Learn English – How do we ask someone to describe their personality

expressionsword-choiceword-usage

Can we use "What are you like?"?

According to Longman dictionary we can ask "What is (s)he like?".
I want to know if we can also use this for "you". Because when I searched it in the internet, everybody said that's an idiom.

Best Answer

It would be odd and possibly rude to ask someone, "What are you like?" because, presumably, they're standing right there and can answer more specific questions. So you can open with something like:

Tell me about yourself.

And then follow up with more targeted questions:

What kinds of things do you like?

What do you do for fun?

What are your interests?

What do you do for work?

Are you single? Married? Seeing anyone? Children? How about the rest of your family?

And so on. Of course there are many personality tests that ask someone to select words or phrases that describe them. Some examples of the language used at the start of these tests:

Describe yourself as you generally are now, not as you wish to be in the future.

Describe yourself, as you honestly see yourself, in relation to other people of the same sex and of roughly the same age. Your spontaneous answer is usually the most accurate.

For each statement choose the response that best represents your opinion of yourself.

Personality tests are impersonal (it's just you and the computer) and voluntary, so it doesn't feel intrusive. Otherwise if someone corners you at a party and asks "what are you like?" it feels more like an interrogation than polite interest.

This is, of course, cultural and may vary from place to place and person to person. I've been in conversations with people from other cultures where these kind of direct questions are perfectly fine and indicate a true desire to know more about me.

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