20 Advanced Adjectives (C1) to Build Your Vocabulary | Advanced English

Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to  Advanced English lessons with Harry, where I  

tried to help you to get a better understanding of  the English language. Today's lesson is all about  

adjectives, their advanced adjectives, I've got  20 of them, which will help you to improve your  

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Okay, let's get back to the lesson. As I said,  we're looking at Advanced English adjectives and  

these adjectives are going to help you to improve  your vocabulary. So I'm going to go through them  

one by one, as I said, I've got 20 of them. So  it's a long list. So I'll go through them one  

by one. I'll give you an explanation. And then  I'll give you some examples. Okay, so the first  

one is affable, affable. Somebody who is affable  is somebody who is easy to get on with a pleasant  

person. They don't cause stress. They're very  likeable, and they like to please people, but  

they are good fun, and they don't get stressed too  easily. Okay. So affable. He is an affable man,  

always willing to stop and talk. So here we are  using the word affable to describe somebody who  

is pleasant, easy to get along with likes to  stop and talk likes to help people, affable,  

or, for example, the bar manager was very  affable and knowledgeable, the staff gave  

us great service and attention. So again, here  we're using the word affable as an adjective to  

describe the pleasant friendly bar man in the  bar. Okay, so so it was good to get welcomed,  

and somebody who knows about the beers and  everything else, but also they're friendly, and  

they're not pushing you to do this or that they're  just very, very friendly, easy to talk to affable.

Second word affluent, affluent affluent is to  do with wealth. And generally people who are  

well off or have more than the average person,  people can live in affluent areas of a city,  

this is an area where the price and value  of the property would be a lot higher than  

the average property in that city. A person  themselves who was affluent may have a nice  

cash balance in their bank account, they  probably have a very good salary, good car,  

and generally don't have any problem  with finding cash when they need it.

Okay, so affluent children coming from affluent  families are less likely to get into crime,  

or other anti social activities. So here  we're using the word affluent to describe  

children who come from affluent  families or come from well off families,  

that perhaps they get a better education  and understand what needs to be done and  

what they should be doing to stay on the  right side of the law, affluent families.

most affluent countries, and cities invest  heavily in bigger and better designed roads and  

motorways. So those affluent cities and affluent  countries have a better infrastructure or more  

widely developed infrastructure that will help to  attract new industry jobs, and the city and the  

country gets more and more affluent, so affluent,  everything to do with the wealth, the value,  

the standard of living of the average person in  that city or country. Our third word is deprived,  

okay, deprived. Now deprived usually means that  somebody doesn't have as much as other people,  

okay. And perhaps they didn't have as good an  education, perhaps the parents weren't working,  

and the level of income coming into the  household was quite low. So they missed  

out on good food they missed out on  entertainment, they missed out on  

better quality clothing. So they would be  described generally has been deprived of  

things like that. Okay. So you got to make sure  that you understand what that word deprived means.

So I'll give you a couple of examples. The  children look happy and content, despite the  

deprived conditions that they lived in, okay, so  even though their family may have been deprived,  

low income levels, the children were still happy  and content, which proves that you don't always  

need money to be happy. And you certainly  don't need money to be content. It does help,  

of course, but if you don't have it, you can't  buy these things. And therefore you might be  

described as deprived. But it doesn't mean you  don't enjoy life or you can't enjoy life. Okay,  

so the deprived we can give another example, the  floods. Let me just get the correct word in here.  

A teenager from deprived areas has been awarded  a place at a medical school so a teenager from  

a deprived area has been awarded a place at a  top level medical school. So what this means  

is that even though that boy or girl lived in or  came from a deprived area, not so wealthy area,  

they were awarded a scholarship that  allowed them to attend medical school,  

medical college and medical university, so  deprived meaning lower standard of living  

than the average person. But despite that,  they were able to achieve their goal and  

they got or gained a scholarship to a big  university. Now, the next word is something  

similar. It's called destitute, destitute,  okay? So again, we're talking about people  

on the lower end of the social scale, okay. So  destitute means somebody who has almost nothing,  

okay. Now, it might be a temporary situation,  they are destitute because they've lost a job or,  

you know, there was a massive earthquake or some  real upheaval in their life, or it may be a long  

term thing that they are living on the streets  and absolutely destitute. They've got nothing, no  

home, no job, no income, okay. So it can be short  term or long term. Let me give you an example.

