40 MUST-KNOW Advanced Adjectives in 30 minutes | Unlock FLUENT English Instantly

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

try to help you to get a better understanding of  the English language, helping you with vocabulary  

problems with adjectives, verbs, expressions,  whatever they are, you've come to the right place.  

So, in this particular advanced English lesson,  we're looking at advanced adjectives. Okay? So,  

these are adjectives that you can use in everyday  speech; you can use them in conversational  

English, you can use them in Business English, and  they help you to replace the more normal or boring  

everyday adjectives that you find yourself using  repeatedly. As you know, I'm a real believer in  

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lesson. Okay, so let's crack on with the lesson  today as we said, advanced English lesson all  

to do with advanced adjectives, and we have 20 in  total. Okay, let's go through them one by one. So,  

the first one, 'good.' Okay, so this is, yeah,  'Oh, the weather is good. The food was good.' So,  

what words can we use instead? Well, we can  use 'excellent' or 'superb,' or 'the weather is  

excellent, really hot. It's above 20 degrees every  day for the last week. And you really, really feel  

good when you step outside.' Or 'superb.' Yes.  Or 'yeah, the food was superb. You really should  

go to that restaurant. I've never tasted better.'  So, 'good,' 'excellent,' or 'superb.' For example,  

'The concert was excellent, with the musicians  delivering a flawless performance. The concert  

was excellent, with the musicians delivering  a flawless performance. The Chef's cooking was  

superb, with each dish perfectly seasoned and  beautifully presented.' So, the chef's cooking  

was superb, with each dish perfectly seasoned and  beautifully presented. So, they've got examples  

of 'good,' an ordinary adjective, and you can  replace it with 'excellent' or 'superb,' and  

you've got examples as to how you can use both of  those. So, let's take the second one. Number two,  

'bad,' and the two alternatives that I have  for you are 'terrible' and 'atrocious.' So,  

just be careful with the pronunciation of that.  'Terrible' is easy, but 'atrocious,' atrocious,  

okay, just to make sure you get the right stress.  Atrocious. So, we often use 'bad' and 'terrible,'  

and it's truly atrocious when we're talking about  the weather. So, let me give you an example. 'The  

weather today is bad.' So, that's the basic use of  the adjective. 'The weather today is bad. The food  

at the restaurant was terrible, and the service  was even worse.' So, he got to that restaurant,  

and it was a big mistake. 'The food at the  restaurant was terrible, and the service was  

even worse.' Now, for us, 'atrocious' brings it  up a level, and it means shockingly bad or cruel,  

or really, really terrible. Okay, so, for example,  'the conditions in the prison were atrocious,  

with inmates living in inhumane conditions.  The conditions in the prison were atrocious,  

with inmates living in inhumane  conditions.' So, 'atrocious' and 'terrible

,' two alternatives to the adjective 'bad.'  Number three, 'happy,' so, an ordinary adjective,  

'Happy,' happy person, happy smile,  okay. And two alternative words,  

'joyful' and 'ecstatic,' 'ecstatic,' 'joyful,'  'ecstatic.' 'I'm happy to see you.' Very basic,  

'I'm happy to see you.' Joyful means a feeling  of great happiness or delight. 'The children were  

joyful as they opened their Christmas presents.  The children were joyful as they opened their  

Christmas presents.' And 'ecstatic,' the example  of this would be 'winning the championship for  

the team, left them feeling ecstatic with joy.'  Okay, so 'winning the championship for the team,  

left them feeling ecstatic with joy.' Okay,  so two words, 'ecstatic,' 'joyful,' to replace  

'happy.' Remember to click on the link in the  description below to make sure that you get the  

50% reduction in the first lesson that you  purchase with Preply.com. Now, number four,  

if we use the adjective 'sad,' and again, it's  just a very ordinary adjective. 'Sad,' 'she was  

sad after the breakup of a marriage, she was sad  or felt sad at the death of her pet dog,' and two  

alternative adjectives could be 'melancholy' and  'sorrowful,' 'melancholy' and 'sorrowful.' And  

again, just be careful with the pronunciation,  particularly on that word, 'melancholy,'  

melancholy, and a feeling of sadness, or pensive  thoughtfulness, or something deep in thought.  

Let me give you an example. 'The Melancholy  song brought back memories of a lost love and  

left her feeling blue,' so therefore, paints a  picture that somebody really had lost love many,  

many years or decades ago, and when she heard the  song, it brought back all those unhappy memories.  

