ADVANCED ENGLISH TIPS | 15 MUST-KNOW Descriptive Adjectives (Advanced C1)

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

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So in this advanced English lesson, we're  looking at adjectives used for describing sounds,  

and noises. So so this will make it easier for  you to describe those types of sounds to describe  

those sorts of noises. particularly good for your  written English. And particularly good if you're  

preparing for proficiency exams, you've got some  different words that you can use when you have to  

describe a noise, or you have to describe a sound.  So that's such just a bang, okay, so we just have  

different ways in which we can do it. So I'll give  you examples as we go through these. And if you  

have any other questions on them, I've given you  the contact details, you can contact me I can give  

you more information if you need it. So we've  got nine particular words connected with sound,  

and another four connected with noises and if  you need more than I can prepare other videos  

if you just drop me a line and let me know  what you want to hear. Okay, let's start.

So we'll start off with sounds. The first one is  buzzing. Buzzing is a buzzing like a bee. So you  

get the sound of the bee or you can have a buzzing  in your ear. So if you've got a bit of a headache,  

you might hear a buzzing in your ear.  Now this is not anything connected with  

Toy Story that great wonderful series of  movies, I think for Toy Story 1,2,3 and  

4. I watched him with my kids when they  were growing up. So his name was buzz.  

But this is buzzin it's the sound the noise  the buzzing of the bees. Buzzing, buzzing.

Number two crashing crashing like a car crash  or glasses falling to the ground. big crash  

you know if you're sitting in a coffee shop and  you hear this tray dropping and all the sources,  

the cups, the glasses are broken, but  they there's a crashing sound. Okay,  

so it's you feel very embarrassed and sorry for  the poor waiter or waitress that has to sweep up  

the mess but these sorts of problems happen. Okay,  so crashing sound a crashing of broken glass.

Number three creaking an eerie sound  the creaking usual usually of doors  

or floorboards in old castles or  old mansion houses. So you get  

that creaking sound you know if you're  watching one of these thriller movies,  

I don't really like those sort of horror movies.  But you always get that or the noise of the door  

opening and nobody's there or the creaking of  the stairs as somebody is trying to creep up  

the stairs or down the stairs or along the  hallway. But the old floorboards seem to  

be speaking or you hear that noise that the word  has expanded over the years. So the creaking now.

The next word is to describe not a particular  noise, but it's a distant sound. Okay, a distant  

sound could be a distant sound of thunder. So  it's not right overhead, but it's something  

you can hear that's many many kilometres away,  but it's very recognisable, the distant sound,  

the distant sound of a car horn you know exactly  how a car horn sounds, but it's not outside your  

window. It's in the distance. Yeah, so the  distant sound something that's not so close.

The next is a distinctive sound. And  again here it's not a particular sound,  

but it's a distinctive sound of  something like a particular bird,  

the distinctive sound of a goal. You know,  the seagulls that make a lot of noise and  

they're looking for food. Their noise is very  distinctive. The calling of that seagull is  

it's trying to find food distinctive, the  distinctive sound of a train, you know,  

when you hear a train coming along the tracks.  It's a very distinctive sound. It's not the same  

as a car or a bus. It's very distinctive to a  train travelling on the track. That distinctive  

sound when you're sitting on a train, and you  hear the noise at the train goes over the tracks.

And then number six is a faint sound.  And again, a faint sound is a very,  

very slight sound something you can almost  not hear. When you might say to somebody,  

Did you hear that? No, I didn't hear anything.  I'm sure I could hear something the faint sound  

perhaps of a baby crying in the distance or  the faint sound of a dog howling or barking  

when the dog is in pain or in trouble or  has been left abandoned. That faint sound  

you can just pick it up. It's just about  audible but not so clear, faint sound.

Number seven is a muffled sound and a  muffled sound is where somebody tries  

to prevent the noise from annoying  somebody so they speak under their  

breath and muffled sound. Or if there  are two people in the room beside you,  

they are speaking but because you've got  a big thick wall between you and them,  

you don't hear distinctly what they're saying.  But you certainly hear the muffled sound of a  

conversation or the muffled sound of laughing  you're not quite sure who is saying what you're  

whether it's a man or a woman or it's somebody who  knows somebody who don't know because it's not so  

distinctive, but it is muffled muffled by the  thickness of the wall or the glass between you,  

but you can hear it and it can be quite annoying,  but unfortunately, it's not so distinctive that  

you know exactly who has said what are what has  been said exactly. Okay, so the muffled sounds.

Number eight rumbling now this is a particular  sound that we hear all the time. When there's a  

storm in the area. We get the rumbling of thunder  as it rolls across the sky and you you're waiting  

for that flash of lightning that will invariably  follow Yeah, so the rumbling of the thunder,  

then the flashing of the of lightning as it lights  up the sky. Okay, particularly at nighttime really  

nice when you're at home, watching out the window  or listening as you're in bed to the rumbling of  

the thunder. You can also have rumbling, as big  heavy articulated lorries go through the town or  

the streets of your, your town or your city is a  very busy thoroughfare and the road runs through  

the city and when big articulated trucks are  travelling, you can hear that rumble you know  

the noise they make their big heavy wheels and  four or five trucks coming together makes a lot  

of sound almost like thunder, but the rumbling  of the big wheels of these articulated trucks.