The floods have left 1000s of people destitute,  cutting them off from clean water, and food. Now,  

this is only a temporary situation. Okay?  Yeah, generally they'll be okay. But some  

disaster hit the city or the country, huge  floods, and the city was completely covered  

in water leaving 1000s and 1000s of people are  destitute without clean water, places to live  

or dry places to live and sleep and no fresh  food so destitute. Or something more long term.

He looked destitute as he entered the the  house perhaps his clothes were really tattered  

and torn. His shoes were worn down at the heel.  Generally, he looked as if he had been sleeping  

rough for some time. So you could describe him as  destitute. He was really in need of a hot meal,  

a hot bath, and some love and care and  attention, destitute. Next word dexterous.

Okay, so be careful with the  pronunciation here. dexterous. Okay?  

See the spelling on the screen here. dexterous,  okay, now dexterous means that you are very useful  

and skillful, particularly with your hands. So  you have to make sure that when you're using  

this adjective, it's describing somebody who is  has got good skills with their hands or could be  

somebody who's good at making things. Or it could  be somebody who's very good at certain sporting  

activities, particularly those that involve  the use of your hands. So here's an example.

In order to be the next, Michael Jordan,  you have to be dexterous in basketball,  

meaning you have to have lots of skills but  particularly with your hands, quick hands,  

fast hands, skillful hands to pass the ball,  score a basket or drop the ball into the basket,  

whatever you have to do pass it to  your opponent, or your colleague. Okay,  

so in order to be the next, Michael Jordan,  you have to be dexterous in or at basketball.

She was very dexterous with her hands and her  embroidery was beautiful. So here we're using  

it to describe the skills that a lady had with  needlework. So her embroidery looked really really  

beautiful. So she was obviously very skilled  and dexterous. Yeah, okay, so she can sew with  

both hands and with great quality and ability.  Next word dubious. This is number six on our  

list dubious. So when dubious is doubtful,  okay, when you're dubious about something,  

you're not really sure that you believe in  whatever you're being told. So somebody gives you  

a story or gives you some information, but you are  dubious about how truthful that information is. So  

dubious means to be doubtful or unsure whether  You can believe what somebody has told you.

These claims are dubious and not backed up by  science. So somebody could be making claims  

about life on Mars life on the moon, wherever  it might be. But it's whatever claims he or  

she is making. They're not backed up by  science. So these claims are dubious,  

they are doubtful you can take them  with what we call a pinch of salt.

She was very dubious about the idea, but  they convinced her that it would be a  

success. So perhaps there was some product  going to be launched or some new business  

that they were thinking of getting into. But  she was a little bit dubious as to whether  

it will be successful. But finally,  they managed to persuade her to think  

the way they were thinking and go ahead  with the plan. Okay, so that's dubious.

Now I've given you a lots of words. And  in all of my lessons, there are lots of  

additional vocabulary words or expressions,  so it's not so easy to remember all of them,  

the best way to remember them is to practice. And  the best way to practice is to use a platform. So  

if you use platform like properly, you can get  lessons on a one to one basis with teachers.  

And please remember when looking at prep early  to click on the link in the description below,  

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Okay, back to the lesson. So, we've covered  six then here's number seven. Number seven,  

is the word elaborate. Okay, elaborate. Now,  something that is elaborate is usually very well  

or very highly decorated. Okay? Now, it could  be thing like a cake could be a dress. Also,  

your language could be very elaborate. So you  use lots of fancy words or big words or words  

that other people that don't normally use.  Okay, so elaborate is something that very  

well decorated. So it could be as I said, a dress  that's elaborate with lots of jewellery could be a  

birthday cake that elaborate with lots of coloured  icing or candles or some decorations on the cake.

Here's my example. They made elaborate  preparations for his visit. So perhaps  

the new King Charles a third of England  was visiting the country. So they made  

elaborate plans for his visit. The red  carpet, the golden carriage, the horses,  

the military, whatever it might be to welcome  the new King. So very elaborate preparations  

and elaborate preparation of a dinner or a ball  that evening to welcome the king and his queen,  

officially to this particular engagement. So  that lots of music and lots of dignitaries,  

ambassadors and all sorts of  people invited for the gala dinner.

Living in France will make you addicted to  elaborate dishes and your occasional glass  

of wine during lunch. Excellent. Okay, so an  elaborate dish not just a plain sandwich or  

toasty but some nice decorated really interesting  food to have at your lunchtime that will be very  

very tasty and of course that beautiful glass  only one glass of red wine or white wine if  

that's your preference. So an elaborate lunch.  Next word is evocative. Okay, just be careful  

with the pronunciation evocative Okay, something  that is evocative is something that generates or  

creates feelings or very specific images, okay.  So it could be the music could be evocative.  