'The Melancholy song brought back memories of a  lost love, and left her feeling blue.' And then  

'sorrowful.' Sorrowful means a feeling of sadness  or distress. 'She looked at the old family photos  

with a sorrowful expression, missing the  days when they were all together.' Okay,  

so a feeling of deep sorrow, sorrowful. 'So she  looked at the old family photos with a sorrowful  

expression or really sad expression on her face.'  And indeed, if you liked this particular lesson,  

then please like the video, and if you can,  subscribe to the channel, because it does. It  

really, really helps. Number five, so 'simple.'  Agita fear big, the big house, the big rock,  

the big tree, very, very ordinary, basic, but  two alternative adjectives could be 'enormous'  

and 'colossal,' 'enormous' and 'colossal.' And  again, just be careful on the pronunciation,  

particularly with that word, 'colossal.' Okay,  so let me give you some examples of that,  

so 'enormous,' what it means is extremely large  or something huge, 'enormous.' 'The elephant was  

enormous, towering over the other animals in the  zoo. So the elephant was enormous, towering over  

all the other animals in the zoo.' And 'colossal'  means extremely large or massive. So very,  

very similar. 'The colossal statue was a testament  to the skill of the sculptor, the colossal statue  

was a testament to the skill of the sculptor.' So  'colossal' means something really big, 'enormous,'  

'massive,' or 'extremely large.' So, here are  two really good adjectives to replace 'big,'  

so you get fed up using 'the big tree,' 'the big  house,' 'the big news,' 'enormous,' 'colossal,'  

even 'massive.' Number six, we go to the  opposite, 'small,' and again, ordinary adjective,  

'small,' 'the puppy is small, the piece of cake is  small,' two alternatives will be 'tiny,' as some  

people say, 'teeny, tiny,' or 'minuscule,' as a  really nice word, 'minuscule.' So, meaning really,  

really small, so 'tiny' and 'minuscule' as  alternatives to the adjective 'small.' For  

example, 'that tiny kitten could fit in the palm  of my hand, that tiny kitten could fit in the palm  

of my hand.' And 'minuscule' means extremely  small. 'The minuscule font on the label made  

it impossible to read the minuscule font on the  label made it impossible for me to read.' Okay,  

so 'minuscule' and 'tiny' as alternatives to that  adjective, small, a very ordinary, additive small.  

Number seven, 'fast.' So here, we're talking  about speed, 'fast,' and two alternatives would  

be 'rapid,' and 'swift,' 'rapid' and 'swift.'  So the basic adjective, 'fast,' 'he's a fast

runner. He drives a fast car now,' okay. And if  we look at 'rapid,' 'rapid' means something that  

happens or moves very quickly or at a fast pace.  'The train moves at a rapid speed. He's rushing  

through the countryside, the train moved at a  rapid speed, rushing through the countryside.' So,  

you get this feeling of 'choo choo choo'  as the train bombs through the countryside,  

'toot toot toot toot,' flying along, okay. And  then when we talk about 'swift,' which is the  

other word for 'fast,' this is something that is  moving or happening very quickly or promptly. 'The  

swift actions of the paramedics saved his  life, the swift actions of the paramedics  

saved his life.' Okay, so 'swift' and 'rapid,'  alternatives to 'fast.' And then the opposite  

of 'fast' is 'slow.' So, this is number eight,  'slow,' and two alternatives that we have for  

'slow' are 'sluggish' and 'lethargic.' Nice,  adjective, 'sluggish' and 'lethargic.' Now  

we just take 'slow' because 'the traffic is slow,  the traffic is slow today, or very slow.' So it's  

a very ordinary or basic adjective. 'Sluggish'  means something lacking energy, or something slow  

to respond, so you can be 'sluggish.' If you get  up in the morning, and you've been tired from the  

day before, it's very warm, you might be feeling  a little bit 'sluggish,' a little bit slow. 'The  

students were sluggish after lunch, struggling  to stay awake for the whole of the lesson. So  

the students were sluggish after lunch, struggling  to stay awake for the rest or during the lesson or  

the lecture.' And when we are 'lethargic,' then  we are really struggling, lacking energy, very  

lethargic. 'So the heat made her feel lethargic,  and she couldn't focus on her work. The heat,  

the intensity of 35-40 degrees, made her feel  lethargic, and she was unable, or she couldn't  

concentrate on her work.' So 'lethargic' and  'sluggish.' Really, really good alternatives  

instead of something that is 'slow,' but we often  use them regarding people. So, 'he was feeling  

lethargic. She was very sluggish.' Yeah, okay, so  'the traffic was slow, but the person lethargic or  

sluggish.' And number nine, when we're talking  about heat, we talked about feeling 'hot.' So,  

what are alternatives to 'hot?' 'Scorching,'  and we can say 'scorching hot,' or 'sweltering,'  

