Describing appearance in French

French uses different constructions depending on whether you are describing someone's general appearance, physical features, or something they are wearing.

For height and build, you usually use être with an adjective. For hair, eyes, and other physical features, you use avoir with a noun.

être + adjective

avoir + noun

Describing height and build with être

Use être with adjectives that describe someone's height or build:

être + adjective

French	English
Paul est grand.	Paul is tall.
Ma sœur est petite.	My sister is short.
Lucie est grande et mince.	Lucie is tall and thin.
Mon frère est musclé.	My brother is muscular.
Marie est petite et mince.	Marie is short and thin.
Mes frères sont grands.	My brothers are tall.

Adjectives such as grand, petit, and musclé change to agree with the person you describe. Some adjectives, such as mince, have the same written form for masculine and feminine.

You can combine more than one characteristic:

French	English
Thomas est grand et mince.	Thomas is tall and slim.
Ma mère est petite et musclée.	My mother is short and muscular.

Describing hair with avoir

Use avoir with les cheveux to describe someone's hair:

avoir + les cheveux + description

French	English
Julie a les cheveux bruns.	Julie has brown hair.
Mon père a les cheveux courts.	My father has short hair.
Claire a les cheveux longs et bouclés.	Claire has long, curly hair.
Pierre a les cheveux courts et noirs.	Pierre has short, black hair.
Ma sœur a les cheveux blonds et raides.	My sister has straight blond hair.
Lucas a les cheveux roux.	Lucas has red hair.

The adjectives describe les cheveux, which is masculine plural. This is why you see forms such as courts, longs, bouclés, and noirs even when you are describing a woman or girl.

Compare:

French	English
Sophie est blonde.	Sophie is blond.
Sophie a les cheveux blonds.	Sophie has blond hair.

In the first sentence, blonde describes Sophie. In the second, blonds describes les cheveux.

Describing eye color with avoir

Use avoir with les yeux to describe someone's eye color:

avoir + les yeux + color

French	English
Paul a les yeux bleus.	Paul has blue eyes.
Ma mère a les yeux verts.	My mother has green eyes.
Thomas a les yeux gris.	Thomas has gray eyes.
Julie a les yeux marron.	Julie has brown eyes.

Most color adjectives agree with les yeux, so they appear in the masculine plural form. Marron does not change in this use.

You can describe hair and eyes together:

French	English
Marie a les cheveux bruns et les yeux verts.	Marie has brown hair and green eyes.
Mon frère a les cheveux noirs et les yeux bleus.	My brother has black hair and blue eyes.

Describing beards, mustaches, and freckles

You can also use avoir for other physical features:

French	English
Mon père a une barbe.	My father has a beard.
Paul a une moustache.	Paul has a mustache.
Claire a des taches de rousseur.	Claire has freckles.
Mon grand-père a les cheveux gris.	My grandfather has gray hair.

These expressions follow the same basic pattern as avoir les cheveux and avoir les yeux.

Describing glasses with porter

Use porter to say that someone wears glasses:

French	English
Julie porte des lunettes.	Julie wears glasses.
Mon frère porte des lunettes noires.	My brother wears black glasses.

This gives you another useful pattern:

porter + clothing or accessory

You will use the same construction when describing clothes and other accessories.

Putting a description together

You can combine être, avoir, and porter to give a short description of someone's appearance:

French	English
Léa est grande et mince. Elle a les cheveux bruns et les yeux verts.	Léa is tall and slim. She has brown hair and green eyes.
Marc est petit et musclé. Il a les cheveux courts et porte des lunettes.	Marc is short and muscular. He has short hair and wears glasses.
Sophie est grande. Elle a les cheveux blonds et bouclés et les yeux bleus.	Sophie is tall. She has curly blond hair and blue eyes.

Use être for characteristics such as height and build, avoir for features such as hair and eyes, and porter for glasses, clothing, and accessories.

From learning to practice

When you see someone, try describing to yourself two or three visible features in French. Start with height or build, then add hair, eyes, glasses, or another feature.

What you'll learn