The images from pictures photographs could  be very evocative, even language can be  

very evocative. So it generates or produces  these very strong or deep feelings or images.

That music was evocative, especially  at the beginning of the play.

All of the photos that appeared in the magazine  were very evocative. Okay, so they really got  

people thinking, and that was the intention  of the photographer was to get you thinking,  

get you to understand what he was trying  to generate or what message he was trying  

to get across with his photographs are  very evocative to generate deep feeling.

Next far fetched, far fetched, but something  that is far fetched is something that is a  

little bit out of this world literally, or  very, very hard to believe, or a story that  

you just couldn't imagine to be true. Children  often tell stories that are very far fetched,  

they had a dream about somebody  coming from the moon or they had  

somebody coming from deep in The Forest look  quite unusual or scary some far fetched idea.

The story I read on social media was a little  bit far fetched, very hard to believe. And,  

you know, to understand that I could  really happen in this day and age,  

there may have been some truth to it. But  it may well have been told in a way just to  

create some interest in the social media app, or  the podcast, whatever it might have been. So the  

story I read on social media was a little bit  far fetched, I found it very hard to believe.

Many thought it was a far fetched  idea that would never work.  

But they have again, proven everyone  wrong, it was a great event. So perhaps,  

they decided to have some special Christmas event,  some Halloween event or some special festival  

or celebration. And the ideas to celebrate  were little bit far fetched, not the usual  

type of celebrations they have, and everybody  thought they got it wrong. But as they proved,  

they were right. People loved it. 1000s and 1000s  of people flocked to see it, the numbers were up,  

the visitor numbers were up, and it was a great  success. So despite being far fetched in the  

minds of some people actually proved to be very,  very successful. So not everything that is far  

fetched is a disaster. Not everything that is far  fetched, is something that you cannot believe in.

Next word number 10. frivolous, frivolous,  okay, now, frivolous. What does it mean?  

Frivolous is something that's not so useful.  Not so valuable, and not so important, okay,  

frivolous, we can have frivolous  ideas, we can waste our money on  

frivolous things. Okay. So the things are  not really important in this day and age,  

small things, trinkets, things that  really don't have a lot of value.

Rich people spend money on frivolous things. Rich  people like to spend money anyway because they  

have it. And often they spend it just because  they have it. And the things they use can be  

easily and readily discarded so they can buy it  today. Throw it out tomorrow frivolous things.

She was a young, frivolous woman who spent  most of her days going to parties. Okay,  

so that's somebody that doesn't really have  a great idea of what real life is about. So  

she wasted her time going to parties every  day, not spending a lot of time studying,  

perhaps the parents were very wealthy, and she  knew that she was going to come into a lot of  

money. And the idea of getting a full time job  was a little bit beyond her. So lots of her time  

was spent going to frivolous parties or parties  that turned out not to be so interesting. And  

she could be described as a frivolous young  woman, somebody who had ideas that weren't  

really so important when you look at all of the  problems that we have in the world today frivolous

number 11 gleeful. So what is gleeful  Glee is to do with happiness. Okay,  

so when somebody is gleeful, they are  happy, so they are full of happiness.  

A gleeful smile is a big smile. And you can  see that somebody has had really good news  

or just generally they're happy person. A young  baby likes to smile when they're well fed and  

they've got a clean fresh nappy, so they get a big  gleeful smile. Yeah, so the big toothy grin. So

Mrs. Wilson gave a gleeful smile that made  her look younger than her years. So smiling  

makes people happy, makes people look well. So we  should always be happy and smile because it might  

make you feel and look a little bit younger. So  in this example, Mrs. Wilson gave a gleeful smile  

that made her appear younger than her years. He  was gleeful at the way his job was going. So it  

was really, really happy. He changed his job,  wasn't quite sure, but he made a big impression  

on the bosses. He made a big impression on all  his colleagues, and everything was going really,  

really well. So he had a gleeful smile on  his face, most of the time. So gleeful,  

all about happiness, looking happy, feeling  happy, doing good things, happy things, gritty.

Now gritty is an interesting word because  it has a couple of meanings because it can  

mean just little bits of dirt, in gritty  dirt in your eyes when the wind blows and  

you have to wash your eyes and clean or  wipe your eyes because it will annoy you.

