We are learning words we can use to describe personality this week. Today, we are going to learn:

• generous
• innocent
• ambitious
• assertive

In the episode, you will learn about these four words and more with Danny, Joe, and Ben. The words will also be translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Arabic in the episode, and into 62 languages you can find in the description below. 

For a better format and to find the full transcript of the episode, use this link: 

http://perfectenglishwithdanny.com/episode-135-vocabulary-builder-describing-personality-1-5

It is the end of the week, so it is time to practice what you have learned, click this link to access interactive activities and a downloadable PDF with activities on the 20 words covered in this week's episodes: 

https://www.dannyballan.com/describing-personality

Episode Transcript

Danny:

Welcome to another episode from Perfect English with Danny. Today, we will continue with our theme of the week, describing personality. We will have four new adjectives to learn today. The adjectives are generous, innocent, ambitious, and assertive. We have our friends Joe and Ben to help us out with the words and the translations into 5 languages.  

Let me remind you that you can find the translations for these four adjectives in 62 different languages in the description of the episode, and also don’t forget that today is the end of the week, so you will have a link that will take you to a webpage with interactive and downloadable activities you can use to practice the 20 words of this week, retain them and add them to your active vocabulary bank.

Let’s get to it. So, Joe, how well do you know today’s words?

Joe:

I’m familiar with all the words we have today.

Danny:

That’s great! So, let’s start right away with our first word, generous. It is spelled … generous. I will leave to you Joe to tell me what generous means.

Joe:

All right. You see, this word is not only related to people who give money to other people. It is a lot more than that. It is true that a generous person gives more of something, especially money than is usual or expected, but a generous person is also friendly, helpful, and willing to see the good qualities in someone or something. You know generous people are givers, they give without expecting anything in return. It is the act of giving that makes them happy.

Danny:

So generous people are not only those who give money to other people. Anything you give, especially when you give away something you might need; this could be your money, your time, your thoughts, etc. If you just do this to help, you are a generous person.

Joe:

Yeah. That’s right, Danny. Thank you. I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Danny:

Thank you.

Joe:

So, we can safely say that generous is always considered a positive word, right?

Danny:

That’s right, but sometimes, people confuse generous with a person who spends too much money. If you spend too much money, more than you can afford, you are not generous by any means. If you keep throwing fancy parties, invite so many people, and spend a fortune on fancy gifts you give to your friends and family, especially if you are not that rich, we cannot say you are generous.

Joe:

I agree. This is not generous by any means, but what do we call a person who does that?

Danny:

We call him or her extravagant, which is a negative word, of course.

Joe:

So generous is a positive word, extravagant is a negative word, but they don’t have the same meaning.

Danny:

No, but I have just put them side by side because people sometimes call an extravagant person generous, which is wrong.

Now let’s move to Ben and find out about the translations of generous in French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Arabic.

Ben:

So, we have generous as our first word for today.

In French, it is généreux or généreuse

In Spanish, it is generoso

In Italian, it is generoso

In Portuguese, it is generoso

And in Arabic, it is كريم

Danny:

Thank you, Ben. Now, let’s move to our second word for today, innocent. It is spelled… innocent.

Joe:

You know what, I do understand what innocent means, but how does it relate to our theme for this week. I mean innocent is like when a person is charged with a crime, but it turns out that this person did not do it, so he or she is innocent. It is the opposite of guilty, but this is not a character trait. How does it relate to describing personality?

Danny:

That’s a very good question because what you said about innocent is true. We use it in the context you mentioned, but we can use it as a character trait as well, an adjective we use to describe personality without having anything to do with crimes or the law.

Joe:

Oh really! So…

Danny:

If someone is innocent, they have no experience or knowledge of the more complex or unpleasant aspects of life. Just like children, for example, we say children are innocent. We do not say that to mean that they did not commit a certain crime, we say that to mean that they are still looking at life without the complexity and corruption filters that we add when we become adults.

Joe:

But I think people use that to describe a person as stupid or something.

Danny:

Not really. I mean some people might laugh at innocent people and think they are stupid, but that is again their own point of view, which I personally disagree with, but back to our word, innocent, it does not have to do with being stupid. However, there is another word that is used in a negative way that has a close meaning to innocent.

Joe:

What’s that?

Danny:

It’s naïve. If you describe someone as naive, you think they lack experience and so expect things to be easy or people to be honest or kind. And you hear it all the time when people say, don’t be naïve.

Joe:

So, innocent is a positive adjective to use, but naïve is a negative one.

Danny:

You see, it’s not exactly negative, but we use it in a negative way. Sometimes, I wish we, humans were all naïve and even stupid. We would love each other more and stop killing each other.

Joe:

Ain’t that the truth? But come on, don’t get so dramatic now. Let’s check the translations of this word with Ben.

Danny:

That’s right. Ben, what do you have for us?

Ben:

Well, so the word is innocent.

In French, it is innocent

In Spanish, it is inocente

In Italian, it is innocente

In Portuguese, it is inocente

And in Arabic, it is بريء

Danny:

Thank you, Ben. Now, let’s move to our third word for today, and that is ambitious. Are you ambitious, Joe?

Joe:

Well, not really. I don’t care if I create the next big thing, or if I save the world, or if I become the most famous person at something. I just want to do what I love and enjoy my life. I cannot say I am ambitious, but I think you are.

Danny:

That’s right. I am ambitious. So, someone who is ambitious has a strong desire to be successful, rich, or powerful. An ambitious person wants to achieve more than other people.

Joe:

But sometimes this can go wrong.

Danny:

That’s right. If you become obsessed with getting more powerful, or richer, for example, you might be willing to do immoral things to get there, and you justify every bad thing you do along the way because you think that is ambition, but it is not. Ambitious is a positive adjective, but we have pushy for example, which is a word that shows our disapproval of a person. If you describe someone as pushy, you mean that they try in a forceful way to get things done as they would like.

Joe:

So again, ambitious is the positive word and pushy is the negative counterpart, right?

Danny:

Yeah, you can say that.

So, let’s see how Ben is going to translate that for us.

Ben:

The word is ambitious, let me see. Well, it’s pretty much the same in all other European languages, but of course, with a different pronunciation.  

In French, it is ambitieux

In Spanish, it is ambicioso

In Italian, it is ambizioso

In Portuguese, it is ambicioso

And in Arabic, it is طموح

Danny:

Thank you, Ben. And now for our last word for this week, assertive. It is spelled… assertive. Someone who is assertive states their needs and opinions clearly, so that people take notice.

Joe:

That is a sign of being self-confident, right?

Danny:

Absolutely, being assertive is a big sign of great self-confidence.

Joe:

But sometimes it can go the wrong wa