SECRETS FOR BETTER ENGLISH | DON'T Say 'Big' 🚫: Exciting Vocabulary Inside! 🌟

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

to help you to get a better understanding of the  English language. If you're preparing for those  

proficiency exams, or indeed if you just want  to improve your general conversational English,  

well then you've come to the right place.  We'll help you with vocabulary, use of English.

And in this particular lesson, this advanced  English lesson, we're looking at vocabulary.  

Other ways to say big. Yeah, a big  day today. A big event, a big meal,  

a big dog. So we can use big, of course, all  the time. It's a very simple adjective. But  

what we'll try to look at are other ways that  that you can use big other words that you can  

use to expand your vocabulary. So these are  all adjectives or other ways to say big,  

so we've got 12 of them in total. A lot  of them have similar meanings. As I said,  

they can all be used for big but I'll give  you an example when you can use each of them.

Okay, let's get back to our lesson.  The lesson today is an advanced English  

lesson. Other ways to say big. Number  one, astronomical. Astronomical. Okay,  

well, astronomical we can talk about inflation.  The prices of food are astronomical, really,  

I don't know what has happened. Every time I go to  the supermarket. The price of very simple products  

has gone up the prices now are astronomical, all  due to the rapid rising, inflation, astronomical.

Stupendous. And let's practice here  the pronunciation as well. Stupendous,  

stupendous. Now, this could mean good  or bad. Yeah, I mean, his reputation  

is stupendous. The way he played the tennis  match, stupendous. Yeah, that's really really  

this guy's top class. I really enjoy watching  him now. But stupendous can also mean really,  

really big. Yep, so stupendous,  stupendous serve. So the tennis player,  

many hits the ball so so hard. Can you imagine  standing on the other side of the net when this  

ball comes down at you at 130 kilometres  per hour? Wow, you wouldn't even see it,  

stupendous. So really, really big. But we use  this often in an exciting way. Okay. Stupendous.

Colossal. Okay, well, colossal can be very, very  big. Yeah. This guy he was, it was he was easily  

2.3 metres tall. I mean, I've never seen a bigger  guy. He was colossal. So he towered over me. I  

mean, he was not just head and shoulders. I mean,  he was almost twice my height. So he was colossal.  

So one of these basketball players. I remember  getting onto a plane in France, travelling to  

Germany or travelling back to France once and it  was a very small plane and this basketball team  

got on and these guys they were colossal. One was  bigger than the next. And two guys were sitting  

in front of me. I could hardly move in my seat  because when they sat down they squashed me and  

so it was they were colossal. All extremely  big, broad but just the height. Colossal.

Number four gigantic. The gigantic trees so  if you've ever visited any of these forests in  

America where they have these giant sequoia trees  they are absolutely massive. Gigantic trees. You  

stand there you couldn't possibly put your hands  around the trunk of the tree. It would take four  

or five of you. Or when you look up certainly for  me I get a headache looking up because they just  

go up and up and up they're gigantic trees like  giants. Or if you see that third part of the Lord  

of the Rings when there's the big battle scene  at the end when the trees uproute themselves  

and they marched to take part in the war. They  are giants. Gigantic trees, gigantic, huge big.

Number five thumping. I woke up this  morning with a thumping headache. Bom  

bom bom really big. Really massive. A  thumping headache. So really a great  

way. So big never describes it.  Thumping really describes the  

headache like somebody playing the drums  inside your head, a thumping headache.

Number six, tidy. Now, tidy usually means  everything in its place. But we often use  

this to describe something reasonably big.  I made a tidy profit on the sale of my car.  

I was really surprised I only bought it two  years ago but at the moment there's a real  

shortage of secondhand cars and somebody  asked me what they wanted for the car and  

they just picked it figure at the end.  I told them and they said, Yeah, okay,  

I'll buy it. Wow, I made a tidy profit. I have  to say it was really really happy because I was  

thinking of selling the car anyway. Okay, so tidy  profit. A big profit. A good sum of money, tidy.

Number seven enormous. Well, this is quite  a normal word to use. Everybody's heard of  

enormous Yeah. So there was an enormous snowstorm  two days ago, there was something like one metre  

of snow fell in the space of 24 hours. Just there  was no way you could drive on the streets. They  

couldn't even clean them. So there's an enormous  dump of snow. Yeah, so as they call it in America,  

a Weather Bomb, yeah, when they drop lots and lots  of water and lots and lots of snow, and the place  

becomes deluged with snow or water. So we have  these weather bombs or this enormous snowfall.

Number eight, hefty. So hefty is another word  for big. Yeah, it's a hefty price to pay. So you  

wanted to tell your boss what you thought of him,  you weren't so happy with his way of treating you.  

So you told him exactly. But you lost your  job, he sacked you. So it's a hefty price,  

a big price to pay for being honest. So you  have to be really, really careful mind your  

moments when you tell your boss, you don't  really like him. So hefty price to pay,  

a big price to pay. Yeah. Or if you're going  to go away on a holiday, and your wife,  

your partner wants to go to a certain location  or you look at the the hotels. Wow, really,  

really expensive. And you you tell her, Well,  look, I'd love to go. But have you seen these  

prices? We need to try and find some other way.  Maybe there's Airbnb or something similar, because  

the price of these hotels is really, really hefty.  Really sizable, perhaps it's the time of the year,  

perhaps, or some special festival at that  time, but I've never seen prices like this.  

So hefty price is something really big. You're  really something that you can't afford to pay.

