Hey guys, welcome to another awesome online Japanese lesson from Bondlingo. Today we are going to be learning all about how to describe personality characteristics in Japanese. These vocabulary words from today’s lesson are going to be very good to know as they will make conversation about people a lot more interesting for you.
So we won’t just be giving a foundational descriptive vocab, we will also be sharing some more advanced words too for all of you people who are a bit further along in your journey and are ready to start describing personalities in a more advanced way.
We will be splitting today’s lesson into the following 4 segments:
Sentences structures when describing people
Learn how to build a basic sentence for describing people
Basic descriptive words for describing personality
Learn some of the most basic and useful describing words in Japanese
Advanced descriptive words for describing personality
Learn all about how to use more advanced describing words in Japanese.
An effective study technique
How to master all of the vocab in today’s lesson with a great process.
If you are a little more advanced, feel free to skip ahead to section 3. If not, we would advise to start from the beginning.
So let’s get right into it guys and learn how to describe personality in Japanese.
Contents
Sentences structures when describing people
Learn how to build a basic sentence for describing people
In Japanese the word for personality is:
seikaku
せいかく
性格
If in general you want to say if someone has a good or bad personality you can use the following 2 structures:
Yamada has a good personality
Yamada san wa seikaku ga ii
やまださんわせいかくがいい
山田さんは性格がいい
Yamada has a bad personality
Yamada san wa seikaku ga warui
やまださんわせいかくがわるい
山田さんは性格が悪い
This is a great overall description but we want to be more specific most of the time.
When being more specific you can use the following structure:
ベンさんは優しい
Ben san wa yasashii
Ben is kind
This simple formula is easy to use. You can use the formula:
(PERSON) は Adjective です
For most of the describing words we will learn today. So let’s jump in and start learning some basic personality describing words.
Learn some of the most basic and useful describing words in Japanese
Basic descriptive words for describing personality
In the following table you will be able to see the english, kanji. Kana and then finally the romaji. We would recommend staying away from Romaji as soon as you can as it will only hold you back.
Highlight the ones you are struggling with as you move through the list.
These are very common and much more general personality describing words.
| funny | 面白い | おもしろい | omoshiroi |
| enthusiastic | 熱心 | ねっしん | nesshin |
| calm | 落ち着いた | おちついた | ochitsuita |
| intelligent | 利口 | りこう | rikō |
| lazy | 尻が重い | しりがおもい | shiri ga omoi |
| humorous | 面白い | おもしろい | omoshiroi |
| diligent | 勤勉 | きんべん | kinben |
| friendly | フレンドリー | フレンドリー | furendorii |
| artistic | センスがいい | センスがいい | sensu ga ii |
| emotional | 感情的 | かんじょうてき | kanjōteki |
| boring | つまらない | つまらない | tsumaranai |
| hard-working | 勤勉 | きんべん | kinben |
| kind | 親切 | しんせつ | shinsetsu |
| cool | かっこいい | かっこいい | kakkoii |
| generous | 心大きい | こころおおきい | kokoro ōkii |
Great job, now that you have got through those we are going to move onto another section now which is learning more about more advanced describing words.
Learn all about how to use more advanced describing words in Japanese.
Advanced descriptive words for describing personality
Much like the previous list, remember to go through and highlight words that you don’t know.
It will really help to think of that personality description in your mind too as you go along.
These words are much more advanced so don’t be discouraged if you don’t know many of them. If you can master them they will go a long way towards making you sound super confident in Japanese too.
| active | 行動的 | こうどうてき | kōdō-teki |
| aggressive | 積極的 | せっきょくてき | sekkyokuteki |
| ambitious | 意欲的 | いよくてき | iyokuteki |
| indecisiv | 優柔不断 | ゆうじゅうふだん | yūjū fudan |
| energetic | 活気のある | かっきのある | kakki no aru |
| introverted | 内向的 | ないこうてき | naikōteki |
| extroverted | 外向的 | がいこうてき | gaikōteki |
| bad-tempered | 怒りっぽい | おこりっぽい | okorippoi |
| creative | 独創的 | どくそうてき | dokusōteki |
| charismatic | カリスマ性がある | カリスマせいがある | karisumasei ga aru |
| careful | 慎重 | しんちょう | shinchō |
| brave | 勇敢 | ゆうかん | yūkan |
| anxious | 不安になる | ふあんになる | fuan ni naru |
| easygoing | のんき | のんき | nonki |
| honest | 誠実 | せいじつ | seijitsu |
Great, now you’ve finished up with these, let’s move on to a great study technique to help you remember them.
How to master all of the vocab in today’s lesson with a great process.
An effective study technique
Since we have covered a ridiculous amount of new vocab today it’s only natural that you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed, we are going to help with that. So here is what you need to do:
- Review the sentence structure for personality sentences
- Secondly, create a flash card / anki system with those words so you can review them each day. That will be Japanese on the back and English on the front.
- Review the words each day for the next 5 days
- Once you are more confident with these words you must try to write 2 – 3 sentences with each. Remember to use the guide in section 1 to help you with this too.
If you write sentences every day you are really going to be able to master these words for ongoing use in your Japanese.
Well guys, that’s all for today’s amazing online Japanese lesson from us here at BondLingo!
We really hope that you have learnt something new today that you can use to help develop your Japanese language skills. If you have any comments or suggestions on future content that you would like to see be sure to get in touch with us.
We are really happy that you are taking the time to study off your own back. Remember, it is a hard journey, but one that needs to be taken step by step. Just being here and putting in the work proves that you have what it takes to go all the way! Until the next time everyone またね.