C1 Advanced Adjectives to Enrich and Build your English Vocabulary

- Hello, lovely students and welcome back to English with Lucy.

I have a beautiful video for you today.

I have chosen 20 of my favourite adjectives.

They're all really advanced adjectives.

I would place them at a C1 to C2 level.

You're not going to hear them every single day on the streets of England but you will

see them in texts, books, and you will hear them used by very well-spoken people.

And if you want to become a well-spoken person, then consider learning them and incorporating

them into your speech.

I am a self-diagnosed logophile, meaning I love words and I love learning new, beautiful

words, and I'm passing on that gift to you.

And to help you even further, I have created a free PDF that you can download.

It contains all of the adjectives with all of the information and there is a quiz so

you can test your understanding.

If you would like to download it, just click on the link in the description box.

You enter your name and your email address.

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It's a free service and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Also, if you would like to gain a little bit of an understanding about your level of English,

I've been working on a free online level test that you can take.

It will give you an indication as to what your level is, all the way from A1 to C2.

If you would like to take that level test, I've left the link in the description box

down there.

It's totally free and I hope you enjoy it.

Your results will be sent to you by email.

Let's get started with the lesson, Number one, our first adjective is ambivalent, ambivalent.

And this means having or showing mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or

someone.

For example, I feel ambivalent about accepting the job offer because it pays well, but the

work is not interesting.

Or she has ambivalent feelings towards her ex-husband, both loving him and hating him.

Number two is capricious, capricious, and I find this one particularly beautiful.

And if you are capricious, you are given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or

behaviour.

His capricious behaviour made it difficult for his friends to keep up with his moods.

Or the weather is capricious this time of year, with sunny days followed by sudden rain

showers.

Number three, great one, derogatory, derogatory.

This means showing a critical or disrespectful attitude towards someone or something.

His derogatory comments about women angered many people.

Or the newspaper received complaints about a derogatory article they published about

a minority group.

Number four, not such a common one, they're very beautiful all the same, and it's actually

pronounced in two ways in British English.

The most common version is i-suh-teh-rik.

You'll also hear people saying e-suh-teh-rik.

The meaning of this one is particularly useful.

It means intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialised

interest or knowledge.

So if something is esoteric, it's likely to exclude people.

The lecture on quantum mechanics was esoteric and difficult for most students to understand.

Or the chef's recipes are esoteric and require knowledge of specific techniques and ingredients.

Number five, this one is common.

You will hear this a lot in the UK, flippant, flippant.

This means not showing a serious or respectful attitude.

And I like to remember this one by imagining a teenager flipping their hair and not taking

something seriously.

They're being flippant.

The politicians flippant comments about the pandemic angered many people.

Or your flippant attitude towards your studies led to these poor grades.

Next, I think this one speaks for itself.

It kind of shows its definition in the word, grandiose.

This means impressive or magnificent in appearance or style but often lacking in substance.

Something can look amazing but be impractical or not fit for purpose.

This building is grandiose but impractical for our current needs.

Or your brother is always making these grandiose promises that he never follows through on.

Next, I love this one, it rolls off the tongue, histrionic, histrionic.

This means overly theatrical or melodramatic in character or style that comes off as insincere.

Her histrionic reaction to the news made her friends doubt her sincerity.

Or their histrionic speech around clean energy failed to persuade the audience at the climate

change rally.

Next, incongruous, incongruous.

This means strange and not suitable in a particular situation.

It doesn't keep with the surroundings or other aspects of something.

The modern art sculpture looked incongruous in the historic town square.

Or the professor's joke seemed incongruous with the seriousness of his lecture.

Another beautiful one, I know they're all beautiful, but I really like this one, juxtaposed,

juxtaposed.

This means put together or put near each other for contrast and comparison.

The juxtaposed paintings showed the contrast between the bright colours of one and the

dark shades of the other.

The gallery featured a series of juxtaposed images creating a thought-provoking and dynamic

composition.

Next, laudable, laudable, and this means deserving praise and commendation.

One of his less laudable characteristics, not worthy of praise, was his dark sense of

humour.

Or her decisions may be open to debate, but her manner of speaking is laudable.

Next, mercurial, mercurial.