'scorching' or 'sweltering,' and these are really  great adjectives when we're describing the real  

intense heat of a hot summer's day, a 'scorching  hot day' or 'sweltering day.' So, as a very basic  

adjective, we could just say 'it's hot outside,'  but it doesn't really give any great description,  

so we can say 'scorching,' something extremely  hot or burning. So, if you ever walk on really,  

really hot sand next to the beach, 'off, the sand  is scorching, it's going to burn my feet.' Yeah,  

so 'the scorching sun beat down on the desert,  making it unbearable to walk,' so in the sand is  

really hot. 'So the scorching sun beat down on  the desert, making it unbearable to walk,' and  

'sweltering' is when it's really uncomfortable and  humid. Okay, so you can be sitting in a classroom  

or in a university room or even in your office  without air conditioning, and it's a really hot  

day, it's uncomfortable, and you feel it, or that  humidity, 'the sweltering heat of the summer made  

it difficult to sleep at night,' so we've all  witnessed and experienced that and in the past,  

yeah, 'the sweltering heat of the summer made  it difficult to sleep at night.' Okay, so there  

again, two good alternatives to very simple, basic  adjective 'hot.' And then number 10, the opposite  

of 'hot,' of course, 'cold,' and the alternative  adjectives we could use are 'frigid' and 'icy,'  

'frigid' and 'icy.' So, it can be 'icy cold,'  okay, so that the water, particularly because  

swimming around the coast of Ireland, anytime  of the year, the waters 'icy cold.' So, if you  

want to use a basic sentence, just 'the weather is  cold today, the weather has been cold this winter  

or the spring.' Yeah, so 'the weather is cold.'  But if we want to open a little bit and use more  

interesting adjectives, then we can say 'frigid,'  which means extremely cold. The frigid weather  

forced the people to stay indoors and bundle up in  warm clothes. Yeah, so the frigid weather forced  

people to stay indoors for long periods of time.  And ice is when the streets, or the trees, or the  

fields are covered with frozen water or frost. So,  the car skidded on the icy road and crashed into  

the wall. All cars skidded on the icy road and  crashed into the wall. Okay, so icy and frigid,  

two good, strong, advanced adjectives that you  can use instead of cold. Okay, now we're moving on  

to number 11. And number 11 is beautiful. That's  not such a bad answer, beautiful, and just quite  

basic. The view from the mountaintop, or the view  from my window, was beautiful. So, a very simple,  

basic sentence. The view from the mountaintop, or  from the top of the mountain, or from the window  

or the balcony, was beautiful. So, alternative  adjectives that we could use are exquisite and  

stunning. Exquisite and stunning. Exquisite means  something extremely beautiful or delicate. Okay,  

so the exquisite work of art can often be  described as exquisite. The artist's work  

was exquisite, with intricate details and stunning  colors. Okay, so here we've got both of them used  

in one sentence: The artist's work was exquisite,  with intricate details and stunning colors. So,  

exquisite and stunning, both words that we can use  to replace beautiful, and when we use stunning,  

it's something that's usually very attractive  or impressive. Okay, so we can talk about a  

person being stunning, okay, so the clothes that  they wear are stunning. Something that is very,  

very attractive or very, very impressive. The  sunset over the ocean was stunning, with vibrant  

shades of orange and red, or orange and pink,  whichever way you describe the sunset. Okay. Now,  

the opposite of beautiful, of course, is ugly.  So that's number 12: Ugly. So, ugly is the ugly  

sweater or the ugly painting on the wall. Just a  very basic description. And two alternative words  

we could use are unappealing, something that  doesn't appeal to us, or unsightly. Unsightly,  

okay? Now, unappealing means something that lacks  definition or is lacking in attraction or charm.  

