Zapp! English Colloquial 2.9 - Describing Appearance!

A few minutes before we pressed record, Clare had already used one of the words on Katie's list without noticing. So Katie only had to start the definition — "a way to describe somebody that you think is really physically attractive" — and Clare finished it for her: "Hot!" From there the conversation went where you'd expect. "I'm just thinking about hot men, this is a really nice topic!" Clare says, a few seconds later. This is a guessing game episode, and the guesses are half the fun.

What you'll hear in this episode

There are two unscripted conversations. In the first, Katie gives Clare definitions and Clare has to name the expression. They start with the positive ones — hot, tasty, hunky — and neither of them can defend tasty. "I wouldn't particularly like to be described as tasty," Clare says, because the word makes her think about food. For hunky, Clare's first guess is "Fit", which Katie accepts as a real word but not the one on her list. Katie explains it with a calendar of muscular men, one for each month, and Clare admits: "I would buy the calendar." Then the less flattering ones: chunky, which Clare thinks is genuinely useful because "it's a bit more acceptable" than calling someone fat, and plain / a plain Jane, which they agree means average rather than ugly — someone with "nothing...particular about them". Clare's last word on the topic is a complaint that they never got to sexy.

The second conversation is with Tom, sitting on his bed with his hair everywhere. "Untidy. Always," he says, when Katie asks what it looks like in the morning — though he blames the current state on the headphones. He guesses bed head, thin on top (after offering "egghead" first), all skin and bone, weedy and scruffy. One of the hosts remembers grandparents asking, "Why are you so scruffy?" during adolescence, back when looking messy was fashionable.

Quick facts

What you'll learn

The most useful pattern here isn't a word, it's a hedge. Listen to how often these expressions arrive wrapped in a bit or a little bit: "He's a bit weedy", "He's a bit chunky", "going a bit thin on top". English speakers soften judgements about other people's bodies almost automatically, and chunky itself exists mainly as a softer alternative to fat — Clare explains exactly why she reaches for it.

You'll also hear the noun and adjective pair: he's a hunk and he's hunky. And you'll notice how close hunky and chunky sound, which is precisely why Katie sets them up one after the other — a one-consonant difference between a compliment and an insult, and a good test of your ear.

Between the conversations there are two Meaning and Pronunciation tasks. These are scripted, so the instructions stay clear: you hear a definition, answer from memory, then repeat the word after the beep in a full sentence — "He thinks she's hot", "He's going a bit thin on top". It's recall practice rather than passive listening, and it's where the pronunciation of scruffy, weedy and skin and bone gets fixed properly.

Vocabulary from this episode

The workbook glossary rates each expression 1 to 3 for how risky it is. Level 3 comes with a warning: don't use it with your mother-in-law.

• hot (2/3) – has a very attractive body, sexually attractive
• hunky (2) – used to describe a physically attractive and strong looking man
• tasty (UK) (3) – a very informal way to say sexually attractive, be careful with this one
• a plain Jane / plain (2) – a way to describe a woman who is not very good looking
• scruffy (1) – untidy looking
• thin on top (2) – going bald, losing their hair
• weedy (2) – used to describe someone (usually male) who is thin and weak looking (negative)
• all skin and bone (2) – very thin (negative)
• bed head (1) – when your hair looks like it hasn't been brushed and as if you have just got up out of bed
• chunky (2) – a funny way to say a little bit overweight

What's in the workbook

The workbook for Unit 9 gives you the full transcript of both conversations, so you can go back and see exactly where Clare's guesses went sideways and how Tom worked his way from egghead to thin on top. After that comes the glossary with its 1-3 politeness ratings, which is the part we'd read twice: scruffy is a 1 and safe almost anywhere, while tasty is a 3 and best left to other people.

Then two exercises. Practice Exercise 1 is a matching task: six plain-English sentences such as "He hasn't got any muscles" and "Her hair is always untidy and her clothes need ironing", to be paired with their colloquial equivalents. Practice Exercise 2 is trickier — seven sentences with the bold words swapped into the wrong places, so "She needs to eat more, she's all hot" has to be repaired. Full answers are at the back.

This workbook is part of the Zapp! English all-in-one pack — every episode, every transcript, every exercise, for €39.

Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39

Common questions

Is the audio scripted?

The conversations aren't. Clare and Tom hear the definitions for the first time and guess out loud, which is why there are wrong answers and interruptions. The teaching sections that set up the tasks and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.

Are these words safe to use?

Some are, some aren't, and the workbook tells you which. Katie's own advice on tasty is that you shouldn't use it but you may well hear it — and about weedy she simply says: "Not nice. Don't use that one."

What's the difference between hunky and chunky?

One letter, and a great deal of tact. Hunky means muscular and attractive; chunky means slightly overweight. Practice Exercise 2 makes you keep them apart under pressure.

Do I need the workbook to follow the audio?

No — the audio stands alone and the free download is there for anyone. But the matching and word-swap exercises are where the vocabulary sticks.

Is Level 2 right for me?

If you can follow two native speakers talking over each other and laughing, yes. If not, the transcript will carry you through.

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