Being able to describe ourselves or others is one of the fundamentals in any language. In this post, we’ll look specifically at how to talk about someone’s characteristics in Spanish, whether positive, neutral, or negative.

Ready to get started? Let’s dive in and learn how to describe personality traits in Spanish!

Asking about someone’s characteristics in Spanish

Before we even begin to describe someone, we need to know how to ask the question in the first place. Since personality traits are a permanent characteristic, we generally use the Spanish verb ser when describing them. To ask about someone’s characteristics in Spanish, you just start the question with cómo, you conjugate the verb ser, and then state the person you’re asking about:

Cómo + ser + subject

Let’s see some questions for what different subjects are like:

• What are you like? – ¿Cómo eres?

• What is he / she / Martin like? – ¿Cómo es él / ella / Martin?

• What are we like? – ¿Cómo somos nosotros/as?

• What are you like? – ¿Cómo son ustedes?

• What are they like? – ¿Cómo son ellos / ellas?

Note that you can often use the same questions for asking about someone’s appearances, though sometimes you’d use the verb “estar” instead. In this post we’ll keep our focus on personality traits in Spanish. Check out our specific post for more detail on physical descriptions in Spanish.

Which Verb Do We Use to Describe Someone’s Personality

Before we get into the adjectives for describing personality traits in Spanish, let’s just see the basic sentence structure:

Subject + verb + adjective

There are three main verbs to choose between, depending if the personality trait is a permanent feature of the person (ser), if it just describes them at the moment (estar), or if the particular characteristic is currently changing (volverse). Note that these verbs can all be conjugated in any tense, depending on the context. Let’s take a look at each one.

Ser to describe permanent characteristics

In most circumstances, we use ser for describing personality since this is the Spanish verb to be which applies to someone’s permanent characteristics. Let’s see some examples:

• I am assertive in every decision I make every day. – Yo soy asertivo en cada decisión que tomo a diario.

• Martha was naïve when she was studying at the university, thinking she would be able to change the world. – Martha era muy ingenua cuando estudiaba en la universidad, pensando que sería capaz de cambiar el mundo.

• Carlos and Raúl have been abusive since they joined the company. – Carlos y Raúl han sido abusivos desde que entraron a trabajar en la empresa.

• My mother had been hard-working in her youth. – Mi madre había sido trabajadora en su juventud.

Estar to describe temporary emotions

Emotions come and go, so we need to use the verb estar since this is the Spanish verb to be which applies to the immediate situation. Let’s see this in action with a few examples describing when someone is angry (which we certainly hope is just a temporary characteristic!):

• What do you think of Sarah? / She’s angry right now, although she doesn’t usually behave like that all the time. – ¿Qué opinas de Sarah? / Ella está enojada en este momento, aunque no suele comportarse así todo el tiempo.

• Kevin is angry because of his lack of control over his temper. He is usually a good boy. – Kevin está enojado debido a la falta de control sobre su temperamento. Él suele ser un buen chico.

• What’s going on with Carlos? / He is angry with his boss, and this behavior is not typical of him. – ¿Qué ocurre con Carlos? / Está enojado con su jefe, y este comportamiento no es propio de él.

Volverse to describe personal transformation

When we describe someone’s personality traits which are undergoing change, we use the Spanish reflexive verb volverse, meaning to become. This is the right verb to talk about someone’s life changes over time, or about their personal growth. Let’s see this in action with a few examples:

• I am a bit of an introvert, although I will become more expressive when I enter college next year. – Soy un poco introvertido, aunque me volveré más expresivo cuando ingrese a la universidad el próximo año.

• Miriam is nice, but she has become very reclusive since the pandemic. – Miriam es simpática, pero se ha vuelto muy huraña desde la pandemia.

• My dad’s strict nature always made it difficult for me to party, but over the years he became more understanding. – El carácter estricto de mi papá siempre dificultaba que pudiera salir de fiesta, pero, con los años se volvió más comprensivo.

• My neighbor’s children are naughty, but maybe they will change when they become more mature. – Los hijos de mi vecino son traviesos, pero tal vez cambien cuando se vuelvan más maduros.

Spanish Personality Traits Vocabulary

Now that we’ve seen how to ask questions about someone’s personality traits in Spanish, and how to form sentences to describe their characteristics, it’s time to dive into some vocabulary lists. Here we go!

