Learn Advanced Adjectives in 3 Ways English Vocabulary Skills
Well hey there I’m Emma from mmmEnglish!
Today I’m gonna be teaching
and testing your knowledge of some advanced adjectives
that will help you to describe the world around you in English.
And then I’m gonna show you a really fun flashcard memory game
that will help you to learn and to memorise new vocabulary.
I’ve also created a free downloadable PDF
the link is in the description and it includes all of the flashcards
for the vocabulary that you’ll be learning today.
You can download it from the description below.
These flashcards are something that you can use at home
with any words or phrases or even grammar points
that you want to learn and you want to memorise.
So make sure you stick around because at the end of this lesson
you’ll not only have ten fancy new adjectives to use,
you’ll also have a great new tool
for practising vocabulary and language.
So are you ready?
So first up, we’re gonna learn these new adjectives.
And the adjectives that we’re looking at are extreme adjectives
which means that we can use these adjectives instead of
saying very, really or extremely with a regular adjective.
So instead of saying something is very bad, we can say
that it’s appalling.
Appalling.
With all of these strong adjectives, you definitely want to know
which syllable is the stressed syllable in each word
so that you can emphasise it.
It’s appalling.
Can you hear me stressing that?
In extreme adjectives, this is such a useful tip
for your pronunciation. So instead of saying
The weather this summer has been very bad.
We can do better than that.
We can say:
The weather this summer has been appalling.
Really bad.
Another thing you need to know about these adjectives
is that they’re extreme, okay? The word appalling
already explains that something is really bad or very bad,
okay that’s why it’s called an extreme adjective.
So you cannot use the adverbs very, really, extremely
together with an extreme adjective, okay? So don’t say
It’s been very appalling.
You can say: It’s been very bad.
Or
It’s been appalling.
Got it?
Good. Now when something is a surprise,
or it’s very surprising, you can say it’s astonishing.
Astonishing.
It’s astonishing to see how quickly they
rebuilt the town after the earthquake.
A cool thing to learn with the adjective astonishing
are some of the verbs that it’s commonly used with.
It’s astonishing to see…
Astonishing to think…
Or to realise…
This adjective is very often used with the to-infinitive verb.
It is so helpful, so helpful to pay attention to this kind of
information when you’re learning new words so make a note of it
on your flashcard or in your notebook:
often used with the to-infinitive verb.
Okay so what about when something is extremely large
in size? Large in size or amount or degree?
Can you think of an adjective, an extreme adjective,
that could work here?
Immense.
They were under immense pressure to pass the exam.
Now it’s also possible to say they were under an immense
amount of pressure to pass the exam.
Either way, we know that the pressure was high.
This next adjective describes something excellent
or beautiful and impressive.
It’s splendid.
Well, that was a splendid afternoon! Thank you for inviting us.
It’s kind of a little posh, a little formal.
But I love it, I use it all the time!
Our next adjective is
gruelling.
This is gonna be a tricky one for some of you to say.
Gruelling.
When something is gruelling, it’s extremely tiring and difficult,
and it requires a lot of effort and determination.
To pass their final exam, they had to complete a gruelling
24 hour observation.
Do you know this adjective?
Excruciating.
It can be used in a few different situations,
you can use it to describe something that is extremely painful
The pain was excruciating.
Ouch.
But it can also mean extremely boring or embarrassing
so something can be so boring
or so embarrassing that it’s actually
painful, it feels painful to watch.
The presenter was excruciating to watch.
Now maybe they were just dull and boring to listen to
but they could also be incredibly underprepared and it was
embarrassing and awkward to watch him give his presentation
and feel so uncomfortable.
I mean you can also say in this same context
that something was painful to watch, excruciating to watch,
painful to watch.
When a person is very careful
and does things with a great attention to detail,
we can describe them as
meticulous.
Can you hear that stress?
Meticulous.
We were impressed by the meticulous research
Sarah had done to prove her theory.
So this was very careful, very detailed research.
Now the last adjective I want to share today is
impeccable.
This means perfect or really well done.