But when we're talking about people  gritty is to have a determination about  

you are really talking about gritty  performances. It doesn't mean you're  

the best person you're the most skilled  individual, but a gritty performance as a  

strong determined performance even  though you may not be the best

So if you could imagine a situation where you've  got a tennis player, and he is drawn against Roger  

Federer, and one of the best players in the world,  this player, he might have been beaten at the end  

of the day. But he gave a very gritty performance,  he really dug in deep, he won several key points.  

In fact, he even took a set from Roger Federer  and the papers the next day reported a really  

gritty performance by the young French tennis  player. So this will be something that will be  

will stand to him in the future, he didn't win.  But he showed that he could do his best and could  

produce some good tennis when it was needed.  So a gritty performance as a strong, determined  

performance really dug deep, and showed a high  level of skill. So what examples have we got,

the first half of the book was gritty  and harsh, but the second half was a  

little bit more predictable. Okay, so  gritty, real, determined efforts strong.  

The team was gritty and resilient, it was  enough to put them into first place, okay,  

so they put in a really, really strong  performance, a really gritty performance.  

So they dug deep, and they eventually won  the game and it put them into first place.

Number 13, gullible. Gullible is when we believe  anything anybody tells us. It's a similar to the  

word naive. Okay, so someone somebody is gullible,  there's a good chance that one of what you tell  

them, they will believe you. So usually when we  are young, inexperienced, and naive, we tend to  

be a little bit gullible. But as we get older,  we understand Yeah, hopefully, we understand.

So here's my examples. He was gullible enough  to believe that they were doing him a favour.  

So perhaps they weren't doing him a favour. They  were doing themselves a favour, but it looked like  

they were helping him and he was gullible enough  to believe it. So he went along with the idea.

scammers use gullible people to make  money. So if you're a little bit gullible,  

and you get that email from somebody,  looking for your bank details, you know,  

and if you're unfortunate enough to believe it,  you'll send the details and you're going to lose  

some money. So scammers get their money by  hunting and looking for and finding those  

naive or gullible people in society. So you  have to be really, really careful why anybody  

is asking you for your bank details or your  PIN code, whatever it might be. So gullible.

Next number 14, immense, immense has  now been something great, something big,  

okay. So, you know, something can be of immense  value to you, it might not have a real value,  

but to you it has immense value, perhaps if it  was left to you by a grandparent or godparent,  

his contribution can be immense, meaning  really significant. So all the effort he gave,  

and the contributions he made over the years was  of immense value to the company, when the company  

was struggling, he put in effort and pulled the  company through many, many difficult situations,  

okay, so immense, great, large of huge  benefit of great value to somebody.

So here are my examples, this book will be of  immense value to mechanical engineers. Why?  

Because it will show them ways in which they  have never considered their skills to be used,  

so will be of immense value. Hopefully, my  lessons are of immense value to those of you  

wishing to improve your vocabulary, or improve  your speaking and conversational skills. Okay,  

so the next word is imposing number 15. So  something that is imposing is something very  

large, something that dominates the room, the  skyline. Now, it could be a person who's very  

imposing a larger than life figure, not only in  their physical size, but also in their presence,  

they could be quite imposing. So a very  determined and domineering chairman of a  

company could be quite imposing. And when  you meet him, you feel a little bit well,  

below them subordinate to them, okay, so you have  to be really, really careful, or a massive, huge  

skyscraper in the centre of a city can be very  imposing because everything is focused on that.

So here are the examples. The large wardrobe  was too imposing a made the room look really  

small. So you're trying to decorate your  house, and somebody puts in a wardrobe into  

the smallest bedroom and the Wardrobe  was huge, just too big for that room.

And oh, no, this is too imposing and makes the  room look even smaller than what it is we need  

something a little bit smaller, this wardrobe  will fit much better in the big bedroom, okay,  

so it's very imposing. Okay, so for example,  Donald Trump would have been regarded as quite  

an imposing figure, not only in terms of his  personality, but often in the way he used to send  

his messages on Twitter or the statements that  he would make from time to time. So, you know,

we could have an example the former mayor or  president is still an imposing figure in the  

political arena means he's, even though he's not  in office, he's still there. And people can still  

sense His presence, which you can certainly do in  American politics. When you consider Mr. Trump,  

in the case of the former mayor or president is  still an imposing figure in the political arena.

All right, number 16. mind boggling Oh, that  sounds a mouthful. mind boggling. Well, something  

that is mind boggling. Something that's going to  confuse you or cause your mind to be a little bit  

confused, something that you're not able to handle  or understand very, very quickly. For example,

modern mathematics is mind boggling.  I just don't understand. Literally,

I don't I don't understand modern  mathematics, mind boggling.