And last number nine rustling. Now that's the  noise we hear when the wind blows particularly in  

the autumn time. You've got a lot of dry leaves  around the ground, the leaves have fallen but  

there's not so much rain around so the leaves  are quite dry. When the wind blows, you get the  

rustling sound of leaves. And then they blow  here they blow there and then the people come  

to sweep them up or clean them up. Or if you're  going for a run or a walk what kids love to do,  

they still do it. I did it. They love to run  through the big piles of the leaves in the park  

and you get that rustling sound as they kick the  leaves here and there and the wind picks them up  

and blows them around. Okay, the rustling of the  leaves. And even when the wind blows through the  

trees and the leaves are a little dry you get  that rustling sound also it's nice to listen to  

on a quiet windy day. rustling Okay, that's the  nine particular words adjectives connected with  

sound. So let's look now at just noise. I've  got four particular words connected with noise  

adjectives as to how we can describe it. Number  one banging while usually a door bangs Okay, so  

if somebody hasn't closed the door correctly and  the window is open, and the wind blows in, bang,  

the banging of the door bang, the banging of the  heavy door. So you have to close the door properly  

or close the window or close both to avoid that  really irritating noise you're sitting trying to  

study and you hear this constant bang, bang, bang  some doors left open and you're getting a little  

bit frustrated. Or when the children when I was  at school, we had these old old desks that used  

to lift up the front and used it just let it drop  and bang and the teacher used to get really really  

good idea so that that banging of the tops of the  desks as used to open it to get your pencils or  

your books out banging number two constant. So  we use this a constant noise is something that  

is continuous, okay, the constant noise of birds  singing in the morning. It's really beautiful to  

hear in the spring in the summer. But if you've  got lots of birds nests in the trees beside you,  

particularly the bigger birds like crows,  you're magpies and the noise can be really,  

really annoying and frustrating, you've got this  constant noise, particularly between your five in  

the morning and seven, when they all seem  to wake up and they're looking for foods,  

the constant noise and a constant noise, something  that is continuous, we're going to have a constant  

hum so that the traffic going by the window  if you live near a main street, then there's  

always the noise of traffic constant there,  the the traffic going up and down the street,  

the screeching of tires or somebody breaks, then  the screeching tires or somebody accelerates away  

from the traffic lights. So that's constant noise,  particularly in the big and the really busy busy  

cities excessive well excessive noise means noise  over and above what you'd expect. So on a building  

site for a period of time that can be excessive  noise, particularly at the beginning when they  

are drilling down to make the foundations or they  are digging the holes to the foundations and they  

come across some rock then have to use these  pile driving machines to break up the rock.  

So you hear the duh duh duh duh duh and you get  the drilling and the banging and the knocking and  

the screeching all the noise is associated with a  very busy building site in case of this excessive  

noise. And you see warning notices, you know  neighbours or occupants of apartments are told  

to avoid excessive noise. They don't disturb the  other neighbours. So if you've got an apartment  

block of 10 floors and you're living on the fourth  of fifth and somebody above you or somebody below  

you constantly playing music late at night and  this is excessive noise that is not normally  

acceptable in by the management companies who run  these apartment blocks. You can't use dishwashers  

or washing machines after a certain time because  the noise is excessive. And it disturbs people.  

So excessive noise is to be avoided at all times.  And then finally incessant, while incessant means  

continuous, but usually in a negative way really,  really aggravating, annoying, or I had to listen  

to the incessant ranting and raving of my boss he  went on forever, or it seemed to go on forever. He  

got really annoyed and frustrated about something  and of course he went on and on it was incessant  

almost non stop, or the incessant noise of a  baby screaming in her apartment near you know  

we've all had it when our children scream and we  can put up with it because they're our children.  

But it's very strange when the baby is somebody  else's baby and that y'all you hear all night or  

appears on night, a baby crying It's an incessant  noise. So something that is continuous, something  

that you might find a little bit aggravating or a  little bit annoying. Okay, so there are particular  

adjectives connected with noise, and also then are  adjectives connected with sound. I'll run through  

them one more time quickly. Okay, so the sounds  the buzzing noise like buzzing of bees, crashing  

the crashing sound of waves crashing against the  rocks. creaking the creaking of my bones as I'm  

old and I tried to walk out creaking my bones seem  to creak. The distant sound of thunder distant.  

Distinctive, very clear, Distinctive sound that  a girl makes the faint sound something really far  

away the faint sound and muffled sound of voices  in the room next door. The rumbling of the thunder  

and the rustling of the leaves and then the noises  banging the banging of the door the banging of the  

window the constant banging all of the time.  Constant. Excessive noise. Excessive shouting,  

excessive screaming and finally incessant  that something that continues hour after  

hour after hour after hour incessant  something really irritating and annoying.

Okay, so they're all our sounds and noises,  practice them. Use them in your particularly  

in your written English if you're doing  exams and IELTS or the Cambridge exams,  

whatever it is, these are the sorts of  words that you need to know you need to  

practice and you need to understand and look  out for some other words that mean the same  

or different noises and different sounds  because there's something you know roar,  

the roaring have lines, bark, the barking of  dogs, these are all different sounds. So see  

what other sounds you can find out and if  you need to contact me, or you can do so.

And if you do, and like this particular  lesson, then please like the video and  

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Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching.  And as always, join me for the next lesson.