This means often changing in a way that is unexpected.

The new series we're watching is entertaining, but the constant mercurial changes in tone

are an emotional rollercoaster.

Or the stock market is often described as mercurial with rapid fluctuations in value.

Next, one I love, and I must point out the difference between British and American pronunciation,

nonchalant, NAN-sha-lant, or an American English, nan-SHA-lant.

This means behaving in a calm or relaxed way and not giving the impression that you are

worried.

It's similar to flippant, but it's not as disrespectful unless used in the right context.

Taylor's mother was nonchalant about her daughter's recent rise to fame.

Or the student's nonchalant response to her failing grade showed a lack of concern for

her future.

Next, we have pernicious, pernicious.

This means having a harmful effect, especially in a very gradual or subtle way.

The company's pernicious practises harmed the local environment.

Or the pernicious effect of advertising to children is a problem that we can no longer

ignore.

Next, quixotic, quixotic.

It's like a mixture of quick and exotic.

This means exceedingly idealistic, unrealistic, and impractical.

His quixotic dream of travelling the world with no money seemed impossible to achieve.

Or she ran a quixotic campaign against her rival, but came out ahead.

Next, we have resplendent, resplendent.

This is often used with with or in.

It means attractive and impressive through being richly colourful.

The sunset over the ocean was resplendent with colours of orange and pink.

Or resplendent in white and gold, she walked down the aisle on the arm of her father.

Do you see how we used it with both with and in?

Next, love this one, I know I say that for everyone, but I just genuinely love these

words, subservient, subservient.

This means prepared to obey others without question, unquestioningly.

It's often used in a negative way because if someone is subservient, they're often easily

exploited.

For example, the assistant's subservient attitude towards her boss led to exploitation.

Or Gloria refused to give up her career and accept a traditional subservient role.

Next, we have supercilious, supercilious,.

That one's so fun to say.

If you are supercilious, you behave or look as though you think you are superior to others.

His supercilious demeanour towards his audience was met with disapproval.

Or her writing often has a supercilious tone, which makes it hard to connect with.

Tenacious, do you remember the band Tenacious D?

They recognise it as a great word and a great word it is, tenacious.

This means keeping or tending to keep a firm hold of something or not giving up easily

or being really determined.

Her tenacious grip on the rope allowed her to climb the steep cliff.

Or although he experienced many setbacks, he remained tenacious in his pursuit of becoming

an MP.

Next, don't be fooled by the first letter U.

We pronounce it with a yuh sound, ubiquitous, ubiquitous.

This means very common or found everywhere.

Smartphones have become ubiquitous in modern society.

Or the company's logo was ubiquitous on billboards throughout the city, very common.

Now we have vicarious, vi-kar-yuhs.

Although in American English, they're more inclined to say vahy-kar-yuhs.

British English, vi-kar-yuhs.

This one we use in front of a noun.

It means experienced in the imagination through the feelings or actions of another person.

You'll often hear us saying, I'm living vicariously through you.

I'm living through your experiences.

He experienced a sense of vicarious nostalgia when he listened to his parents' stories about

their youth.

He couldn't actually experience it.

He had to experience it by imagining what it would be like.

Or watching action films allows people to experience vicarious thrills and excitement,

thrills and excitement through other people.

Right, that's it for today's lesson.

I hope you enjoyed it.

I hope you learned something.

Don't forget to download the free PDF.

The link is just down there.

There's a quiz as well, so you can test that you really know what these words mean 'cause

this was quite a challenging advanced video.

I also have that free level test that I mentioned.

The link is down there.

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where I've got lots of other lessons.

I've also got my free phonemic chart where you can click on phonemes and words containing

those phonemes and hear me pronounce them, it's really cool!

And I've also got all of my English courses.

We've got our B1 programme, B2 programme.

The C1 is coming out in May.

I can't wait.

That's actually a C1/2 because we've included a lot of C2 level grammar and vocabulary and

pronunciation in there.

I've also just launched my beautiful British English pronunciation programme and we've

got loads of challenges if you want to focus on something really specific like idioms,

phrasal verbs, or grammar.

That is enough from me.

I will see you soon for another lesson, mwa!