The government's pension reform is is mind  boggling. What are they trying to do when  

they're trying to make it simple? They've made  it more complicated. So the government's pension  

reform is mind boggling. Okay? So something that  causes a lot of anxiety, you're just not able  

to understand it. And you're really sitting there  scratching your head wondering what is happening.

Number 17, perceptible, well perceptible.  Something that is noticeable. Yeah,  

something that you can really notice the change.

So if the temperature drops  significantly over two days,  

it's perceptible. You notice when it goes  from plus 15 to plus six in 24 hours,  

the change in temperature is perceptible something  that you notice and you notice quite easily.

The improvement in our living standards is  barely perceptible them. Okay. So it means  

that the government have introduced some changes  in the budget tried to help and alleviate some of  

the problems with high inflation, yet, those  changes are barely perceptible. You'd hardly  

notice the changes even though they say they have  spent billions of euros to help us. The change is  

barely perceptible. It's barely noticeable.  Okay? So perceptible. Something that you  

notice notice quite easily, barely perceptible  means but you can hardly notice the change.

Okay, number 18. This word is petrified now  petrifies about fear, okay. It's a really high  

level of fear when somebody is petrified, we might  say the scared stiff, so they could be petrified  

of anything, they could be petrified of the dark.  They could be petrified of the noise. They could  

be petrified of somebody or something. Okay, so  but petrified means to be really, really scared.

She was petrified when she heard  she was losing her job. What am I  

going to do? How am I going to pay  for my mortgage? How am I going to  

make ends meet? She was petrified. What am  I going to tell my husband when I go home?

I was petrified when confronted by a large dog  when I was walking in the park. So there I was  

walking in the park. And this monster of a dog  came out with a hedge. He looked at me I looked  

at him. He didn't look so friendly. So I was  petrified when I was confronted by that Doc.

Okay, next we have plausible This is  word number 19. plausible. Plausible  

is something that is believable. Yeah. Okay.  Often we talk about this when we're talking  

about excuses that people make for being  late for not doing the homework for not  

doing something they were supposed  to do. And people make up all sorts  

of stories, some of them implausible, not  believable, some of them very plausible.

His excuse for not doing his homework was  actually plausible this time. So perhaps  

the other three or four times he had excuses  about the dog eating his homework or whatever  

happened. This time. He simply said the alarm  didn't go off. My mom didn't wake me. So I  

was I was wasn't able to do my homework before I  came to school. So the excuse is quite plausible.

The agent's reasons for cancelling the concert  were not plausible that nobody believed the story.  

So the agents reasons for cancelling the concert  were not plausible. They were implausible. Okay,  

so plausible, something that really Yeah, you  could understand that you couldn't believe it,  

even though parts of it you might  not quite believe. And then finally,  

we've got the word rusty. rusty means  something that needs a bit of armour  

like a rusty gate with squeak when you  open it. So you put a bit of oil on it,  

and it'll open without the rust. But rusty  can mean something that's out of practice.

For example, our language skills  can be a bit rusty. Yeah. Okay,  

so our French was very rusty. But with the  aid of a dictionary, we were able to get  

around the problem. So our French was rusty.  So if you're planning a holiday to France,  

Italy, Spain, you usually dig out the phrase  book and try to learn a few of the phrases in  

advance of the holiday to brush up on your  language skills. So they're not so rusty.

I'm pretty rusty at this game. I haven't played  golf for years. I mean, I'm sure when I tried to  

hit the ball, it won't go more than 10 metres.  So if you're rusty, it needs to do a bit of  

practice. You need to get into training again to  improve your skill so that you're not so rusty.  

Okay. All right. So rusty, something that hasn't  been used for a while. Physically if something  

is rusty that hasn't been used for a while a  bike in the garden, then the you get the rust,  

this reddish problem with the metal and that  deteriorates. So that's where it comes from.  

And when we use rusty about our skills,  they just haven't been practised enough.

Okay, so there you have it, you've got 2020  adjectives of the you're a really high level  

to help you to improve your vocabulary and  your speaking skills in English. So these  

are advanced adjectives to help you with that. As  I've said before, you won't remember all of them,  

but try and practice some of them. Try to put them  into sentences and try to introduce one or two  

of them into your conversations. If you have any  further problems, you know where I am always happy  

to help you. Always happy to hear from you. Thanks  for listening. Join me again for the next lesson.