personality game to help students practice positive and negative personality adjectives. In groups, students take turns picking up a card and describing the personality adjective to the group by making sentences with always, usually and hardly ever, writing each sentence on the card as they go. For example, if the personality adjective was adaptable, the student might say, 'I always adjust to new conditions. I usually respond well to change. I'm hardly ever inflexible.' The student is not allowed to say the adjective or variations of the word in their description. The first student to successfully guess the personality adjective being described wins and keeps the card. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. Afterwards, review the students' sentences for each personality adjective and have the class agree on a set of clues for each one.
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What are they like?

ESL Personality Adjectives Game - Speaking and Vocabulary: Describing, Guessing - Group Work - Upper-intermediate (B2) - 25 minutes

In this fun personality adjectives game, students define and guess adjectives related to personality. In groups, students take turns picking up a card and describing the personality adjective in bold to the group, without saying the adjective or using the underlined words on the card. The first student to successfully guess the personality adjective being described wins and keeps the card. If no one manages to correctly guess the adjective, the student describing keeps the card. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins.
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You've Changed!

ESL Describing Character Activity - Vocabulary: Sentence Completion, Matching - Upper-intermediate (B2) - 20 minutes

In this creative describing characteristics activity, students practice the meanings of character adjectives and their opposites. First, students complete sentences on cards demonstrating the characteristic shown without using any form of the adjective in their sentences. Students then go around the class reading their sentences to one another to find a partner with the opposite characteristic. If two students think their sentences show opposite characteristics, they sit down together. When everyone has found a partner, go through the students' sentences and check they are paired correctly, eliciting the matching character adjectives as you go.
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