The dull, unappealing color of the dress made it  difficult for her to stand out at the party. Okay,  

so if somebody goes to a party, the dress they  picked wasn't quite the one that they really  

intended to wear. The dull, unappealing color of  the dress made it difficult for her to stand out  

at the party. And unsightly now means something  that's not so nice to look at. Yeah, so it could  

be there was a demonstration in the city and  lots of rubbish on the streets. And that could  

be unsightly, so unsightly, something unpleasant  to look at, or unattractive. The graffiti on the  

wall was unsightly and ruined the appearance of  the neighborhood. So if you go through some city  

and the walls have been sprayed with graffiti,  that can often be very colorful and very artistic,  

but some other people might regard it as a little  bit unsightly. Okay, if there are demonstrations  

in the streets or protests and people stop  collecting rubbish, well then that piled up on the  

streets can also be very unsightly. So rather than  saying ugly, we can use unsightly or unappealing  

to the eye. Unappealing or unsightly. Number  13 is easy. Okay. Now, a simple basic sentence:  

That was an easy task. That was an easy exam.  That was an easy question. And two words as  

alternatives could be effortless or untroublesome.  So, effortless or untroublesome as replacements  

for easy. Effortless, something that you do  with ease or without exertion, so you don't  

have to exert yourself; you do it with ease. This  is a good definition of effortless: She made the  

difficult task look effortless with her natural  talent. And untroublesome means something that  

doesn't cause us any trouble. So when we describe  it, it's not causing difficulty or any problems,  

easy to manage, easy to deal with. So, as the  example, the new software was untroublesome and  

didn't require any technical knowledge to install  it. Okay, now, let's move on to number 14. So,  

the word, the opposite of easy, of course, is  difficult, and alternative words for difficult  

would be arduous and challenging. Challenging  you probably know well; arduous is a little  

bit more difficult and again, difficult on  the tongue. So, a simple basic sentence:  

That was a difficult exam. That was a difficult  test. So, arduous means it involves great effort  

or difficulty. Climbing to the top of the mountain  was an arduous task, but the view from the

summit was well worth it. And then challenging,  as the alternative word for difficult,  

means something that tests your abilities or  skills. For example, the math problem on the  

test was challenging, but the students were  determined to solve them. Okay, so difficult,  

challenging, arduous, and again, practice that  pronunciation: arduous. Number 15. Like me feeling  

a little bit old, and the basic word here is  "old." That's an old car; that's an old man,  

very basic, but if you want alternatives, you can  use ancient or antiquated. Ancient or antiquated,  

and antique comes from antiquated. So, ancient  means belonging to the very distant past. Okay,  

so, ancient times, ancient history. The ancient  civilization of the Mayans left behind many  

impressive ruins. And when we use antiquated, it's  something that is very outdated or old-fashioned,  

so you can have antiquated equipment  or antiquated technology. Okay,  

so the antiquated machinery of the factory was  no longer efficient and had to be replaced. So,  

if we want to replace old with ancient, something  from bygone years, ancient or antiquated,  

really old-fashioned and out of date. Number 16  is new. Okay, so the opposite of old is new. So  

we want to look at a very basic sentence for  new. That's a new gadget; that's a new dress;  

that's a new car, whatever it might be. And  if we're looking for two alternative words,  

novel and innovative. Novel and innovative.  Novel means something new or original. Okay,  

her novel approach to problem-solving was greatly  appreciated by her bosses. Novel, meaning new, and  

then if we use innovative, it's about introducing  a new way of doing things or creative ideas,  

different ways to do something, something that  you hadn't tried before. Innovative. That company  

is known for its innovative products that have  revolutionized the industry. Number 17: Clean.  

Okay, so simple: The house is clean; the shoes are  clean; the kids are clean. But for alternatives,  

pristine and immaculate. Pristine and immaculate,  so really good adjectives that you can use instead  

of clean. Pristine means usually in perfect  condition, or untouched, or unspoiled. So the car,  

when it was cleaned and polished, was in pristine  condition, even though it might have been 20 years  

old. It was really, really clean and shiny and  pristine. The beach was pristine, with clear blue  

water and white, golden sand. Immaculate, again,  something that is absolutely perfectly clean,  

and you couldn't pick fault with it. There are no  flaws at all. Immaculate. The house is pristine  

and in immaculate condition. Anybody would be  delighted to live in it or even to buy it. Okay,  

so the house was presented in pristine and  immaculate condition. You could eat off the floor,  

pristine and immaculate, so really good words  to describe something clean but in a nice way  

to describe it. Now, the opposite of clean,  of course, is dirty. So this is number 18.  

