Advanced Adjectives To Describe Places | Build your vocabulary

Hi there, this is Harry, welcome back  to advanced English lessons with Harry,  

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So what are we looking at this week?  Well, in this particular lesson,  

we're looking at advanced adjectives.  And in particular, advanced adjectives  

to describe places, different places  out and about, what can we describe,  

so I'll give you the adjectives and then I'll  give you an example of how we use them. Okay.

So vast, secluded, or inspiring, sprawling,  ramshackle, quaint, overpopulated, bleak, hectic,  

and finally Scenic. Okay, so 10 adjectives,  10, advanced additives, how we describe places,  

okay, so I'm gonna go through them one by one, and  hopefully give you a good example. So here we go.

Vast. When something is vast, it is really open  and expansive. Yeah. So the vast metropolis of  

London or the vast metropolis of Cairo, whatever  that particular city happens to be vast means  

it spreads for many, many, many kilometres. So  vast is this whole word describe something huge,  

bigger than huge, humongous Yeah, so but it  spreads in every direction. So the vast city.

Oh, London is a vast city, you couldn't  possibly see it in three days, you really  

need to come two or three times. So this is what  you would advise visitors. So come for the first  

visit and see something and then in the next visit  something else. So eventually, over a few visits,  

you get to see the vastness of the city, how far  it spreads. And if you drive from the end of one  

city to the other side of the city, it can take  you several hours, lots of my students tell me  

how long it takes them to drive, for example, from  the east side to the west side, or the north to  

the south takes hours because the city is a vast,  sprawling spread, widespread metropolis. Okay.

Next, secluded. Well, when something is secluded,  it's usually hidden, hidden away from the public.  

Okay, so somebody who has a lot of money or  is very publicity shy, might want to live in  

a secluded residence. So their home could  be surrounded by high walls, tall fences,  

tall trees, something that is not obvious from  the road. So when you drive past you might look  

at it and think, I wonder who lives there, but  you will never see the person because they drive  

in and out the gates open electronically, they  closed behind them, and you would not be able  

to scale or to climb the walls without causing  some confusion, of course, so you're not able to  

see who lives there. So they live in a secluded  residence. They're surrounded by wire fences,  

walls, trees, whatever it might take to maintain  that seclusion to maintain that secrecy. So when  

you see Hollywood stars living in seclusion,  you see actors, actresses, football stars,  

they don't mind signing autographs for fans,  but like everybody else, they like that peace  

and quiet. And they like the idea of being away  from people. So people will have to go to great  

lengths to see them. So they live in a secluded  residence, far away from the city. Secluded.

Awe-inspiring when we use the word or inspiring,  we're usually referring to a view. Okay,  

so if you stand on the top of a mountain on a  high building, or on a hill overlooking a city,  

it might look awe-inspiring. Or  you see you look down on the city,  

you see how large it is, how modern it is the  old architecture, meeting new architecture,  

how advanced the city is, so you  can see that it is or inspiring.

Or indeed, if you're standing on top of  the Grand Canyon, I have never done it  

personally. But if you did stand at the top  of the Grand Canyon and you're looking down,  

I'm sure that particular view is what  you could describe as awe-inspiring.

Looking at the tall trees in the cemetery  park there could be also or inspiring so a  

place that you really find very, very beautiful,  very, very attractive, so does don't have to be  

a really popular place doesn't have to  be a place as popular as Grand Canyon,  

it could just be some somewhere,  simply that you find awe-inspiring.

On top of a mountain with the sun shining on  the snow covered slopes when you're going to  

go ski skiing, that could be certainly  awe-inspiring. It was for me the first  

time that I saw it, so you can use it in  many, many, many different ways. Okay.

So number four, sprawling, when a city sprawls  it spreads out in every direction. I live in the  

city of Dublin at the moment. And we could call  that a sprawling city because we don't allow for  

a very high development. So very few buildings are  over seven or eight storeys high. So as a result,  

the city spreads out far and wide. So it would  be considered to be a sprawling city. So almost  

one city connects with the other. And when you're  living in the suburbs, you're not so far from the  

city because they're all connected, but you  have to drive, and you get stuck in traffic  

because the city sprawls and the connectivity  is not so good. So a sprawling, widespread,  

something that goes for miles and miles in  every direction, north, south, east and west.

Ramshackle. When we describe a building as  ramshackle, we sometimes refer into a slum or  

ramshackle building as something that is falling  down that perhaps is not fit for humans to live  

in. But people do live there because they've got  an alternative. The roof could be falling in,  

there could be holes or damage to the walls,  the windows may be cracked and broken, the floor  

more boards may be damaged or just not covered. So  everything about the property is wrong. Everything  

I think about the property is unattractive,  so you could describe it as a ramshackle  

building. So these could be slums where people are  living without paying rent. They could be slums,  

where people are living because they can't afford  unfortunately rents in better qualified or better  

built apartments or homes. So whatever it  is, we could describe it as ramshackle. Now,  

we could just loosely describe some properties  as ramshackle when we're trying to describe  

something as not so attractive or a ramshackle  building made of wood that was built at the  

turn of the last century and has seen better  days. So that's a way an author might describe  

something that he comes across that he's not  quite sure. Is there anybody living in it,  

a tenement block of buildings that were built  around the 1900s. You know, those that still  

exist? Well, they could certainly be described  as ramshackle if they haven't been upgraded,  

updated and refurbished in the  last 30-40-50 years. So ramshackle.

Quaint. Quaint is that word we use to describe  that little picture postcard cottage or that  

little village in the countryside where everything  is very twee, all the cottages are painted white,  

they've got roses growing around the doors,  they've got very neat gardens, a few thatched  

roofs on the on the cottages and the bungalow.  So this would be regarded as a quaint village.  

