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Describing Appearance and Personality

FoundationHigherAQA

Learn Describing Appearance and Personality for GCSE French with this free worksheet and full mark scheme — Foundation and Higher exam-style practice with worked answers for AQA GCSE French (8652). Adjectives are used to describe what people look like and what they are like.

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These worksheets and mark schemes are original, written for Virtus Academy and checked against the current AQA specification. Every worksheet comes with a full mark scheme.

Foundation

WorksheetFoundation · PDFMark SchemeFoundation · PDF

Higher

WorksheetHigher · PDFMark SchemeHigher · PDF

Topic overview

Describing people combines appearance and personality vocabulary with adjective agreement, which is where the marks are won or lost.

Appearance uses avoir for features and être for overall description. J'ai les cheveux bruns, j'ai les yeux bleus — note the definite article where English uses a possessive. Je suis grand, je suis mince.

Personality adjectives must agree: il est gentil becomes elle est gentille. Common ones are sympa, which never changes, gentil giving gentille, sérieux giving sérieuse, and bavard giving bavarde. Using a range of adjectives with correct agreement is more valuable than knowing many adjectives you cannot agree.

Revision notes

Appearance

Avoir for features: j'ai les cheveux bruns, j'ai les yeux bleus.

Note the definite article les where English uses my. Être for overall description: je suis grand, je suis petite, je suis mince.

Personality adjectives

Gentil gives gentille. Sérieux gives sérieuse. Bavard gives bavarde.

Sympa never changes and is useful when unsure. Agreement is what earns the marks — a correctly agreed simple adjective beats a wrongly agreed complex one.

Building a description

Combine appearance and personality with a connective.

Elle est petite et très sympa. Il a les cheveux noirs et il est assez timide. Adding intensifiers such as très, assez and un peu extends the range without new vocabulary.

Key points

  • Avoir is used for physical features.
  • J'ai les cheveux bruns uses the article.
  • Être is used for overall description.
  • Personality adjectives must agree.
  • Gentil becomes gentille.
  • Sympa never changes.

Worked examples

Example 1

Translate: I have brown hair. [2 marks]

Working

J'ai les cheveux brunsuse avoir with the definite article
French uses les rather than a possessive for physical featuresexplain the article

Example 2

Give the feminine form of gentil in a sentence. [2 marks]

Working

Elle est gentilleuse the feminine adjective form
Gentil doubles the l and adds -e in the feminineexplain the change

Example 3

Translate: she is quite talkative. [2 marks]

Working

Elle est assez bavardeuse the intensifier with the agreed adjective
Bavarde takes an -e to agree with elleexplain the agreement

Common mistakes

  • Using a possessive for physical features.

    J'ai les cheveux, not j'ai mes cheveux.

  • Forgetting adjective agreement.

    Elle est gentille, not elle est gentil.

  • Using avoir for overall description.

    Je suis grand, not j'ai grand.

  • Adding an -e to sympa.

    It never changes.

Exam tips

  • Use avoir for features and être for description.
  • Use the definite article with body parts.
  • Check every adjective agrees.
  • Add intensifiers to extend your range.

Key terms

Appearance
Physical description, using avoir for features.
Agreement
Matching an adjective to the person described.
Intensifier
A word such as très or assez.
Sympa
An adjective that never changes form.

Related topics

Written and reviewed against the current AQA specification. Spotted an error? Let us know.