Describing my skills

You can use “good at” or “bad at” to talk about your abilities and skills – what you can do.

For example, to talk about school subjects:

“He’s good at French.”

“He’s bad at Physics.”

Because “at” is a preposition, you need to follow it with a noun or a gerund (an “ing” form):

I’m bad at Maths.

He’s good at English.

You’re good at spelling.

You can also use “any” in negatives and questions:

“I’m not any good at …”

Are you any good at …?

You can also use “no good at”:

“I’m no good at …”

You can use other adjectives in this way:

great at

brilliant at

fantastic at

terrible at

really bad at

hopeless at

useless at

Or you can the noun “expert”:

“He’s an expert in computer programming.”

Physical skills

Can you ...

… touch your toes

… stand on one foot

… do the splits

… touch your nose with your tongue

… swim 1 km non-stop

 … raise just one eyebrow

Practical skills

Can you …

… cook pasta with tomato sauce

… change a tyre on a car

… repair a bike

 … use a drill

Workplace skills

Can you …

… use Powerpoint

… work in a team

… write detailed reports

… deal with unhappy customers

Technological skills

Can you …

… develop a website

… set up a computer

… create and upload a video

Personal skills

Can you …

… speak a foreign language

… dance the tango

… sing in tune

… play a musical instrument