Something you might see if you drove or you  were driving through the Cotswolds in the UK.  

It's something that you'd really like to look at,  but could be quite expensive to purchase. But if  

you've got a tin of biscuits or chocolates, it's  the sort of picture that you see on the on the  

tin of those biscuits or chocolates are really  quaint village of quaint town, something that  

you might think was the turn of the century,  but has been very, very carefully renovated,  

but really, really pretty and really attractive,  but perhaps not so practical to live in,  

depending on where it's located. So, quaint  property, a quaint cottage, a quaint village.

Overpopulated. When something is overpopulated, it  just simply means there are too many people living  

there. So lots of cities around the world are  very heavily overpopulated cities like Cairo, a  

lot of cities in India, where they have huge, huge  population. And there are lots of modern buildings  

now, but also lots of old shacks that poor people  live in and these cities are bursting at the seams  

with people and we could certainly describe them  as being overpopulated. So when a city gets a  

huge influx of foreign people or immigrants  or refugees, or people coming from the their  

own country into the city, then we can loosely  describe the city as overpopulated not enough  

properties for people to live in. Now we  could actually say that about Dublin today,  

the city of Dublin, we don't have enough places  for people to live, it just simply means that  

they are not building them fast enough. There's a  lot of space but we're not building the properties  

fast enough. So not quite overpopulated but  relative to the availability of apartments  

and homes, and perhaps it is a little bit  overpopulated more people than we can cater for.  

Countries like the Netherlands, that can  often be described as somewhat overpopulated.  

Small country, huge, vast number of people  living there, so somewhat overpopulated.

Bleak. Something bleak is usually cold,  dark and wet. The weather can be very bleak.  

You can wake up in the morning, the  clouds are low, the wind is blowing,  

the rain is lashing against the window. That's  a bleak day. Okay? So when something is bleak,  

then as a place to live, then it could be built  of old cold grey slate, something that's not so  

warm when you look at it, it could be just  bleak because of the weather conditions. So  

lots of places in the the middle of the UK or  in some parts of some older cities where they  

weren't so concerned about the architectural  benefits of the properties, but they certainly  

built them just to accommodate people. These  could largely be described as bleak or too  

bleak place to live particularly in winter. That  wind blowing the rain coming down straight, yet  

you want to be somewhere else. It's a bleak place  to live so cold, uninviting, not so attractive.

Hectic, a hectic city or town is one that is full  of hustle and bustle people moving here and there  

and everywhere. So lots of large cities in Africa.  Lots of large cities in the in Asia where there's  

street markets people going here and there  and bicycles and rickshaws and motorbikes and  

scooters and cars and horses and carts, whatever  it might be. These are hectic cities, you can hear  

the noise Beep, beep, beep beep, the shouting the  screaming just the daily activity of of life in  

that particular city so you could really describe  it as hectic game, so a hectic place to live.

New York sometimes can be described as  hectic because it's constantly on the go,  

as the song says, the city that never  sleeps. So whenever you go to New York,  

you can get that sense of a hive of activity there  honking of the horns of the taxi drivers as they  

drive along Fifth Avenue or Times Square.  Just the hustle and bustle the noise of the  

people. The flashing lights it's a really  hectic city to live in and to visit hectic.

And then finally scenic. Well something can be  scenic. When you look down something similar  

to or inspiring, so scenic, beautiful scenes  of waterfalls, Niagara Falls comes to my mind  

lovely scenes of vast forests spreading  over the mountains in every direction  

as far as the eye can see beautiful green  trees so they can be described as scenic.

Or the snow covered peaks of mountains the green  valleys below of a Swiss town or village again,  

very very scenic something that brings up  images of beauty and some place relaxing and  

quiet and peaceful where you'd like to spend a  few weeks or even a few months. Okay, so scenic.

Alright so we've got 10 advanced adjectives  describing different places let me give them to  

you one more time. Last huge spreading forth far  and wide, secluded very quiet peaceful away from  

people's view away from those paparazzi who might  be trying to take photographs of well known people  

or inspiring something that's real beauty standing  on top of the Grand Canyon and looking down.  

Sprawling spread out east west north south,  whichever direction you look, the city is  

sprawling apartments here houses. They're  ramshackle, broken down in need of repair broken  

windows doors, hanging off the hinges. Yeah, you  can get the picture, ramshackle of a building.  

quaint, very pretty, very neat. Very tidy. That  typical little Cotswold cottage in the UK. Yeah,  

quaint, overpopulated big cities. Lots of  people very hard to move around traffic  

everywhere. blocked roads, buses getting stuck.  That's an overpopulated city. Bleak, wet, grey,  

dull, miserable, windy, cold I can go on and on  but that's certainly describes a bleak place.  

Hectic, full of activity, but no coordination  or looks like there's no coordination or it's  

not organised properly so cars here cars they're  people running across the road. The honking of  

cars horns beeping, the engines moving and people  really really busy but nobody quite sure what  

people are doing hectic. And then finally scenic  peaceful. You can sit back and relax breathe in  

the fresh air no noise maybe perhaps the noise  of a bird singing in the background scenic.

Okay so they are 10 advanced adjectives  to describe places try to practice them  

try to understand what they mean what they  refer to have a look at some books or some  

pictures and try to see can you match those  particular words and descriptions with the  

pictures that you look at it's a good way to  practice is a good way to to try if you have  

any questions you need any more examples you  know where I am you can contact me as always,  

really appreciate it when you join us really  appreciate you watching. Join me again soon