Mostly not, at least not in the way school taught it
Many biology lessons present dimples, freckles, curly hair, a cleft chin, free earlobes and tongue rolling as neat one-gene traits, each with a dominant and a recessive version. When the geneticist John McDonald went back to the family and twin studies behind several of these claims, most did not fit that pattern. Some traits are shaped by several genes, some by sunlight or age as well, and for dimples there is little published evidence of a genetic cause at all.
That does not mean genes play no part. It means the simple chart cannot tell you what your baby will look like.
What dominant and recessive mean
Everyone has two versions of each gene, one from each biological parent. When the two versions differ, often only one of them shows. That one is called dominant, and the other, whose effect is masked, is called recessive. A recessive trait only shows when a child inherits the recessive version from both parents, which is how it can appear in a child of two parents who do not show it.
This works well when one gene does most of the work, which is roughly the case for blood groups. The blood type calculator is built on it. Most visible features are different: many genes each add a small push, and the result is a range rather than two neat boxes.
Dimples
Dimples do tend to run in families and are usually described as dominant. Yet it is not known which genes are involved, and some researchers point out that there is no published proof that dimples are inherited. They also change over a lifetime. Many babies have dimples from baby fat that disappear as the fat goes, other children only develop them later, and for some people they last only until adolescence or young adulthood.
Cleft chin
A cleft chin is another classroom favourite. The family studies that exist do not fit the idea that it comes from a single dominant version of a gene, so it is a poor example of simple inheritance.
Freckles
Freckles have one clear genetic link: the MC1R gene, which is also tied to red hair and fair skin. In a large study, people with one MC1R variant had about 3 times the risk of childhood freckles, and people with two variants about 11 times. The more variants, the more freckles, and nearly everyone with freckles carried at least one variant.
That is a dose effect rather than a classic dominant trait. Genes are not the whole story either: freckles of this kind are largely genetic, but sunlight is what brings them out. If red hair runs in your families, the hair colour calculator lets you take that into account.
Curly hair
Genes play a major role in hair texture, but no single "curly" gene decides it. Many genes are likely to contribute, and different ones seem to matter in people of different ancestries: a variant of the TCHH gene is linked to hair texture in people of northern European ancestry, for example. Hormones, some medicines and treatments such as perms or relaxers can change hair, and texture can also change with age. So there is no rule that curly beats straight.
Earlobes and tongue rolling
Earlobes do not really come in two types, free and attached. The attachment point varies continuously from person to person. There is probably some genetic influence, but family studies have found children with free earlobes born to two parents with attached ones, which a one-gene model says cannot happen.
Tongue rolling has an even clearer story. In one study of 33 pairs of identical twins, who share the same genes, 7 pairs included one twin who could roll their tongue and one who could not. Parents who could not roll their tongue had children who could, and some children who cannot do it at first learn it later. Alfred Sturtevant, the geneticist who first described it as an inherited trait in 1940, later said he was embarrassed to see it still listed as a simple Mendelian case.
What you can and cannot expect
Your baby will inherit a mix of both of your genes, but which versions they get is down to chance. A trait neither of you shows can appear, and one you both have may not.
For eye colour, hair colour and height, our free tools give rough odds from what each of you looks like: the eye colour calculator, the hair colour calculator and the child height predictor. Each one explains its method and its limits.
Imagine it, for fun
If you are curious what a face with your dimples and your partner's curls might look like, the AI baby photo generator blends a photo of each of you into an imagined child. It is a playful picture, not genetics: it cannot see which hidden versions of genes either of you carries, so take it as entertainment, not a prediction.