The first english language faculty the department of english phonetics and phonology

Beginners – Start with what you can see! It’s important that you can describe yourself, your home, your work activities and the people you love using words you know. Stick to simple structures and practice using all three forms of the English verb ‘to be’ (is/am/are). For other languages, choose your verb or the expression most commonly used for describing things (some languages like Arabic and Russian don’t use ‘to be’ in the same way we do in English).

Practice whenever and wherever it suits you but make sure you keep describing things that matter to you. If you’re sitting in traffic, start describing the colors of the cars around you. If you’re on the metro, describe the people sitting next to and across from you. Simple English exercises like this can go along way when it comes to taking language learning out of the classroom and into real life. Try this handy list of words you can use for describing things in English.

Intermediates – Find new words! When you’re at an intermediate level, the only way to move out of the plateau and into English proficiency level is to grow your vocabulary. When it comes to adjectives, there are usually a hundred different words where each one is a variation of the same meaning. Create exercises for yourself where you brainstorm multiple ways to describe things with more complex forms and vocabulary.

Look into different topics, move beyond concrete words, brush up on your English adverbs and get reading. Writers love to describe things and people and you can take your descriptions to the next level by looking into how famous authors have used descriptive language in novel ways.