Quick answer
Mi jefa es alta y muy tranquila. Tiene el pelo corto.
My boss is tall and very calm. She has short hair. Appearance and character run on ser; hair and eyes switch to tener.
The words of this lesson
Picking someone up at the airport
A colleague is flying in and you have never met her. You ask ¿cómo es? and the answer comes back in one shape: es alta, delgada y bastante joven. Appearance and character both take ser, because you are saying what the person is, not how she happens to be today.
Hair and eyes break the pattern: they belong to the person, so Spanish uses tener plus the definite article. Tiene el pelo rubio y corto, tiene los ojos verdes. Not su pelo es rubio — that is English wearing Spanish words.
The endings have to agree twice
Every adjective matches the person in gender and in number, and it matches all the way down the list. Mi hermano es alto, moreno y muy trabajador. Mi hermana es alta, morena y muy trabajadora. If you switch to a plural, everything follows: mis primas son bajitas y muy simpáticas.
Adjectives ending in -e or in most consonants have one form for both genders and only change in the plural: es inteligente, son inteligentes, es joven, son jóvenes. The -dor group is the trap, because it does take an -a: trabajadora, habladora.
Softening the verdict
Plain adjectives sound harsher in Spanish than the English equivalent, so people hedge. Bastante (fairly), un poco (a bit) and the -ito ending all take the edge off: es bastante tímido, está un poco gordito, es bajita.
And keep character apart from mood. Es nerviosa describes the person; está nerviosa means she is nervous about something right now. Use ser for the description, estar for the afternoon.
Where you are matters
For dark hair Spain says <span class="es-inline">moreno</span>, while in Mexico and Central America <span class="es-inline">moreno</span> usually refers to skin tone and hair is <span class="es-inline">pelo negro</span>. <span class="es-inline">Güero</span> for a fair-haired person is Mexican; Spain says <span class="es-inline">rubio</span>.
Memory trick
Ser for what the person is, tener el pelo / los ojos for hair and eyes.
A short dialogue
Typical mistakes
Su pelo es rubio.
Tiene el pelo rubio.
Spanish describes hair and eyes with tener plus the definite article, not with a possessive plus ser.
Mi hermana es muy trabajador.
Mi hermana es muy trabajadora.
Adjectives in -dor do take a feminine -a, so a feminine subject needs trabajadora.
Ella está alta.
Ella es alta.
Height is a lasting quality, so it takes ser. Estar alta would suggest she has suddenly grown.
Practice
Practise these describing people
0/8 matched — tap a Spanish word, then its translation
Check yourself
Which sentence says "She has green eyes"?