10 Advanced English Adjectives
Hello I’m Emma from mmmEnglish
and in this lesson, I’m going to go over ten advanced
English adjectives.
And I want to do that for two reasons.
Firstly, to help you expand your vocabulary
and help you to express yourself in interesting ways
but also because these advanced English adjectives
can be quite tricky to pronounce.
They have several syllables, consonant clusters and
quite a few different stress patterns.
So today I want to show you how you can use
these adjectives correctly and accurately
so that you can sound more sophisticated
when you speak in English.
We’ve got ten adjectives to get through so let’s just
dive straight into this lesson and get started.
Our first adjective is ‘explicit’.
Say it with me. Explicit.
There’s a really tricky consonant cluster in there.
Explicit.
So the stress there is on the second syllable
but all of the vowel sounds are short.
Now if something is explicit, it’s said or it’s explained
in an extremely clear way like you can’t doubt
what the meaning is if it’s explicit.
Now you often see it being used when
people are giving instructions or warnings or even
threats so it’s quite serious, this word.
He gave explicit instructions to turn the gas off
after an hour.
As with many, many English adjectives we can add -ly
to the end of this one to create the adverb ‘explicitly’.
I explicitly told you to stay in this room until I returned.
Exponential.
Hear that stress?
Exponential.
We use this word to talk about growth.
When something is growing or it’s increasing
really, really quickly,
we describe this growth as exponential.
We’ve seen an exponential increase in greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere over the past twenty years.
Now again
the adverb ‘exponentially’ can be used to modify a verb.
Company profits grew exponentially throughout 2019.
That means they increased rapidly
or really, really quickly.
Now I want you to think of a way to use this word
in a sentence yourself.
You could choose either the adjective or the adverb
but I want you to write it in the comments below
so that I can give you some feedback and help you to
increase your English skills exponentially.
Specific.
Now although this word is quite common, it’s also quite
commonly mispronounced, especially as an adverb.
Specific.
The stress is on that middle syllable.
There are specific areas within the festival
where children are not allowed.
For specific instructions, please refer to the guide.
Now we can use the adverb ‘specifically’ to express
very similar ideas.
Specifically. It’s not
Specifically.
They bought the land
specifically to establish a vineyard.
Please answer the questions as specifically as you can.
So we know that adding -ly to an adjective
to create an adverb is a really common pattern
in English. It happens all the time
but when an adjective ends in the sound like ‘specific’,
we don’t pronounce the syllable before the -ly
and there’s lots of examples of this.
Realistically.
Strategically.
Logically.
They’re all pronounced in the same way
just like ‘specifically’.
Colloquial.
That’s another tricky consonant cluster. That
Colloquial.
Now you’ve probably heard me or
another English teacher using this word before
because it’s related to language
and it shows that a word is used in
an informal conversation rather than in
formal language or in written English.
That English expression is quite colloquial.
Quite colloquial.
It’s a bit of a tongue twister.
We use that word colloquially.
So I want you to think of an example of an English
expression, maybe an idiom that is quite colloquial
and add it into the comments below.
We’ll see how many colloquial expressions
we can get down there.
Delicate.
Listen to the stress pattern there.
Our first syllable is stressed
and the last one is unstressed.
Delicate.
You hear that schwa sound in the final syllable, it’s not
It’s ‘delicate’.
And we also use the adverb ‘delicately’ as well.
Now these words, they have quite a few meanings
but it’s often used to describe
flavour or smell or color that is really pleasant
and not too strong.
So we could say:
The flavours of this dish are quite delicate.
Now we also use it when something is
done in a really careful way so that it’s not damaged.
He placed the fruit delicately into a box.
But we also use it when something is done in a careful
way so that people are not upset or annoyed.
We need to handle this situation very delicately.
If you had a friend and you had to tell them something
that you knew would upset them
or maybe hurt their feelings but it had to be said,
you would want to do it delicately,
you would want to say it to them delicately.
Carefully.
Coherent.
I love this adjective.
Can you hear where the stressed syllable is?
Coherent.
It’s that vowel sound in the middle.
Coherent.
So when something or someone communicates
in a really clear and sensible way
that people can understand, that’s coherent.
The minister offered a clear and coherent
explanation for the tax increase.
The opposite is ‘incoherent’.
We could say:
The email that he sent was poorly written
and quite incoherent.
We want to make sure that you
are very coherent when you’re using English.
Eloquent.
So the first syllable is stressed and the other two
reduce down to become the schwa sound.
Eloquent.
And just like ‘colloquial’, this adjective is related to
language, okay? It’s used when someone expresses
themselves really clearly and effectively.
And almost beautifully.
She gave an eloquent speech at the gala dinner.
Or: He spoke eloquently about his
journey of personal development.
Exquisite.
Now a lot of these adjectives that we’ve been talking
about today have this consonant cluster.
Exquisite.
Now the stress here is on the middle syllable.
And at the end, often
when a word ends in an E that’s silent in English,
often it extends the vowel sound out.
But not here, this last syllable is really short.
Exquisite.
Now ‘exquisite’ means that something is extremely
beautiful and delicate.
We bought an exquisite hand-painted bowl from Japan.
Or: Her necklace is exquisite.
Do you own anything that you could describe
as exquisite? Let me know in the comments.
I don’t think I have anything that’s exquisite myself
except perhaps my engagement ring.
I think that’s exquisite.
Insatiable.
Say it with me. Insatiable.
I love this adjective.
The second syllable is the stressed one.
Insatiable.
Hear how low in pitch those last two syllables are?
This is a fabulous adjective that we can use
when something is impossible to satisfy.
If you keep wanting something more and more
and more, then we use ‘insatiable’.
It usually relates to hunger or thirst.
We could say: His appetite was insatiable.
He didn’t stop eating!
But we can also use it when we’re consuming
other things as well.
For example.
The public seems to have an insatiable appetite
for celebrity gossip.
Or: Her work ethic is insatiable. She just doesn’t stop!
Mischievous.
It’s a tricky one. It’s not
There’s only one I there so it’s pronounced ‘mischievous’.
And this is actually a really common pronunciation
and spelling mistake that native speakers make.
‘Mischievous’ is an adjective that describes someone,
usually a child who has fun by being cheeky
or silly or kind of funny. Not in a negative way at all.
Jack is a mischievous child.
He has fun by creating trouble or disruption
but that’s not too serious.
We also use the word ‘mischief’ as well,
which is often pronounced incorrectly as well as
But it’s ‘mischief’ or ‘mischievous’.
Do you know anyone who’s a little mischievous?
Or can you think of someone who
sometimes gets up to mischief?
Maybe a niece or a nephew or one of your kids.
So I hope that you learned a few new adjectives
in this lesson and that you’ve actually practised
putting them to use this week. Make sure you practise
using them. Write sentences, say them out loud.
Before we finish,
let’s go over the pronunciation of these words.
Explicit.
Exponential.
Specific.
Colloquial.
Delicate.
Coherent.
Eloquent.
Insatiable.
Exquisite.
Mischievous.
Which one of those adjectives is the most
difficult for you to pronounce?
Make sure you get in a little bit of extra
practice this week.
Write it on a sticky note. Put it on your mirror.
Every morning when you wake up, practise it ten times.
Practise a sentence as well.
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and your speaking skills with me
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I’ll see you in there!