And we use it when something is
perfect without any problems at all.
Her performance was impeccable.
We also often say that someone’s behaviour was impeccable.
Okay so now we’ve learnt some new extreme adjectives,
let’s test what you know and lock them into your memory.
So this is something that you can definitely do with flashcards
at home, you can either pick up a card
read the word and try and remember what it means
or
you can easily work backwards and you can look at the definition
and then try to remember the word.
As you get more familiar with the word, you know keep
putting them to the back of the pack you know,
so they come up less frequently
and once you feel a hundred per cent confident
with how to use that word and what it means,
put it in a separate pile
and maybe come back to it at the end of the week or later,
a few days later and test yourself.
This is gonna help to retain that knowledge,
that word, that expression in your head.
In this quick quiz now, I’m gonna show you the definition
and I want you to try and remember and tell me
what is the correct adjective.
Alright? Like this.
Do you remember which adjective means extremely
tiring and difficult
and demanding great attention and determination?
Yes, that’s right! It’s gruelling.
Which adjective describes something that is
extremely large in size or degree?
Immense.
Yes.
Moving on, we’ve got this one here.
How do we describe something that is perfect
with no problems or bad parts?
It starts with I.
Yes! Impeccable.
Next up.
Something that is very bad is…
Appalling.
That’s right, maybe you can think of some others
but we’re looking for appalling.
Do you know what the adjective is?
Something excellent, beautiful and impressive is?
Splendid.
How about this one?
When something is very surprising, it’s…
Astonishing.
Correct!
Just two more to go now.
When a person is very careful and they do something with great
attention to detail, they are…
Meticulous.
You’re right!
And the last one?
An adjective that means extremely painful, boring or embarrassing.
Excruciating.
That’s it!
Did you get them all?
I hope so
but don’t go anywhere just yet! I’m gonna test how well
you can use these adjectives correctly in a sentence now.
So this time I’m gonna give you the sentence
and I want you to complete the sentence with the correct adjective,
one of the ones that we’ve just learned, just like this.
Now as always, I’m gonna give you a few seconds to think
before telling you the answer. In this case,
the weather’s been very bad.
The weather’s been appalling this summer.
But if that weather was actually perfect all summer,
then you could also say that the weather
this summer has been impeccable.
So there’s always more than one option but let’s try and remember
and use the ones that we’ve just learnt.
Are you ready to try it out? Let’s go.
Her English is
I’ve never heard her make a mistake.
It’s perfect!
Her English is impeccable.
To pass the test, they had to complete a
obstacle course in the pouring rain.
It was tough and not everyone made it through.
So it was very hard.
To pass the test, they needed to complete a
gruelling obstacle course in the pouring rain.
The presentation about gas prices was
to watch. I’ve never been so bored in my life.
It was excruciating to watch!
It’s
to see how quickly they rebuilt the town after the earthquake.
It’s astonishing
to see how quickly they rebuilt the town after the earthquake.
We were impressed by the
research Sarah had done to prove her theory. It was so detailed.
We were impressed by the meticulous research.
He had dressed up for the occasion and looked
in a tailor-made wool suit and shiny leather shoes.
He looked splendid in his wool suit.
Now it could also be impeccable
if we wanted to say that he looked perfect.
They were under
pressure to pass the exam,
the results could change their lives forever!
They were under immense pressure to pass the exam.
So that’s it!
You’ve done an amazing job to get all the way through to the end.
You’ve just learned a new bunch of adjectives that you can use
to describe the world around you in English which is awesome.
But you’ve also practised them in multiple ways
to help make sure that those words stick in your mind.
Don’t forget to download your free flashcards to practise with me.
The link is down in the description below.
And remember that you can recreate this same activity using
flashcards with any other words and phrases
that you want to learn.
So I hope you had fun and I hope that you enjoy those flashcards
I made and that they help you to stick those words in your mind.
If you’d like to see more lessons just like this one
let me know down in the comments below.
You can keep practising with me right here,
right now in this lesson right here.
I’ll see you in there!