Spanish Grammar Guide

Talking about your skin, hair and eyes in Spanish

To talk about our skin, hair, and eyes, we use tener (Juan has blue eyes, Marta has fair skin, etc). Here are some adjectives we can use for each:

La piel (skin)

Morena – dark
Clara – fair 

El pelo (hair)

Largo – long
Corto – short
Liso – straight
Rizado – curly
Rubio – blonde
Moreno – dark

We can also use colors: marrón, negro, azul, etc.

Exception:

Calvo - bald

We use ser for calvo: Pedro es calvo.

Also, pelirrojo (redhead), moreno and rubio can be used with ser:

María es pelirroja, Sara es rubia, Diego es moreno.

Los ojos (eyes)

We use colors: negros, azules, verdes, marrones...

Examples

Tengo los ojos marrones, el pelo largo, rizado y rubio y la piel clara.

María tiene el pelo muy corto, la piel morena y los ojos verdes.

Diego es calvo, tiene los ojos azules y la piel muy clara.

Sara es rubia y tiene los ojos grises.

Note: Using the article (María tiene el pelo largo) in these types of sentences is not mandatory, but it is commonly done. The sentence would also be perfectly correct without it: María tiene pelo largo.

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