Adverbs

Before getting to the list of adjectives, let’s just do a quick reminder about how we can use adverbs to add emphasis to adjectives. You can recognize many Spanish adjectives because they end in -mente, which generally correspond to their English equivalents that end in -ly.

Since you can really use a wide variety of adverbs to add emphasis to our descriptions of someone’s personality traits, we’ll just include a few specific ones here. Remember that adverbs don’t change form, regardless of the gender or number of the object they modify.

• Claudia is excessively possessive with her phone. She does not allow even her mother to touch it. – Claudia es excesivamente posesiva con su teléfono, no permite que ni su mamá lo toque.

• The new neighbors are constantly kind to the troublesome kids in the neighborhood. – Los vecinos nuevos son constantemente amables con los chicos problemáticos del vecindario.

• Miriam is quite controlling with her children, and with the type of people they go out to have fun with. – Miriam es bastante controladora con sus hijos y con el tipo de personas con quienes salen a divertirse.

• I’m always very grumpy when it comes to my personal space. – Siempre soy muy gruñona cuando se trata de mi espacio personal.

• The teacher is too demanding with the students. – El profesor es demasiado exigente con los alumnos.

Adjectives for positive personality traits in Spanish

Now it’s time to introduce our big lists of useful adjectives for talking about characteristics in Spanish. Since these can generally be categorized as positive or negative personality traits, we’ll start with the nicer ones we might use to describe our friends or even ourselves.

Remember that adjectives always need to agree with the number and gender of the object they modify, so you’ll likely need to change the endings of these words if the people they describe are feminine or plural.

• My son has created a new design. He is very clever. – Mi hijo ha creado un nuevo diseño. Él es muy ingenioso.

• Ana is trustworthy and kind. That’s why everyone in the neighborhood loves her. – Ana es confiable y amable. Por eso, todos en el vecindario la quieren.

• I am always sincere with what I say, although sometimes my honesty might hurt others. – Siempre soy sincero con lo que digo, aunque en ocasiones mi honestidad pueda herir a otros.

• My grandmother’s cat is very playful, and she loves to chase insects in the garden. – La gata de mi abuela es muy juguetona y le encanta perseguir insectos en el jardín.

• My daughter is very timid with people she doesn’t know. –  Mi hija es muy tímida con las personas que no conoce.

• Kevin is thoughtful, but at the same time realistic, which allows him to face life with the best possible attitude. – Kevin es pensativo pero a la vez es realista, eso le permite enfrentarse a la vida con la mejor actitud posible.

• I was very naïve in my interactions with the bullies when I was in high school, but I learned to defend myself and became cautious over the years. – Yo era muy ingenuo en mis interacciones con los acosadores cuando estaba en la escuela secundaria, pero aprendí a defenderme y me volví cauteloso con los años.

Note that we can turn positive traits into negative ones too:

• Laura is not very expressive. She always keeps her opinions to herself. – Laura no es expresiva, siempre guarda sus opiniones para ella.

• I’m not patient. It’s impossible for me to wait so long. – Yo no soy paciente, es imposible para mí esperar tanto tiempo.

• Camila is not friendly, so it’s awkward to be with her. – Camila no es amigable, por eso es incómodo estar con ella.

Adjectives for negative personality traits in Spanish

Now that we’ve introduced the positive personality traits in Spanish, now it’s time to turn to the other side of the personality and learn a bunch of negative characteristics in Spanish.

• When it comes to money, governors are unreliable. – Cuando se trata de dinero, los gobernadores son poco confiables.

• My husband is obsessive about cleanliness, which has caused problems in our relationship. – Mi esposo es obsesivo con la limpieza, eso ha causado problemas en nuestra relación.

• Miriam and Kevin are very pretentious, and they spend their time bragging about all the things they have that make others feel bad. – Miriam y Kevin son muy pretenciosos, y se la pasan alardeando de todas las cosas que tienen haciendo sentir mal a los demás.

• The neighbor’s daughters are scruffy and have very bad manners, as well as little shame. They are disrespectful to the community! – Las hijas de la vecina son desaliñadas y tienen muy malos modales, además de poca vergüenza. ¡Son irrespetuosas con la comunidad!

• Since the pandemic started, I have become grumpier every day, even though I was so positive before. – Desde que inició la pandemia, me he vuelto más gruñona cada día, a pesar de que antes era tan positiva.

• The neighbor in apartment 101 is very malicious. She is always making up rumors to provoke fights between all the neighbors. – La vecina del apartamento 101 es muy maliciosa. Siempre anda inventando rumores para provocar peleas entre todos los vecinos.