And alternative words for dirty would be filthy,  and we often use those two together, filthy dirty,  

when you really want to describe something  really, really dirty. Oh, it's filthy dirty,  

and they wouldn't go in. They're filthy dirty. And  the other one, grimy. Yeah. So something grimy is  

dirty, yeah, like a really dirty oven that hasn't  been cleaned for many, many months. So we can just  

simply say, in basic language, a dirty shirt. So  describe the shirt as unfresh, and it isn't clean;  

it's dirty. But if we use filthy, it's extremely  dirty, covered with filth, or in a state that you  

just couldn't wear it, or it's unsanitary. Yeah.  Okay, so the kitchen was filthy after the party,  

and it took him two days to clean it. So the  kitchen was filthy, or you could even say filthy  

dirty, after the party, and it took him two days  to clean it. After working in the garage all day,  

his clothes were grimy and covered in grease.  So after working in the garage all day,  

his clothes were grimy and covered in grease or  oil. Okay, so dirty, filthy, or filthy dirty,  

how we use them together, and grimy, so something  grimy and something dirty or filthy dirty. Okay,  

number 19 is bright. Okay, so the sun is bright  today, a very simple expression, or the lights  

are bright. Yeah, so something that makes it  easy to see, bright, but if you want alternative  

adjectives, we could use radiant. Okay, radiant  and gleaming. Okay, radiant and gleaming. So,  

those adjectives, sorry, give you a much better  description of how something looks. Radiant,  

so radiant means shining brightly, okay, giving  off a very bright, glowing light. The sun was

radiant as it rose over the horizon. The  sun was radiant as it rose over the horizon,  

filling the sky with a brilliant orange glow.  Okay, so a wonderful picture. So the sun was  

radiant as it rose over the horizon, filling the  sky with a brilliant orange glow. So, radiant, oh,  

somebody could look radiant in a beautiful  dress. Beautiful coat, hair, perfect. Oh,  

she looks radiant, so really, really beautiful.  And then gleaming, gleaming means, again,  

shining brightly, reflecting the light. Okay, so  a polished car could be gleaming. So I want that  

car gleaming bright when I come back, so I want  you to wash and polish it because I'm going to  

sell it next week, and it really has to look its  best. Okay, now the last one, number 20, which,  

of course, is the opposite of bright. You've got  the idea now, and that is dark. Okay, and the two  

words that we could use instead of dark are dim  and somber. Yeah, dim and somber. Okay, so just  

be careful again with the pronunciation: somber.  As a simple sentence: The room was dark because  

the lights were switched off. The room was dark  because the lights were switched off. So, a very,  

very simple statement. The peeling wallpaper and  broken windows gave the house a gloomy appearance.  

Okay, so we're looking at gloomy or dim. Okay, so  when something is dim, it's dark or gloomy. So we  

can say the peeling wallpaper and broken windows  gave the house a dim and gloomy appearance. Dim  

meaning dark and dull and not so interesting,  and gloomy meaning not something you could see  

so clearly but not something very pleasant. Okay,  so dim and gloomy. So there are lots of words like  

dark, dim, depressing, gloomy; all mean the same  thing, okay. And then when we talk about somber,  

somber is dark or dull in color, so you could  be dressed in a somber suit, perhaps because  

you're going to a funeral, or perhaps because you  don't like bright colors. So it's not necessarily  

gloomy, but they are dark and somber, so often  a somber appearance when somebody has gone to  

a funeral because it's a sad occasion. So the  somber sky indicated that a storm was coming.  

So perhaps the sky, when you look at it, is dull  and dark, and there's a storm on its way. So the  

somber sky indicated that a storm was on its way.  So when we talk about dark, we can talk about dim,  

gloomy, as I said, or somber. Okay, so somber can  often refer to clothes or the style of clothes  

that somebody wears, whereas dim often refers to  the light or the lack of light in a particular  

room or where the painting and decoration, as I  used in my example, the broken windows and the  

wallpaper peeling off the walls, give the room a  gloomy, dim look, not so pleasant, not something  

that you'd like to rent. Okay? Okay, so there you  have 20 different, ordinary or basic adjectives,  

and in each of the examples, I've given you two  additional words, adjectives, that you can use to  

replace them. Okay, so you've got 20 basic ones,  and you've got 40 other or extreme adjectives that  

you can use, more advanced adjectives that you can  use in lots of different descriptions. So what you  

need to do, you know the drill by now, you need  to practice those, okay? So take a few of them,  

maybe one for each example, practice, write a few  sentences, try to think of some other situation  

other than the examples that I've given you  because you can use them in many, many different  

situations. So take them, put them into sentences  to practice how you describe the room that you  

live in, or the car that you drive, or the office  that you work in, or the restaurant that you go  

to visit. Try to use some of those adjectives, not  the good and the bad and the clean and the bright,  

but the other adjectives. See how you get on  with them. If you have problems or you struggle,  

look it up in the dictionary, or better still,  come back to me. Okay, this is Harry thanking you  

for watching. Thank you for listening. As always,  don't forget to join me for the next lesson.