Number nine immense Yeah, when  something is immense, it's big. Yeah,  

he had an immense impact on my career. So  somebody can point to a school teacher,  

somebody a sports coach, somebody who was act  as a sort of way of guiding you, you know,  

in this sense that they took you under their  wing, and they give you some extra training  

because they saw that you had potential. So  you could say, Well, this guy had an immense  

impact on my career. An immense impact on what I  decided to do after school. An immense impact on  

my sporting career thereafter. Okay, so immense  means a big impression, they really helped you,  

they act in some way where they give you extra  training, extra help, extra assistance. So you're,  

you're really really had this mentor by your side,  somebody who, as I said to you under their wing,  

and therefore you got that special, extra bit of  attention. And this immense act on their part,  

left an immense impression or had an  immense impact on your future career.

And indeed, if you liked this particular  lesson, then please like the video,  

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Massive, okay, massive crowd, big crowd.  So you went to the football match,  

or you went to the concert, and this group  hadn't played for maybe two or three years,  

you certainly hadn't seen it advertised. And when  you when you went there, you weren't expecting  

the crowd that you saw. It was absolutely  massive. I mean, place was really thronged,  

overcrowded, people everywhere, they seem to  be in every little corner of the room. In fact,  

some part looks a little bit dangerous, but there  was a massive crowd waiting to see them. Or at the  

end of a football competition and one team wins  and they go home to celebrate, they usually go on  

an open top was driving around the city. And every  vantage point is taken by spectators wanting to  

get a glimpse or catch a glimpse of their team  or their favourite player and they're waving  

flags and hanging from lampposts. So there's a  massive, massive crowd on the streets massive.

Okay, number 11. Tremendous. And again, we use  tremendous to mean big, of course, because that's  

what we're describing here. Big but tremendous  can be your good or can be bad. So oh, how was  

the holiday? Tremendous! Yeah. How was the meal?  Tremendous! How's the new job? Tremendous, so

we can use it in lots and lots of ways that would  describe really, really wonderful, but when we're  

talking about big, tremendous, yeah, this was  something big happening. There's something really,  

really monumental, big Yeah, so we can use  tremendous. We want a tremendous order. You know,  

it's the biggest order we've ever had. I mean,  this will keep the factory going for two or three  

years. So it's really really is a wonderful day  for the company, a tremendous achievement. We've  

made tremendous advances in terms of technology.  So all of us can talk about the tremendous,  

the big, the most amazing development we've  seen in our lives as a result of technology  

from those old desk top computers, to the  old flip-over phones, wherever they are. Now,  

we've got massive, massive amount of technology  at our fingertips. That has been a tremendous  

improvement in technology, what we can do,  how quickly we can do things. Tremendous.

And then finally, whopping. Now, just  be careful with the pronunciation here,  

you can see the spelling on the screen. Whopping  means big. A whopping whopping ice cream. Yeah,  

so you go to the ice cream van standing  in the park and a hot summer's day,  

and you ask for a 99, this is a really  popular ice cream in Ireland and the UK,  

and you get this whopping whopping  amount of ice cream on your cone. Wow,  

you take a look. And it'll it'll be melted before  that you get a chance to to eat it. Yeah, okay,  

or you decide to go out, you're really, really  hungry. You've been on a bit of a diet for a few  

weeks, and you ask for the steak with all the  trimmings. And when it arrives on your plate as  

a whopping whopping amount of food, you're not  sure how you're going to get through even half  

of it because you've been on it. Quite a strict  diet. So whopping means really, really big. Yeah,  

there could be a whopping reaction to something  some big reaction to some news and it's all over  

the newspapers all over the internet, on the  radio whopping something really, really big.

Okay, so that 12 particular words connected or  that can be used instead of big let me get into  

your one more time. Number one, astronomical  the prices are astronomical. They've gone  

through the roof. Stupendous, stupendous. The  reaction to my article was stupendous really,  

really big. Colossal, he was huge. He was over  two metres tall, colossal, the biggest guy  

I've ever seen. Gigantic. Wow, this I mean, this  improvement has been gigantic. Yeah, some really,  

really big improvements are the trees you stamp  side and you look up and they reach up to the sky,  

gigantic. Thumping. I woke up with a thumping,  a really big headache. Thumping. To make a  

tidy profit. Tidy it might mean neat,  but tidy means big in this sense, tidy  

profit of a really acceptable amount of money.  Enormous, enormous improvement in the service,  

a big improvement in the service. Hefty, a hefty  price to pay a big price to pay for speaking your  

mind to lose your job. Hefty price. Immense.  A big influence on your life on your career.  

An immense impact. Massive. Massive improvement,  massive crowd, massive amount of energy consumed  

every day. Tremendous, a tremendous achievement.  So he won the race, he hadn't ever run a marathon  

before. And he ran in two minutes and sorry, two  hours and two minutes. So a new world record,  

it was a tremendous achievement for somebody  running his first marathon. And then whopping,  

a whopping meal a big big huge plate of food comes  that you're you're not able to finish whopping.

Okay, so 12 particular words that can be  used instead of big, so like all of these,  

you won't use them all all of the time. But try  to avoid just using the simple English like big  

and large. So here you want to use other words,  they're not so difficult. Take one or two of them,  

see how you can use them. You know, look at what  you're trying to describe and see it as one of  

the words one of these 12 words that I've  given to you can it go or can it match can  

collocate with that particular now. Okay,  and if you need any help need any practice,  

come back to me and I'll give you some  other examples as always, I'm here to  

help you www.englishlessonviaskype.com Okay,  this is Harry saying goodbye for now. Thanks  

for watching, and thanks for listening.  As always, join me for the next lesson.