• Steven is very lazy and immature, as well as clumsy, which is why we hardly ever hang out with him. – Steven es muy perezoso e inmaduro, además de torpe, por eso casi nunca nos juntamos con él.

Just as we saw with the positive traits, we can turn negative ones positive too:

• Aurora is not a liar, she just tries not to hurt the feelings of others. – Aurora no es mentirosa, ella solo trata de no herir los sentimientos de los demás.

• I am not messy, I have my own method for organizing myself and finding my things. – Yo no soy desordenada, tengo mi propio método para organizarme y encontrar mis cosas.

Conclusion

Well that covers today’s topic, going deep into how to talk about people’s qualities in Spanish. We started by learning some basic questions to ask what someone is like, and then introduced the three main verbs you can use to describe their characteristics in Spanish. And then you got some pretty big vocabulary lists of positive and negative personality traits in Spanish!

Perhaps that was a lot to cover at once, so feel free to bookmark this page and come back to it when you’re looking for the right word.

In the meantime, are you ready to give it a bit of practice? Awesome! Then we’ll leave you with a few exercises to put these verbs and adjectives in action to describe people’s personality traits.

¡Hasta una próxima entrega!

Personality Traits in Spanish: Exercises

Based on the English translation, complete the sentences using the right verbs and the best adjectives for each of the characteristics in Spanish:

1. Mi mejor amiga ______  muy ______. Siempre ayuda a todos a su alrededor sin distinción.

– My best friend is very friendly. She always helps everyone around her without distinction.

2. Nos reímos mucho con Daniel. Él ______ muy ______.

– We laughed a lot with Daniel. He is very funny.

3. Mi abuelo ______ muy  ______. Pasa el día quejándose por todo.

– My grandfather is very grumpy. He spends the day complaining about everything.

4. Carlos y su esposa ______ muy ______. Siempre sonríen y están dispuestos a ayudar a los demás vecinos.

– Carlos and his wife are very kind. They always smile and are willing to help other neighbors.

5. La mascota de Claudia ______ muy ______. Le encanta lamernos cuando visitamos su casa.

– Claudia’s pet is very affectionate. She loves to lick us when we visit her house.

6. Siempre has ______ muy ______. ______ más ______ te ayudaría a hacer más amigos.

– You have always been very selfish. Being more friendly would help you make more friends.

7. Desde el inicio de la pandemia, mi familia se ha ______ muy ______.

– Since the start of the pandemic, my family has become very reclusive.

8. ¡Miriam ______ muy  ______! Es imposible hablar con ella sin terminar en una discusión.

– Miriam is very rude! It is impossible to talk to her without ending up in an argument.

9. Creo que Angela ______ bastante ______ aunque algo ______ para su edad. Se nota la influencia de sus padres sobre ella.

– I think Angela is quite expressive, although somewhat messy for her age. The influence of her parents on her is noticeable.

Answers

1. Mi mejor amiga es muy amistosa. Siempre ayuda a todos a su alrededor sin distinción.

– My best friend is friendly. She always helps everyone around her without distinction.

2. Nos reímos mucho con Daniel. Él es muy gracioso.

– We laughed a lot with Daniel. He is very funny.

3. Mi abuelo es muy gruñón. Pasa el día quejándose por todo.

– My grandfather is very grumpy. He spends the day complaining about everything.

4. Carlos y su esposa son muy amables. Siempre sonríen y están dispuestos a ayudar a los demás vecinos.

– Carlos and his wife are very kind. They always smile and are willing to help other neighbors.

5. La mascota de Claudia es muy tierna. Le encanta lamernos cuando visitamos su casa.

– Claudia’s pet is very affectionate. She loves to lick us when we visit her house.

6. Siempre has sido muy egoísta. Ser más amistosa te ayudaría a hacer más amigos.

– You have always been muy selfish. Being more friendly would help you make more friends.

7. Desde el inicio de la pandemia, mi familia se ha vuelto muy huraña.

– Since the start of the pandemic, my family has become very reclusive.

8. ¡Miriam es muy grosera! Es imposible hablar con ella sin terminar en una discusión.

– Miriam is very rude! It is impossible to talk to her without ending up in an argument.

9. Creo que Angela es bastante expresiva aunque algo desordenada para su edad. Se nota la influencia de sus padres sobre ella.

– I think Angela is quite expressive, although somewhat messy for her age. The influence of her parents on her is noticeable.