Spanish Basics: How to Describe a Person’s Face

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It’s easy to learn Spanish if you begin with the basics. Just get down the simple verbs, some foods, and perhaps a few descriptive terms. Usually people learn Spanish by beginning to say the alphabet and rehearsing greetings such as “hello” and “goodnight,” but studying the facial features will allow you to have a bit of variety and spice as you learn Spanish.

A very fun basic to begin with while in the process of learning Spanish is the descriptions of the face. The face is recognized as the front part of the head. It includes the lips, nose, eyes, cheeks, eyebrows, nose, hair, teeth, lips, and chin. The face functions as a tool of expression and identity, and people’s faces are the body part that is most commonly used to distinguish them. Often caricatures will overemphasize certain parts of the face in order to make them instantly recognizable to the people who may be familiar with those memorable features.

If you have a bit of trouble recalling names of others, you may want to become very familiar with the features of the face. The size of someone’s eyes let a mother know instantly which one of your children you are talking about.

It’s good to be able to speak about someone’s facial features in Spanish because if you meet someone in a Spanish-speaking country you may have to describe that person to another person who speaks Spanish. Also, describing people’s facial features in Spanish will help you to learn Spanish in a fun a creative way.

To begin with, if you meet someone who has a thin face, you would say “una cara delgada”. Translated into English, this means “She has a thin face.” If you meet someone who has a chubby face, you would say “una cara regordete.” If you meet someone you would like to describe as having had a face lift you would say un lifting or un “estiramiento facial.” If someone has wrinkles you would say “arugas.” If someone’s face is happy, you would say “una cara alegre.” If someone has a big nose you would say “una nariz grande.” If someone has sunken eyes you would say “ojos hundidos.” In the event that you meet someone with shifty eyes you would say “ojos furtivos.”

Those are just some Spanish words that you can you use to describe people’s faces as you continue to learn Spanish. Now, you will not be at a loss for words when you meet people on the street. See how fun it can be to learn Spanish?

In order to avoid the typical method of beginning to learn Spanish such as getting down the alphabet and, “What’s your name?” you may want to consider learning the physical anatomy in Spanish or learning how to say the different parts of a typical suburban neighborhood. When you deviate from the norm, it not only can be fun to learn Spanish, but it also can be very exciting.

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